Snow tire recommendations depend on intended usage, driving style, where you live, amount of snow vs. ice vs. dry road travel, and how much you're willing to compromise handling for slippery weather safety. A quattro driver has some distinct advantages, but those only come with forward motion, and not with braking.

You've probably heard the adage that "4 x 0 = 2 x 0" when it comes to traction, and that of course is still very true. Perhaps thats why so many AWD/4WD owners end up in the ditch every year.

Looking at snow tires at all means that you're going in the right direction, and will have both better forward motion as well as braking ability when it gets snowy/icy.

If you live/travel where it's not too snowy or slippery, you just need to get those summer tires traded for something that's winter safe, and/or your driving style is safe only with tires that won't compromise much of your handling, think along the lines of the dunlop wintersports or the nokian WR.

If you need something more hardcore with deep snow ability, the nokian Hak series tires are great and have saved my life more than once. You may not be able to use the newer studded tires in your state, nor may you need them. Softer members of the Blizzak family, which I've owned, and the similar Graspics, may fit the bill as well, but they're squishier than the Hak 1's, which I've driven (straight line, dry freeway) up to 100 mph somewhat comfortably for short periods. You'd never want to approach those speeds in a softer blizzak, especially before the first half of its tread (the snow tire part) wears off. A big hint, btw, on softer tires like the Q rated blizzaks: make sure the pressure is pumped up a bit! When the dealer put on my blizzak ws-50's, I thought I'd made a mistake, even though I knew all about their squishiness. Even those slight quick steering manouvers back and forth in your lane would cause ESP to go off. Pumped up the pressure a bit, and they were acceptable for the rest of the winter (until blown out in a gigantic hole on a Detroit freeway).

If you drive on icy roads a lot, then the soft "ice tires" (usually Q rated) can definitely provide a comforting safety factor in white knuckle driving, as long as you remember 4 x 0 still equals 2 x 0.

An excellent middle ground, IMHO, if you need some combination of all of this and understand the compromises of soft tread vs handling vs safety on the slippery stuff, is the Nokian RSi. A little softer than the wintersports, a little sportier than the ice tires, I found it to be a nice sweet spot.

This isn't all conjecture. I've owned many different types of snow tires, and have put on others only to return them back to the tire store for something different. When your/family's life is on the line in slippery weather, it's worth it to pay attention to the differences, and of course, to slow down and drive safely no matter what tires you choose. I've also lived and driven in east coast, midwest, and now Pacific Northwest winters, flat and mountain driving. Audi A4Q, S4, and TTQ.

Go a size narrower if you drive through more than just light snow, or if you might hydroplane on puddles/winter rains. Less width to push and slide through the snow or puddle.

If you don't live where there's convenient access to a store that sells your tire, you might consider ordering a 5th tire. Remember that the roads get ugly with more potholes, etc., in the winter and early spring, and that you can't see the curbs as well when you're parking if they're snowy. Trust me, when it's spring and you've just blown out your snow tire on a new spring pothole, you may not be able to find a replacement snow tire in your size, since snow tires are made the summer before, and that run has long sold out. Tire Rack and other tire stores can shave down replacement tires to keep your tread depth equal and your quattro system happy. This is also another reason, of course, to keep your tires rotated, and you can rotate in that 5th one too.

Another reason to get a second set of winter wheels...keep your summers nice, keep the beads on both your summer and winter tires from wearing out from all the tire swapping, and be able to go a size smaller. If you've got a jack and tools, you can swap your own wheels out for winter if they're already mounted. (May need balancing).

So if a Detroit pothole kills your tire (and almost your car...it was big!) and you're out there in the cold, cursing, changing your tire, at least you'll have a replacement to have put on when you get home. If you have a big brake kit, make sure your spare will fit over it, or use spacers, or you'll have to rotate your back wheel forward while your hands are numb out in the cold, and you only have one jack!)

I love Tire Rack, don't get me wrong, Gary and the rest of the team are an outstanding resource and very supportive of this site and the enthusiast community in general, and we appreciate them! Every one of my orders from them has been flawless, and I continue to order from them here and recommend them routinely. Their winter tire info is quite helpful, but of course it only compares and discusses the brands they carry. I don't accept any of their explanations or excuses for not carrying Nokian snows. If you're going to be the biggest, best, most authoritarian source for winter tires, and don't include what many consider the best line of snow tires in the world, then don't give me comparison tests of your tires only and expect me to consider that gospel. Don't compare your three strongest brands winter tires against a "lesser" brand studded tire and act surprised that the studded tire doesn't come out as well overall.

I don't have any affiliations to any of these companies, but as I said, do have experience with many of the tires on Audi quattros in a variety of climates, and have been around this board since a little before "JET's A4" pages was launched. Tires inherently have compromises associated with them. Pick the best one for your needs and drive safe out there!

Rich

more info on tread depth from the B5 faq:
https://forums.audiworld.com/wheel/msgs/90912.phtml