Snipe10

Brand new here, have owned a Q8 and bought my 20 year old a Q5. My wife currently has a 2021 Mercedes AMG E53 sedan. Looking at going for the RS5. Problem with the Mercedes is I have about $9K in tires and wheels (2 cracked wheels) in 18 months! We live in the mountains of Colorado and the roads are crap. Wondering if the wheels and tires on the Audi will hold up better. I think the Mercedes wheels are aluminum. I might be fooling myself and maybe just need to go back to some sort of SUV for her but thought I'd ask. Same problem, different manufacturer?

superswiss

That is hard to say. Depends on your roads. For bad roads, you need sidewall to protect the tire and the wheel, so anything low profile is basically a no-no. Does your wife's E53 have 19" or 20" wheels? Neither one has all that much sidewall, but 20" would be worse than 19". As for aluminum wheels, there are primarily two kinds. Cast and Forged. Forged is stronger, but forged wheels are not necessarily stronger than cast wheels. But they are typically lighter, because less material is required to achieve the same strength, and lighter wheels have many benefits including not hammering down as much on bad roads. Audi mostly uses cast wheels, and I believe the E53 wheels are cast, too. The 63 models like my C63 can be had with forged lightweight wheels. I have a set on mine. I've bent both. I've bent one of the cast wheels on my '13 RS5 and slightly bent two of the forged lightweight wheels on my C63. There just isn't much protection with low profile tires. I've never cracked a wheel, though and the bends could be repaired and/or neutralized with road force balancing.

One thing you can do is increase the tire pressure to give the tire more strength, but that comes at the price of a less comfortable ride.

BlakeV

I have always been concerned with low profile tires since my BMW E90 wIth 18". Then my 2 S5 came with 19 and 20.... the only one that aggravated me was the BMW with its 18" and an harsh suspension, likely due in part to uts RFT... I fixed 3 wheels in 4 years. So far so good with current 20" and ride excellent but my eyes work like obsessional scanners.

Glisse

Every wheel Audi use on the B9 RS5, with the exception of the 20" black Evo design which was recently available for the update model, are forged. That includes the base 19" wheel, which is made by Fuchs, in Germany, IIRC.

I do not recall anyone in this forum posting they have broken one of the B9 RS5's forged wheels, whether 19" or 20". With poor road conditions, best to look for an RS5 with the 19" OEM forged wheels, but not sure how easy these will be to find as most dealerships would seem to spec their own allocations with 20" wheels. Don't know what the delivery time is likely to be on a new factory order. Some time, I suspect, but better than many other models.

The 265/35R19 98Y XL tyres will have a little more sidewall protection than the 275/30R20 97Y XL versions. Current production cars with the 19" wheels will come with either Hankook Ventus S1 Evo 2 K117 AO or Continental SportContact 6 AO. Both these AO versions come with sound insulation, and both have modified sidewalls, versus the generic versions. There is no choice on which comes with the car from the factory, but I would back the Hankook to emerge unscathed from a giant pothole over the Continental. Nothing against Continental, I currently have the new SportContact 7 one one of my cars. Just that they can occasionally exhibit some sidewall fragility. Not the same thing as sidewall softness, like the Michelin Pilot Sport 4/S has.

In a number of markets, not least Germany, Audi have now started offering a 3 year new tyre guarantee, which includes a pro-rata (on months owned) credit for a tyre that needs to be replaced through damage. Although I doubt this will come to the US market. Still, it seems some type of warranty on tyres might be a good idea for Snipe10.

An RS5, on suitable tyres, will be wonderful going up and down the mountains of Colorado, in any weather conditions. It is what they are made for. Kudos to Mrs Snipe10 for preferring cars like the E53 or potentially an RS5 over an SUV for driving in the mountains - no offence to Snipe10 or Snipe10 Jnr.