Helmar

So you're not happy with how your A6 drives in the snow? Living in Maine, that's worrisome..... Are your current tires summer tires or all season tires?

HBH

nash503

Not happy at all with current setup. I have the 20 inch low profile tires.

organizedchaos

Those are the summer performance tires, I believe.

The G Man

I live in Massachusetts and I have the oem 18" all season tires. The A6 with the 18" Conti tires is very sure footed in the snow. I have driven thru many snow storms with my 08 A6 with oem all season Conti tires and never had a need for snow tires.

nash503

Thanks for the info. Going to see if I can find a set for my A6.

darcivic00si

No need to worry...unless you plan on using dedicated summer tires in the winter. Get winter tires or all seasons at a minimum and you will be fine. Summers tires turn into hockey pucks in the cold weather.

AutobahnA6

I have the 18" sport wheels with stock all season tires. Drove around with no problems at all today. Am in Southborough.

Austin A6 3.2

Those are 20" 10-spoke-design alloy wheels with 255/35 summer performance tires - they are absolutely incapable of driving in winter conditions.

Get a set of winter tires as soon as possible, they are called "summer tires" for a reason.

Here is an excerpt from a tires test on Insideline (http://www.insideline.com/features/t...vs-summer.html)

Snow Test Results
No one expects the snow tires to come in anywhere but 1st place on this wintry surface at AET. The point here is to see how big their advantage really is over all-season and summer tires.
It takes 11.7 seconds for our Civic Si to accelerate to 40 mph on snow tires, and 14.5 seconds to get there on all-season rubber — nearly 3 seconds and 24 percent slower. As for the summer tires, well, they require, ahem, 41.7 seconds as they struggle to 40 mph. That's no typo; it takes a half-minute longer — 257 percent more time — for the summer tires to reach this modest speed.
What about our traditional 0-60-mph test? Well, snow tires get to 60 mph in 19.1 seconds, while the all-season treads arrive in 22.9 seconds, nearly 4 seconds later. Forget the summer tires, however. The available 3,650 feet of snow — seven-tenths of a mile — isn't enough. We figure 67 seconds and 3,100 feet are needed to get there, and then there's the small matter of needing to stop again.
And that brings us to our next test: full stops with ABS engaged. Here again the snow tires dominate, stopping from 40 mph in 156 feet, some 28 feet shorter than the all-season tires' 184-foot performance. Meanwhile, our summer tires skate to an ultimate distance of 351 feet, the ABS actuator rattling for all it's worth the whole way.
Increase the starting speed to 60 mph and these distances more than double. It takes 362 feet for the snow tires to stop and 421 feet for the all-season donuts. The summer tires sit this one out because they can't manage to get themselves to 60 mph in the first place. (We do the math instead and come up with an estimate north of 800 feet.)
Skid pad results follow the same now-predictable pattern. Our snow tires pull 0.30 lateral g, the all-seasons manage 0.28g and the summer tires produce a pitiful 0.15g despite a heroic effort by our shivering hot shoe.

Bottom line: Get rid of your summer tires yesterday until the cold season is over.

nash503

Thanks very much for the info, I'm all over it.

Just to clarify, do I go with ALL SEASON or WINTER?

Thanks again!

Austin A6 3.2

Since you already have a set of dedicated summer tires, get dedicated winter tires, and change back to the summer ones when the weather gets better in March/April/May. A good guideline for installing your winter tires is once the temperature is regularly 50F or less, and they should be removed once the temperatures are consistently higher than 50F. This will ensure that they do not wear prematurely in warmer weather.

All season tires are a compromise for those that don't want to change wheels/tires when the weather gets worse/better. Since you already have summer tires, I don't see any reason to compromise on all season tires. Get a second set of wheels (preferably smaller wheels, see below). I'd get some 18" wheels and mount good snow tires. They don't have to be high performance or anything, since you will likely never go faster than 100 mph anyway. There are few things to keep in mind when shopping for winter tires. In most cases, you should consider purchasing separate rims for your snow tires. This will save you the time and costs involved in balancing the winter tires onto your existing rims. Typically, balancing a tire on a rim costs between $15 to $25 per wheel, and you will have to bear these costs once again, when switching back to your summer tires or all season tires. Also, smaller/narrower tires mean better snow traction.

Wheel size for winter tires: Unfortunately wide, low profile tires have to "plow" a wide path through deep snow, where narrower tires have an easier time. So if you're likely to drive through deep snow this year, you'll want winter / snow tires and wheels in sizes that help put the laws of physics on your side. (from http://www.tirerack.com/winter/tech/...jsp?techid=126)

I hope that helps. A friend of mine did severe damage to his Audi TT quattro while living in Detroit because he had summer tires installed. The car wouldn't stop on snow and he hit another vehicle. quattro only helps with moving, NOT with stopping. And in snow, even quattro benefits hugely from winter tires for moving forward.

Glad I could help, let me know if you have any additional questions.