Winter is around the corner!!!

[airbornerifleman]

Winter tires, yes? No? Why?

I live in the Snow Belt and drive an A4 B7 2.0. I want to take full advantage of the Quattro system in our cars.

What is you Quattro experience in the snow, did you have winter or all-season tires? What size were your tires?

Some may think I'm crazy, but frankly, I can't wait till it snows. The A4 is my first all wheel drive car. I loved driving my 1987 Chevy Monte Carlo SS (RWD) in the snow. I hope the A4 is just as much fun.

BTW: I don’t need any quotes from the manual about what it says regarding driving in the snow with Quattro, already read it.

[_a6_]

Winter tires, yes? No? Why?

I live in the Snow Belt and drive an A4 B7 2.0. I want to take full advantage of the Quattro system in our cars.

What is you Quattro experience in the snow, did you have winter or all-season tires? What size were your tires?

Some may think I'm crazy, but frankly, I can't wait till it snows. The A4 is my first all wheel drive car. I loved driving my 1987 Chevy Monte Carlo SS (RWD) in the snow. I hope the A4 is just as much fun.

BTW: I don’t need any quotes from the manual about it says regarding driving in the snow with Quattro, already red it.

they are a definate yes i used to have all seasons but last year i bought some snow tires and loved havin them, it made driving it though snow even easier

[John1.8T]

Absolutely!!!

I have gone through 3 winters with my A4 and my snow tires have been AWESOME.

Seeing half the cars on the road in the ditch, spin out in front of you and cause problems on the road make spending the change on snow tires WELL worth it.

[Phrost]

You can get by with all-seasons (oem or whatever you have) fine, but I highly recommend buying a second set of snow tires.

This is my second Audi (with Quattro) and I have been sporting dedicated snow tires for the past 4 years (since I first convinced myself to try them).

Basically, with all-seasons and Quattro you will be able to drive wherever as long as you're careful and you're not plowing snow.

With winter tires and Quattro, you can plow snow, get up any hill, and feel the safest you have ever felt while driving in the snow. You will be able to pull tight donuts and make badass videos like THESE and REALLY love your car.

The biggest reason to buy snow tires though, is stopping power. With Quattro you can get moving forward with any decent set of tires, but you'll never be able to have great stopping power in any car (in the snow) unless you have good snow tires. Seriously, the first time you slam on your brakes in 4" of snow and it feels like you're on dry pavement, you will agree that buying winter tires was one of the best decisions you've ever made.

[Vorsprung]

badass videos like THESE

haha now thats a shit load of snow

[volcomic]

You will be able to pull tight donuts and make badass videos like THESE and REALLY love your car.

Wow. That is bad-ass. I really need to get some snow tires before it starts snowing here...

[Phrost]

I think everyone can agree that once you buy snows for the first time, you'll never go without them again

[Q-Ball]

Get a pair of snow tires and just enjoy the traction.... Doesn't matter if your going to be going up north or just in the city to and from work, they are worth every penny.

[volcomic]

I think everyone can agree that once you buy snows for the first time, you'll never go without them again

I was dumb and sold my stock wheels when I had my B5 and I never got around to getting a set of "winter wheels" to put snows on. This time I keept my OEM 17's and can't wait to feel the difference with snow tires!

[Brent27]

get some blizzaks and dont look back .... i lived in buffalo and loved every min of them

[CZA420tAvant]

get some blizzaks and dont look back .... i lived in buffalo and loved every min of them

X2 Blizzaks rule

[vtracer20]

this will be my first winter in the quattro. I cant wait !!!!

[volcomic]

this will be my first winter in the quattro. I cant wait !!!!

It's ridiculous! (even with all-season tires)

[Entropy333]

Will 205/55 16's fit my B7? There is a local set up for sale. I am probably going to end up buying used locally or I am going to drop a grand plus for tires w/o TPMS.

[Quattro]

man, sooo jealous...I wish i could take my car to the snow like you guys/gals might! I couldnt go in that much snow, like in the video, I would destroy my creation!

I agree, snow tires are the way to go!

[pakratt99]

There is no better feeling than pulling an SUV out of a snowbank with your A4......

But if your in Toronto then pick up a Set of Nokian's and your love the car even more, makes winter driving considerably more fun than the summer.

[/\G]

I had blizzak snows and switched back to all seasons for a few reasons. Snows are a nightmare on dry pavement and perform like 4 jello molds underneath you. Lets face it, 90% of the time it isnt snowing, all seasons give you safety in the snow and at least some sort of performance when its dry. Secondly, snows work too good in the snow! It was kind of boring. The car didnt move at all. I like to have a little fun and at least know I can get the car sideways if I want.

