Gordon Martin

Marci & Ty,

Why are you not interested in snow tires? There is some up front cost, but you can only wear out one set of tires at a time. If storage is a problem for you, most Audi dealers will store your tires for a $40/season charge.

I'm sorry that people here are not able to recommend a good all-season for you - I guess those of us who own an A4 bought it for performance and realized that the cheapest and best performance upgrade we can make is in the winter tires (for us Canadian folks).

Wider tires may help with summertime traction but it will really hurt the winter performance even further. Stick with 205 max. - they still grip the road pretty well in summer.

TTFN,

Gordon Martin
98.5 2.8QMS (Santorin Blue)

Brad Bilut

As long as you have a set of All Season tires & quattro you'll be fine

Marci & Ty

I understand that sport tires are going to suck in snow and even dry winter months where temp are below 35deg. I never meant to sound like since I had Quattro, I could conquer the world or that modern day sport tires were perfect. I only thought of Quattro it as added safety. I was just hoping that I could get away with a slightly wider all-season tire and not have to buy a second set of winter tires. I know that a wider tire is not as effective in snow but may provide a little better footing in dry sub 40 temp's.

Rodney

I went through 2 bad New England winters with 205 width SP4000's on my Jetta (FWD) along with numerous ski trips to Vermont. They worked fine. Wider will hurt performance in the snow, but as long as you remember that Quattro doesn't allow you to break the laws of physics, and you don't get tons of snow, you should be fine.

Regards,
Rodney

'99 A4 1.8tqms

PeteP

I'm in Minnesota and haven't used snowtires for over 20 years. They are better in snow than all-season but they just aren't needed anymore for "normal" winter driving.

My 98.5 2.8 Avant quattro did just fine (actually was terrific) in the snow with the stock Goodyear RS-A tire.

'00 Avant is coming in December with sport package and, like you, I plan to replace the 8000's with all season tires. Right now I am trying to decide between Dunlop 4000's, Dunlop 5000's, or the Pirelli 7000's. Michelin XGT Z4 might be an option too.

4000's look most like original tire but the 5000's have a much higher tread wear rating (340 vs 240) and better traction rating (AA vs A).

Pirelli 7000's have top ratings in tirerack owner surveys.

I'm still undecided.

Mark P

Very good point- and if your snows cost less, you're actually saving money & getting better traction