Top 10 Best Tires for Lexus ES 350: Recommended & Reviews

Last updated: June 18, 2020 by The Tire Deets

Lexus might not be the oldest or most experienced luxury car manufacturer, but its most popular sedan, the ES 350, still sells like hotcakes. Known for its well-made interior that provided the passengers with a lot of space and a supremely comfortable and serene driving experience, the ES 350 won over so many hearts that it’s hard to count. The ES 350 is also very reliable – one of the most reliable cars on the market. That means that you’ll mostly spend money on maintenance and tires. We will cover tires here, mostly ones that will give you the serene driving experience Lexus is known for. The best tires for Lexus ES350 should also give you enough traction and grip in most circumstances, especially the weather that you tackle in your area.

That said, while most ES 350 owners bought this car because it is so luxurious and comfortable, some newer models also come in F-Sport trim with reworked suspension for better handling and more sporty drive. Due to the popularity of F-Sport models in the USA, we will also cover some tires specifically designed for cars like this. We want to make the definitive list of the best tires for Lexus ES 350 here, one where every owner of the Japanese luxury sedan can find a favorite tire.

However, before you choose a set of tires for Lexus ES350 that you think you like, we recommend checking our buying guide. See, not all tires are created equal. Even if they have the same dimensions, tires might have completely different purposes. Some are designed for more engaging driving experience and better handling, while others are designed for comfort and quietness. There is also the distinction between weather and temperature – some tires work better in the summer; others work better in the winter. There is no single tire that will be the best in every scenario, at least not right now. 

In the buying guide, you can learn everything there is to know about tires for Lexus ES 350, including the F-Sport models, and for all weather scenarios. Our list of Top 10 best tires for Lexus ES 350 is also adjusted so that every type of tire is covered.

Top 10 List of the Best Tires for Lexus ES350 Recommended & Reviews

1. Bridgestone Turanza QuietTrack

Best All-Season Grand-Touring Tires for Lexus ES350

Considering the quiet and luxurious drive the ES 350 provides, there is no better tire for it on the market than the Turanza QuietTrack. Bridgestone’s newest addition in the grand-touring category is specifically designed to be supremely quiet and to ride comfortably. Thanks to the ComfortCruise Technology Package, this tire simply glides over smaller and bigger road imperfections with ease, improving on the already excellent ride quality of the Japanese luxury sedan. The tread pattern is also designed to reduce noise, making it the quietest tire in its category.

Luckily, Bridgestone also made the Turanza drive good. Traction, grip, and braking are excellent both in dry and wet conditions, while high-speed stability is one of the best in its category. The QuietTrack also works in light snow – great news for those that live in areas with a colder climate. Finally, the Turanza QuietTrack also offers the longest treadwear warranty in its category at 80,000-miles.

The only downside of this tire is the higher price, but we think that it is totally justified.

2. Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus

Best All-Season Grand-Touring Tires for Lexus ES350

Pirelli is known for its sports pedigree and the Cinturato P7 shows every bit of it. This is one of the most responsive grand-touring tires on the market, elevating the driving experience almost to the level of high-performance tires. Grip and traction are also outstanding, while braking is top-notch, both on dry and wet surfaces. Light snow traction is slightly worse, though.

Apart from the responsive drive, the Pirelli Cinturato P7 is also very quiet and comfortable, almost on the level of the Turanza QuietTrack. It also comes with a 70,000-mile treadwear warranty, a great result for a grand-touring tire.

3. General AltiMAX RT43

Best All-Season Grand-Touring Tires for Lexus ES350

The AltiMAX RT43 is one of the most popular grand-touring tires in the USA because it offers excellent performance at a lower price point than the premium competitors. Despite the lower price, the RT43 comes with a 65,000-mile treadwear warranty for H and V-rated models, or those that you would put on the Lexus ES 350. 

On the road, this tire is not as responsive as the best premium tires, but that’s not a big issue on the ES 350. More importantly, grip and traction are good, while braking distances are short, both on dry and wet surfaces. Finally, the RT43 is also very quiet and comfortable – an excellent choice for the luxurious nature of the Lexus ES 350.

4. Cooper CS5 Ultra Touring

Best All-Season Grand-Touring Tires for Lexus ES350

The CS5 Ultra Touring is another budget-oriented grand-touring tire, known for its responsiveness and excellent high-speed stability thanks to the Stabiledge Performance technology that interlocks the tread elements.

Grip, traction, and braking are excellent, both in dry and wet conditions. Snow traction could be better, though. On the positive side, the ride quality is plush, and the rolling is quiet. The CS5 Ultra Touring even comes with a 70,000-mile treadwear warranty for V-rated models, one of the best results in its category.

5. Continental PureContact LS

Best All-Season Grand-Touring Tires for Lexus ES350

The Lexus ES350 is a car that focuses on comfort rather than performance, which makes the PureContact LS an excellent fit for the nature of the car. Thanks to Continental’s proprietary Comfort Ride Technology with an underlay beneath the tread, the PureContact LS isolates the passengers as few other tires can. 