I may be odd but just my .02

[Phrost]

I had blizzak snows and switched back to all seasons for a few reasons. Snows are a nightmare on dry pavement and perform like 4 jello molds underneath you. Lets face it, 90% of the time it isnt snowing, all seasons give you safety in the snow and at least some sort of performance when its dry. Secondly, snows work too good in the snow! It was kind of boring. The car didnt move at all. I like to have a little fun and at least know I can get the car sideways if I want.

IMO, I don't agree with your reasoning at all.

Snows are not that great on dry pavement, but they were perfectly fine. The only problem is you'll hear them squawking much more since they are so soft.

But the real issue is, it does snow and there is snow/ice on the roads a lot of the time. All-seasons are good when it's dry, but they absolutely suck at stopping in the snow. You can get around fine with all-season tires and Quattro, but you still stop like you're on summers.

As far as winter tires being boring in the snow, you're doing it all wrong. Driving around on all-seasons and slipping all over the place on the road is not fun! The fun is having good traction in the snow, drifting around corners, and doing tight donuts. If you think you have too much traction and are having no fun, you're not pushing your car enough at all and need to give it more gas If I drove around a corner without winters in the snow, it just does a really wide drift really slowly and you have little control... on winters, you can kick the rear out much further, carve a tighter drift/turn, and do it much faster

[airbornerifleman]

It's interesting that everyone has a different reason when it comes to snow tires. The reason why I am keen on getting snow tires is 1. I slid my Jetta MKV into the guardrail last winter (3 grand damage), I only had all-seasons on it. 2. I watched this documentary on TV last winter and they were comparing all-seasons to snows, needless to say snows won hands down, but the most interesting fact is that even on a dry pavement on a cold winter day the snows will perform better than all-seasons due to the special compound found in snows that keeps them soft even in the cold. This will be my first year driving with snows and with the record snowfall we are having, it won’t be my last. I love my A4 and don’t want it to make love to the guardrail on the HYW.

[Brent27]

do it snows are worth the money, yes you get more road noise but other then that they will save your ass from crashing or slidding as much as you would on all seasons....


when i lived in buffalo i would wait till bout the first snow fall that sticked so around november - thanksgiving time

[Vorsprung]

this will be my first winter in the quattro. I cant wait !!!!

same here!! I hope we get a lot of snow here on Long Island...

[dave405nyc]

think snows are worth it for the metro nyc/LI area? last year it only snowed twice, and that was with 1/2 inch of snow and it melted the next day... im contemplating on whether or not to get them

[Vito Roma]

just like to chime in, went to Toronto recently and LOVE THE CITY!! Will be back this month. And it is money well spent

[Dangler]

think snows are worth it for the metro nyc/LI area? last year it only snowed twice, and that was with 1/2 inch of snow and it melted the next day... im contemplating on whether or not to get them

yeah i was thinking the same thing, is it worth getting snow tires, when i live in northern nj?

it doesn't snow much here, but when it does, its a nightmare to get around, especially because the municipalities are so ill equipped to handle snow removal.

i heard due to the extra sips (sp?) in the tread, that rain handling is far superior with snows than all-seasons, is this true??

[airbornerifleman]

WHAAAT! I just realized I have Three Rings.

On another note, anyone in the Toronto area wanna do a group buy on some snow tires?

[Phrost]

I watched this documentary on TV last winter and they were comparing all-seasons to snows, needless to say snows won hands down, but the most interesting fact is that even on a dry pavement on a cold winter day the snows will perform better than all-seasons due to the special compound found in snows that keeps them soft even in the cold.

This is true, and can only be realized having had the experience of driving a full season on each type of tire. Summer tires flat out turn into hockey pucks if it gets anywhere near freezing, so those are a definite no-go (I've talked to guys who swear by running summers year round in the snow ). All-seasons, or no-seasons, withstand temperatures better of course, but they still get really hard and turn into hockey pucks if it gets cold enough. Winter tires do have a special compound so this never happens, but this is also the reason you can't run winter tires through springs and beyond because they're so soft they will be gone in no time.

[airbornerifleman]

This is true, and can only be realized having had the experience of driving a full season on each type of tire. Summer tires flat out turn into hockey pucks if it gets anywhere near freezing, so those are a definite no-go (I've talked to guys who swear by running summers year round in the snow ). All-seasons, or no-seasons, withstand temperatures better of course, but they still get really hard and turn into hockey pucks if it gets cold enough. Winter tires do have a special compound so this never happens, but this is also the reason you can't run winter tires through springs and beyond because they're so soft they will be gone in no time.

yup :)

Sooo......... GB anyone?

