Baloo588

Oh haha! Jeez I would go crazy to have performance summer on my car in winter!! YIKES!!! Yes, definitely I would say a BIG improvement with quattro on winter tires and a HUGE improvement with winter tires. If I were you, I would go all the way and get good winter tires and separate rims for winter time and Keep the standard OEM set and get nice summer tires. You will notice with all season or winter that Quattro does a fabulous job of distributing torque and power over the x-drive. I have both and Quattro is 2x more predictable and accelerates from standstill straight whereas BMW Xdrive will spin the rear wheels more longer before engaging the front wheels. The quattro doesn't fishtail as much as BMW and quattro can quickly go up steep driveway in snow or ice over xdrive.

Island Maser

It is dangerous to drive those tires with the amount power these cars put out on dry pavement let alone on snow! Then complain about the cars snow performance? I saw a Ford GT 40 get totaled because of this. Cold morning on cold tires + throttle = Guardrail on the on ramp. The rubber compound is designed to soft and sticky in the summer. When it gets cold the rubber gets very hard like plastic and has no grip. Remember the hard plastic wheels on your big wheel as a kid. That is what you have under 40 degrees running summer tires. The liability you are putting on yourself is off the charts. You hit another car and hurt someone and they find those tires on your car? Ya the lawyers will own everything you ever earned. People want to skimp on tires and it is just stupid. I sold a Turbo MR2 to a friend for his GF. Smoking hot girl too. It had a more power than stock. She was complaining the car was handling funny. We took it for a spin. Death ride! He just replaced the tires with the cheapest **** he could find. He walked into the back yard and I hit him square in the jaw knocking him on his ***. "Put some really tires on that car or you won't see it coming next time and it will be days before you wake up". We don't talk anymore but she and I are good friends. Use you heads people! The only thing holding you and your 2 ton beast to the road is contact patch about the size of a piece of paper! Think about when buying rubber. I second the recommendation on the Conti DW and DWS tires. DW is best tire you can buy for wet pavement and gives up little in the dry. I live in the Pacific Northwest so we know a little about running hard on wet roads. I used the DW on my track car on wet track days and the street. I might not be the fastest in the dry on a track but in the wet I can run with anyone. Is it bad when the instructors are betting that you can't slow enough to make the carousal turn? Tires matter.

08A6

I think the feedback is very clear - you're experiencing a car on ice skates.
I've been running all-seasons in NJ year round for the past several years and have never encountered any issues in snowy winters. In fact, you really have to try hard to make it slip. Mind you, i change cars/tires often enough that i'm always on good tread depth.

fstkmaro

it was that nasty wet and heavy stuff. I agree with the others, wrong tires. the car felt like my camaro in the snow tho. My BMW has all season tires and drives like it is on rails in the snow, to the point that I relaxed a bit in snowy mornings and avoided shoveling before going to work.

all seasons are next in order, I'd like to get a set of wheels to mount them on and use in the winter and the perfs in the summer.

Baloo588

I highly recommend hartmann wheels as they are super strong like OEM and hub centric without issues.

Wheels for Audi, Porsche, and VW Wheel - Hartmann Wheels

Baloo588

This is my car with 19 inch hartmann wheels and blizzaks. They perform outstanding in the snow and are a 99 percent improvement over the standard all season michelin pilot sport as3 tires which I have on the 20 inch rims. I actually switched out the wheels too early few weeks ago and we had an unusual spring snow storm this past Sunday and I slid out of control and crashed the right rear rim slightly and I was terrified but the car is fine and I would not use these all seasons again winter time only from spring to fall.

19hole

If you are going to get a dedicated set of wheels for your non-summer tires, please do not get all season tires for them Go for full snow tires. The difference will surprise you. An Audi with Quattro and full snow tires will go through anything. All seasons are a compromise, they are not really the best winter solution.

Baloo588

I 100% agree with this. Its night and day between using all season and winter tires on my Audi A7 and I would never never use all season again in winter time even with the best all season tires they cannot match a good winter tire in the snow with Quattro.

fstkmaro

Again, it was not my intention to complaint on the car. I was just merely stating my opinion based on my specific experience. The point on the tires was made so more observations are needed. If I had an idea so many were to be offended by my post, I would have never posted my opinion.

Regards
Jim

snagitseven

I don't think it was a matter of being offended, just everyone pointing out the obvious apples to oranges comparison that was made in your post.