The ride quality is plush, but not overly soft. More precisely, the tire keeps smaller vibrations to a minimum on the highway, making for a very enjoyable traveling experience, while also keeping harshness at bay when hitting a pothole. The excellent ride quality is joined by a lack of noise, even at very high speeds.

Fortunately, Continental didn’t cut corners in other areas. The PureContact LS is one of the best grand-touring all-season tires performance-wise. Dry handling and braking are excellent, even if you push harder.

More importantly, the tire consistently beats the competition on wet courses, delivering safe handling, short braking distances, and exceptional hydroplaning resistance. The German company even managed to extract light-snow traction from the tire.

The PureContact LS should be great in terms of treadlife as well – owners of the previous model were extremely satisfied. However, it would’ve been good if Continental offered a higher treadwear warranty this time around. At 70,000-miles, the warranty is slightly shorter than the main premium competitors.

6. Michelin Premier A/S

Best All-Season Grand-Touring Tires for Lexus ES350

The Michelin Premier A/S is one of the most expensive grand-touring tires around, and it only comes with a 60,000-mile treadwear warranty. However, it also offers the best performance out of any other tire in its category.

On the road, the Premier is the most responsive grand-touring tire, providing an experience on the level of high-performance tires. It also offers very high levels of grip and traction, as well as strong braking. The Premier A/S is one of the best tires in heavy rain, thanks to the Expanding Rain Grooves. Snow and ice traction are also excellent for an all-season tire.

Like most Michelin tires, the Premier offers a plush ride quality and quiet rolling on the highway.

7. Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady

Best All-Weather Touring Tires for Lexus ES350

If you live in an area with harsher wintry conditions, then the Assurance WeatherReady is an excellent choice. This tire carries the 3PMSF rating, which means that it is ready to tackle light snow and ice with ease. You might lose a bit of performance in warmer conditions, but the difference will be negligible – grip, traction, and braking are still very competitive. That said, the 60,000-mile treadwear warranty is lower than what the best all-season tires offer.

8. Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric All Season

Best High-Performance Tires for Lexus ES 350 F-Sport

The F1 Asymmetric All Season is one of the best ultra-high-performance tires available for the ES 350 F-Sport. It offers an engaging driving experience with a lot of feeling behind the steering wheel, high levels of grip and traction, and excellent high-speed stability. It is also one of the most comfortable tires in its category, both in terms of ride quality and noise. That said, snow traction is only average, despite the all-season moniker.

9. Bridgestone Blizzak WS90

Best Winter Tires for Lexus ES350

The Bridgestone Blizzak WS90 is the newest winter addition from a premium manufacturer, and right now, it’s the best tire for snow and ice. Traction and braking on snow and ice are a step above other winter tires – the WS90 is at home even in the harshest winter conditions. Apart from snow and ice, the WS90 works tremendously well on dry and wet pavement, and it’s even comfortable. That said, Bridgestone doesn’t offer any treadwear warranty, which is a shame.

10. Michelin X-Ice Xi3

Best Winter Tires for Lexus ES350

Michelin’s know-how in designing winter tires is perfectly shown in the X-Ice Xi3. Traction and grip in wintry conditions are top-notch, while braking is among the best in the category. Snow and ice traction are also among the best, and Michelin even offers a 40,000-mile treadwear warranty on this tire, unseen in the winter category. That said, some winter tires offer slightly better snow braking.

Best Tires for Lexus ES 350: Buying Guide

1. Touring and Grand-Touring Tires are the Best Choice for the Average ES 350 Owner

Touring and grand-touring tires seem like they were specifically designed for vehicles like the Lexus ES 350. If you don’t believe that, just take a look at tires installed on new ES 350 cars – almost all of them are grand-touring tires. The reason why these tires are so popular for passenger cars is that they offer a rich feature set that will satisfy almost all drivers on the road. They are the most dependable tire solution right now, and there are several reasons why.

The first reason, and also the one that’s most loved by tires buyers, is the outstanding durability of these tires. Grand-touring and touring tires are so durable that there is really no comparison to any other type of tire. That’s especially true for treadlife, which is almost twice as good as other tire types. Premium manufacturers cover that durability with outstanding warranties; touring tires come with as much as 90,000-miles treadwear warranty, while grand-touring tires come with up to 80,000-mile treadwear warranty. This means that you can use these tires for 5-6 years without worrying about losing grip and traction on dry and wet pavement.

The second reason is its price. Compared to other more specialized tires, touring and grand-touring models are cheaper and often by a significant margin. Paired with the industry-leading durability, this means that you’ll spend the least amount of money throughout the years if you only use touring or grand-touring tires.

But, what about the driving experience? Well, you can’t expect anything blood-pumping from these tires for sure. If you are an enthusiast driver that wants to carve the corners at high speeds, then these tires won’t cut the mustard. They simply lack the responsiveness for precise steering input, as well as ultimate traction and grip when driving very fast.

However, what these tires will offer you is a completely safe and reliable driving experience. For everyday driving, the best grand-touring and touring tires today provide the driver with enough grip, traction, and braking performance for every scenario. They work tremendously well on dry pavement as well as wet pavement. Compared to other types of tires, it’s their wet performance that really stands out, especially when it comes to hydroplaning resistance and overall traction and grip. They are also very stable at higher speeds – driving up to 130 mph shouldn’t be an issue at all.