[Louis J.]

All seasons = three season tires: http://www.bchighway.com/myvehicle/a...snowtires.html

Buy Blizzaks or Nokian WRs and mount them on dedicated rims.

Blizzaks are great but they will be noisy if you run them as the weather changes. Last year I replaced by Blizzaks with Nokian WRs and can't say enough about them. They are the only true all-weather tire in the market and grip as well as the Blizzaks in the snow but you can drive them year-round if you can live with handling comparable to all-season tires. They won't be noisy but they will wear out quicker than a typical all-season. I run extreme summers with good wet performance from spring to fall.

http://www.nokiantires.com/en/tire_wr.aspx

[B7A4Sport]

What would be the forum's suggestion on my situation?

I live just north of San Francisco, and go to Lake Tahoe quite often. Just got my car in Feb. and went up a few times with it, but there wasn't really much snow on the ground to test my all-seasons.

The problem I have with putting snow tires on for the whole season, is about 90% of my driving will be done on dry/rain-wet pavement around San Fran, and the only time I'd need the snow tires is when I drive 3-4 hours east to the mountains. Not only would they suck on the trip since about 2.5 hours of it are on guaranteed snow-free roads, I generally wouldn't want a bunch of snow-tire drone when I'm not up in Tahoe.

Think I can just get by on all-seasons? I'd love to do some snow-plowing, but I have to think of the whole picture too. Thanks!

[muffinman]

hey man, your winter driving habits sound almost identical to mine (90% dry/rain-wet pavement, 10% mountain snow) - i see people plow through winter washington weather with FWD; quattro is more than enough

i got through last winter just fine (several trips up the pass to snowboard, mostly rain otherwise) on my not-so-good stock all-season contis... now that i have a fresh set of bridgestone potenza re960 pole polsition a/s tires, i'm confident in my setup

just make sure you still have good tread left

What would be the forum's suggestion on my situation?

I live just north of San Francisco, and go to Lake Tahoe quite often. Just got my car in Feb. and went up a few times with it, but there wasn't really much snow on the ground to test my all-seasons.

The problem I have with putting snow tires on for the whole season, is about 90% of my driving will be done on dry/rain-wet pavement around San Fran, and the only time I'd need the snow tires is when I drive 3-4 hours east to the mountains. Not only would they suck on the trip since about 2.5 hours of it are on guaranteed snow-free roads, I generally wouldn't want a bunch of snow-tire drone when I'm not up in Tahoe.

Think I can just get by on all-seasons? I'd love to do some snow-plowing, but I have to think of the whole picture too. Thanks!

[RedS-line]

since im in the same boat, here is my gameplan. i will run on my stock 18s and stock summers until december-ish. i want to go to 19s so ill pick up a set from one of the board sponsors and throw on some well-rated all seasons like bridgestones. when my summer tires wear out, i will shod my 18s with dedicated winter tires ONLY if i feel that the all seasons do not live up to my needs. if they dont, then my 19s and all seasons will become my summer tire and my 18s will then become winter only. if the all-seasons perform well, and i think they will up here in NJ, then i can either run them all year round OR buy more aggressive summer tires for the 18s when theyre ready to be replaced.

[minameismud]

throwing my related question into the thread: i've got stock 17s, and i'm not the best on cash right now. should i just get some 17" snow tires and have them mounted on my rims, or try to find a cheap 16" rim/tire package (prolly with tpms, too)? i'd like to get 5, since i have room for the full-size spare.

[airbornerifleman]

I will be mounting snows on my stock 17" and get 18" or 19" in the spring with performance summers.

[slimmj0k3r]

now lets say your in NJ/TRI STATE do you opt for a snow tire EVEN though we dont always get tons of snow but do catch a few bad days given a bad winter? i've been running all seasons for years now i've had no problems but the thought of snow tires has crossed my mind and since 2 of my 5 stock wheels are blown, time for a new set =)

[klee]

What would be the forum's suggestion on my situation?

I live just north of San Francisco, and go to Lake Tahoe quite often. Just got my car in Feb. and went up a few times with it, but there wasn't really much snow on the ground to test my all-seasons.

The problem I have with putting snow tires on for the whole season, is about 90% of my driving will be done on dry/rain-wet pavement around San Fran, and the only time I'd need the snow tires is when I drive 3-4 hours east to the mountains. Not only would they suck on the trip since about 2.5 hours of it are on guaranteed snow-free roads, I generally wouldn't want a bunch of snow-tire drone when I'm not up in Tahoe.

