Jack88

Never tried to pull off in second, I don't think it can. I just leave the car in comfort mode with the transmission in auto and it does terrific. A little bit of slip is allowed before it locks and trudges along in the worst of it.

triniexr

You can. You have to put the car into manual mode and shift up one using the paddles. I don't think its required. I have Bridgestone Blizzaks on my car and I haven't even felt a slip as yet in light or semi light snow. This year we haven't seen much snow, surprising for Canada lol.

I've also owned a Subaru legacy GT in the past, 10 years ago. I did a full STi swap in that running 350 whp. I used summer tires in the snow with that thing and it handled pretty good. Best part is I had a manual e-brake so going around corners was exciting at the time. Don't think I'd do such things now being a bit older.

Panerai197

Thanks, new car quattro and no snow or ice plenty of the wet stuff but that don't phase it, pulls like a train with no slip.

derfA8L

That's all well and good, but everyone needs to remember that quattro won't help on an iced road...unless you're running on studded tires. I tried that experiment years ago...And LOST! Just sayin'.

frybear

exactly Derf. people think that quattro is all encompassing. You can NOT stop any quicker on ice with Quattro when you can on a car without it. Quattro will help you go and probably helps on turns, etc. But ice is ice, very unforgiving...

Jack88

It does help on turns, a tiny, tiny bit. Quattro will keep you from getting stuck, and keep you from losing control. Anything beyond that is all in your tires.

ppinto1

Derf, I lost with Quattro's on Ice, too... Its' capability in plain snow was so impressive, I got a little carried away with myslef

derfA8L

Yup, first weekend in a brand new 1996 A6 Quattro and it's snowing lightly. Took a sharp curve on a back country road, but didn't realize there was a layer of ice under the snow. Everything happened in slow motion: I see the car's rear end out of the corner of my eye as the car does a 180 and comes to a stop with my wife muttering something I can't repeat. Good thing there was no other car on that road 😨

ppinto1

For me it was a 1998 A6. In a fairly tight turn, the car kept going straight. I tried to get it to rotate with the throttle, but it was too little too late - and a tree prevented any further progress. Fortunately, my wife was at home - or I'm sure I'd have gotten the same.

skimobile

So other than getting a Subbie - what do I get????

I've had a couple of A6 Avant's since 2003. Always have snow tires on in the winter. I ski a lot and drive in snow a lot. I love my quattro.

They stopped importing the the Avant in 2012. I'm not a big SUV fan (Q5/7 or Macan/Cayenne - although Porsche uses their own AWD, not Quattro). Some of the E-Series wagon's look okay, but I'm not sold on the 4Matic.

I've thought about the A8, although I think I'd need to run double roof boxes for some of the bigger ski trips with the family. For the summer, my daughter is old enough now that I won't be throwing a tag-along in the back of the avant, it will be 4 bikes up top.

Any suggestions?