Missy250

I'm not sure if this is the right forum to post this, but here goes: When driving my AWD IS250 2008 in the icy winter season, I find that it has a tendency to skid alot, even with the 'SNOW PWR' option turned on. Because of this, I actually had my first car accident actually! I'm guessing this may be because of how light the car is, and so I wonder if using stones or other heavy materials in the trunk would help at all by weighing down the car, and perhaps make it skid less? I'm also thinking that because the car is an AWD, weighing down the car would not really make a difference, and would even make driving it worse by increasing fuel consumption? Does anyone have any experience or advice in this matter? Any help would be very much appreciated, so that when I get my car back from the dealers, I can feel more at ease! Thanks!

Hi all, Recently I just purchased my very first Lexus.... more specifically, my very first car! And my head is spinning over what to do with it, as far as maintenance goes. Pretty much everything I read online contradicts something else I read a few minutes ago, and I'm not sure where to even start! Now, for some quickie information, I'm a college student, and as such, will not have the luxury of housing my IS250 in a garage for the duration of a harsh Wisconsin winter, and therefore need urgent advice on just how to best take car of it before a self wash and wax is out of the question! So far, I've only given it three car washes, which probably did more harm than good since now the car has scratches that I never noticed before. At first, I tried to rinse, soap, and rinse the whole car in one go, but that left water spots all over. On my third and most recent try, I've decided to wash the car in sections (roof of car, boot, left side, front side, hood), and dry each section right after I soap and rinse. It takes a while, but the water spots went away. The way I soap the car is in a circular pattern covering about a square foot, and that's the way I dry it too. For the wash, I used Turtle ICE car wash soap, and went over it with microfiber towels. I also used a microfiber sponge to soap the car with. On my third and last car wash, I tried waxing the car with Mother's Cleaner Wax, which looked great and caused noticable rain beading the very next day. Even though I tried buffing it as well as I could, I noticed that in direct sunlight, swirls could be seen (presumably from the wax), and when the temperature dropped at night, causing the car to condense, you could see circular patterns around the paint. My main question is this: Is there ANY wax/sealant/whatever that you would recommend for putting on the car? Remember that I need something with the absolute best durability, since I won't have the means to wax the car again once the snow gets here. I basically need something that will be able to survive Oct/Nov-March/April with just a single layer. Glossiness is a definite plus! Also, is there anything that I'm doing wrong with my routine so far? I've noticed that there are bug 'splats' across the hood and front bumper, and even on the license plate that just refuses to come off. I've tried scrubbing with the sponge, with the wax, and even with a bug remover car spray, but there are still a few stubborn "splats" that refuse to come out! And finally, is there a better way to clean the sponges? They are getting dark spots, and also tend to collect tiny leafs/seeds/other-plant-matter during the wash, and those things manage to embed themselves deep within the sponge, refusing to come out. I know this is a tall order, and any and all help is very much appreciated!