Think I can just get by on all-seasons? I'd love to do some snow-plowing, but I have to think of the whole picture too. Thanks!

same boat. I only go to tahoe from the south bay once a month during the snowboarding season. last year i went up twice, and once it was in a snow storm coming back from kirkwood. i got through safely with only a couple of squirrely moments. my friends all got stuck in town behind me cuz they closed the roads an hour after I left! good thing i early birded!

i have the pirelli all seasons, i think they're safe enough to drive cautiously.


I'm STILL looking for some kind of snowcovered autocross up in tahoe so I can throw my avant around in all seasons without worrying about smashing into anything. does anything like that exist?

[72mako]

I'd have to agree with Louis on the Nokian WRs. I had those for two winters on my Toaureg and that thing was incredible in the snow. I'm getting close to wear bars on all of my tires and planning on getting a set for the A4. I was thinking about snows, but with Louis comment and as quick as they plow the roads here I think I'll be fine with the WRs. They actually have the severe weather rating just as dedicated snows as well, so they won't be hockey pucks in the cold.

As a side note with driving my Touareg like a grandpa I put 50000 miles on those tires and still had enough tread for another winter prior to trading it in. I don't expect to get that kind of mileage in the Audi though :o

[Phrost]

For the people who will only see a little snow maybe 10% of the time:

I don't want to sound like I'm going against myself, but if you'll only see snow a couple days out of the year which probably won't even be that deep, I would just stick with good all-seasons and watch your tread depth. All seasons will get you through the snow alright with Quattro, but you'll still need to keep a very keen eye out for other cars and have plenty of stopping distance since that will still suck.

I drive in snow for weeks at a time, have random blizzards with 1' plus of snow, lots of random ice... So for people around the north, I see winters as a necessity.

As for buying winters, I recommend buying a separate set of wheels to keep your winter tires on. You don't have to care about curbing them or the elements recking the finish, you don't have to pay $50-$75 twice a year to swap tires, and it's very convenient to have your seasonal tires stored and ready to mount whenever you need them. If you're short on funds for a wheel/tire set, all I can say is look for a used set in the classifieds as there are usual a bunch. All B7 A4's can fit a 16" wheel smallest, but as with any aftermarket wheel you may need to run small spacers depending on the spoke pattern.

Which winter tire to buy? I hear most common people swear by Bridgestone Blizzaks, I've had most of my friends who work at shops/dealerships swear by Nokians. Personally, I have yet to buy a new set of winter tires but I am on my second set of used Dunlop winter tires. In my opinion, any good winter tire (not cheap) from any reputable brand is very comparable to one another and have very similar performance. I love my Dunlops and recommend them, and I've been in friends cars with Blizzaks and Nokians and they seemed to be just as good as mine. Buy what you guys see the best reviews on and if you find sales

[Louis J.]

I don't want to sound like I'm going against myself, but if you'll only see snow a couple days out of the year which probably won't even be that deep, I would just stick with good all-seasons and watch your tread depth. All seasons will get you through the snow alright with Quattro, but you'll still need to keep a very keen eye out for other cars and have plenty of stopping distance since that will still suck.

I don't disagree but it needs to be understood that all-seasons are a major compromise. They are average at best for summer and inappropriate for winter. Good enough for an A-B driver who stays well within the speed limit and is budget minded but they simply won't do for a driver.

If you like driving spiritedly in the summer, nothing less than extreme performance summer tires will do. If you paid for AWD and want to get the most out of it in the snow and cold wet, proper snow tires are a must.

[Phrost]

I don't disagree but it needs to be understood that all-seasons are a major compromise.

I agree, but $300-$400+ is a lot of money if you'll only see actual snow for a couple days.

I bought my car last winter and it had the oem Conti tires on it, and I had to go a couple snowfalls before I found a set of winter wheels/tires and actually received them. First time with Quattro and only all-seasons, so it was interesting... Starting in deep snow sucked, but once I got going it wasn't that bad. But stopping was still a problem and was not adequate. But my point is, you won't get stuck with all-seasons and Quattro unless you do something stupid, and you should be able to stop in time so long as you practice safe winter driving and take your time.

Winter tires and Quattro on the other hand... I drive like an ass, pass cops, rip 360's in parking lots, fly up hills... Don't get in my way, or I'll drive around you and leave you in a big snow cloud so you have to stop and get stuck

[airbornerifleman]

^^LOL^^