mart242

The problem with all season is that not only do they suck in winter, they also suck during summer.

gmoney

I live in Southern California and AS work fine for weekend trips to the mountains and most of the time riding around in the city. Anyone try the new Continental ContiExtreme DWS tires yet? They are getting rave reviews for wet, dry and snow traction.

Spacecadet_CC

That's why up here in upper mid-west (Manitoba) you see a lot of people doing steelies even on nicer cars. Smaller alloy rims DO look lame - like you bought a stripper car and might appear to some that you are sporting all-seasons to boot. Going all the way steelies is a little more 'hardcore' and the black kind of hides the rim size! Yeah - I know that it sounds a little like the decision is being made on appearances. But after doing four years of 16" wheels on a B6 during winter, what I thought would be fine just drove me crazy every time I looked at the car.

I also think that it is a good statement to other drivers to encourage others to get winter tires - something that many in my climate perplexingly resist. Considering that winter here starts in November and ends early April, and our winters here are bitterly cold (lower than -13F / -25C for many months) with lots of solid ice, I am usually left speechless. Or ranting!

I'll be sporting 17" Micheline X-Ice2 on steelies this year

Qbox

Tire Rack doesn't even offer the option for steel wheels with their A4 B8 winter tire/wheel packages. I assumed it was a problem with brake clearance.

mart242

How much is a 17" steelie though? Tirerack has some cheap alloy wheels, ~115$ for a bunch of 17"

initialA4

My personal opinion is that you should get a dedicated winter tire, than trying to run it on all season. Its better to be safe....

NJRoadFan

Umm... its snows in Philly? Folks, Philly (and NJ for the most part) doesn't get that much snow on average. When it does snow, the streets are snow covered for a day at most. A good high performance all season should be fine for occasional snow driving.

Bob58

Even the best, new A/S tires give up a lot when the temp dip below 45F and become hockey pucks below about 20F..

And while there may not be a lot of persistant snow in the cities, you don't have to venture too far out of Philly to see a bunch of it.

Look, here's the deal.....

Can anyone survive a moderate to even an occassional severe winter on good A/S tires?

Of course they can. They will have to exercise caution and may have to have a little luck but millions of folks do it every year.

Hell, I survived 1 1/2 winters in Watertown, NY on new Conti A/S tires with my B7 A4. But I knew I was only going to live there for that period of time before moving to Alabama and I didn't have the storage space so I opted to roll the dice. Fortunately I, mostly, manage to avoid the snowbanks.

Are they setting themselves up for success?

Of course not.

Does having winter tires mounted guarantee that you won't have a winter related accident?

Of course not, but they (coupled with caution and experience) give you the best possible chance.

The bottom line is:
There is simply no substitute for good winter tires in winter.

Anything else is rolling the dice. And that's fine as long as the guy making that decision realizes that he's rolling the dice.

Hobbes

Agreed. There is very little actual snow driving around here (South Jersey), and for that small amount all-seasons have always worked fine for me. Sure dedicated winters would be better, but that doesn't mean that all-seasons are the death traps they're made out to be on forums. I've been driving on good-quality all-seasons for 25+ years and have never felt the need to switch to dedicated winters, nor have I been in a single accident.

Certainly it depends on your climate, but there are many places where A/S tires are perfectly fine.

Spacecadet_CC

Yeah - I noticed this, too. I haven't figured that one out other than to find some steelies here in my city. I just phone Tirerack and they have never carried 17" steelies. So maybe they don't even exist. I guess I might be looking for a 17" set of alloys. Crud.