HooliganDrew

I'm getting close to purchasing an A4 1.8T quattro with the Sport Package (and thus 17" wheels). I'm about to move from Texas, where I've lived my whole life, to Indiana, where they have this thing called snow. Needless to say, Texas doesn't have it! :-)

I've driven in snow many times, but never with my own car, and never in a vehicle with 17" performance tires. Where I'm moving there's not nearly as much snow as, say, Chicago or Minneapolis, but it's still snowy most of the winter. Even with quattro am I still going to want snow tires? How about if I traded the 17" z-rated Michelins (or Contis, they seem to have both) for a set of all-season tires rather than having to have two sets of tires? Or will I not see enough of a gain in snow traction?

Thanks for the advice, and sorry for the silly question, but having lived my entire life in the Sun Belt, I've never had to think about snow tires!

Big D

I live in Houston so I have no problems with snow. But it rains here alot so I needed very good wet weather tires. Even though i could go the All season route, I'm gonna stick with the Hi-perf tires.

Audi_in_Van

I had the same problem. On the second day after I got the car, I traded them for Micheclin sport A/S. They are GREAT tires. All season, z-rated, looks great and the handling hasn't chnaged much.

However, the snow traction is gonna be just adecuate for light snow. If you get lots of snow, you need winter tires, so you are better off to get winter tires for winter and keep these ones for summer.

The other all season tires that I have seen to be pretty good are Dunlop A-2 and Dunlop SP5000.

formerly dennisA4

Had a honda, a Saturn and an Acura integra up there. All cars had all season tires all the time. Never had a problem.
But I agree with BigD. If you enjoy the benefits and feel of Z rated performance tires, you'll want to keep those and have winter tires for the winter.

MuRaN0Daddy

tell me what you mean by trade.
did you trade the summer rubber in at a dealer.
what did u get for them. i'll probably go for a 2nd set of like tangos with winter rubber, but im on the fence for trading into a HP all season, i just dont want to get robbed on the summer rubber.
thanks
daddy.

evlfred

Get a decent perfomance snow tire, like the Blizzak LM-22's I have. They will still drive good, and give decent traction. Plus they last longer than regular dual compound studless snow tires.

Audi_in_Van

I asked a few tire dealers and I also asked the Audi dealer and found the best deal. Just make sure that you trade right when you get the car, since putting milage on the tires will make them worth almost nothing. I had to pay only 250$ to trade them (dealer wanted 350$).

DCS

get snows, besides you'll get more tread life out of the sport then

bacccc

... a few inches, you may want to opt for a set of 16" wheels strapped with snow tires for winter use only. The 16" wheel/tire combo is much better in snow than a comparable 17" wheel/snow tire combo due to the higher profile tire and the way it reacts in the snow.

This is what I did, and now I run the 17' wheels/performance tires in the summer, and the 16" wheels/snow tires in the winter. This is the best of both worlds, but comes @ a price up front. The good news is that you can easily sell the 16" wheels/tires to someone else when you sell the car and get back the bulk of the upfront cost. The other good news is that your Audi is now a fantastic winter driving machine!

If you're not going to get into much snow and aren't a performance nut - I'd just strap on a set of 17" all-seasons. It's a compromise, but it won't cost you anything.

Good luck!