Then we come to comfort and boy touring tires are good there. Right now, there is no other tire type on the market that drives over bumps like touring or grand-touring tires. Due to various technologies premium manufacturers put into the sidewall of these tires, they provide the smoothest and most luxurious ride quality. On top of that, almost every touring and grand-touring tire on the market today has specially designed tread pattern for noise reduction. Thanks to that, these tires are almost inaudible at highway speeds, especially on cars with outstanding sound insulation like the Lexus ES 350.

By now, you probably asked the question: what is the difference between touring and grand-touring tires? Well, it mostly comes to speed and load ratings. Touring tires are designed for less powerful vehicles with four-cylinder engines that achieve maximum velocities of 130 mph. Considering the fact that Lexus limits the top speed at 131 mph, these tires might sound like a good solution.

However, we still think that grand-touring tires are a better solution, especially on newer models and for drivers that use their Lexus’s mostly on the highway. They provide the driver with better high-speed stability, more grip and traction, and better braking. The downside of grand-touring tires is that they are more expensive than standard touring tires, but on luxury sedans like the ES 350, that shouldn’t be an issue. The other slight disadvantage is the shorter treadwear warranty, but the difference is usually only 10,000-miles.

2. High-Performance Tires are the Best Choice for ES 350 F-Sport

If you own the F-Sport version of the newest ES 350, you might want to check high-performance and ultra-high-performance tires (a more aggressive sporty compound). These tires are specifically designed to give the driver a more elevated driving experience, especially when driven hard. Compared to grand-touring models, high-performance tires are much more responsive. In other words, the moment you turn the steering wheel, the car will react. It’s the same with acceleration and braking – all forces are immediately transferred on the road.

On top of that, high-performance tires offer much more traction. Considering the fact that the ES 350 F-Sport is a front-wheel-drive car, this will completely change the way this car drives. Instead of wheel spin when accelerating out of a corner, you’ll get fluid acceleration. The grip is also much better than on grand-touring tires – this is very important for achieving high velocities in the corners without worrying about understeer. High-performance and ultra-high-performance tires also stop much stronger, and they offer better high-speed stability. These tires are excellent in wet conditions as well, especially on damp pavement. However, these tires might struggle a little when compared to grand-touring tires in very heavy rain due to the shallower grooves on the tread.

That said, high-performance and ultra-high-performance tires don’t offer the best ride quality, primarily due to the stiffer sidewalls. They are also noisier on the highway, albeit not by much. The biggest disadvantage of these sporty tires is that they are expensive and have shorter treadwear warranties.

3. But What About the Climate?

That is a very important question, perhaps even more so than choosing tires according to the type of car you drive. The main takeaway here is that different tires are designed to work in different temperature ranges. For example, if a tire is designed to work in warmer conditions, it will become too brittle in very cold conditions. The consequences of brittle tires are severely worsened traction, grip, and braking, especially in wet conditions. Conversely, if the tire is designed for wintry conditions, when the climate is warmer, it becomes too soft. The result is an unresponsive tire that doesn’t have enough grip and braking capacity.

With all that said, all-season tires are the best choice for most Lexus ES 350 drivers. These products are specifically designed to tackle both warm and cold conditions (temperature range between 32 and 104 Fahrenheit). This means that all-season tires can be used in all but the most severe wintry conditions. All-season tires are also characterized by an outstanding wet grip, traction, and braking, especially in heavy rain. Most all-season tires also work in light snow, but only if you drive carefully. As good as these tires are in the winter, they are no replacement for a proper winter tire.

A slightly more winter-oriented type are all-weather tires. These are similar to all-season tires (sold as all-season in some markets) in most ways. They work in a wide temperature range, albeit at slightly lower temperatures than all-season tires. You can use all-weather tires at 14 Fahrenheit without any issue. All-weather tires also have deeper grooves in the tread, which makes them better in the snow. Again, they are not winter tires but will work in most conditions, including light snow.

For really harsh wintry conditions, we still recommend going for winter tires. They offer absolutely the best combination of traction, grip, and braking in the winter, regardless of the surface. Winter tires are by far the best choice for driving on snow and ice. That said, winter tires don’t work in the summer at all and might get damaged in the process.

Conversely, summer tires are the best choice for driving in warm conditions. They offer the best possible driving experience in warmer conditions. Responsive and sticky, summer tires are a real pleasure to drive – much more than all-season tires, for example. That’s why the best high-performance and ultra-high-performance tires today come with a summer rubber compound. As expected, summer tires become too brittle in cold conditions and that’s why we only recommend them for people that live in warmer areas, such as Florida.

Final Words

As you can see from the list of the best tires for Lexus ES 350 above, we mostly included high-quality tires from reputable manufacturers. The main reason for that is safety – very cheap tires from unknown companies don’t offer a safe driving experience, especially in wet conditions, where we consider them dangerous. Finally, the Lexus ES 350 is a premium luxury sedan that is best-suited by premium tires.