samm

So we got our first real snow for the year and this is also our first winter with the. My wife calls me at work last night pissed off because she is stuck in the snow with the ar near our house and she had to spend an hour digging out. Oh and she's 8 mo. pregnant.

We have about 1/2 mile of dirt road that leads to our house that does not get plowed. This storm left about 18" of snow on the road. We have lived down this road for 8 years and the wife has been making the drive in a 92 100 quattro wagon. Slow, heavy, crappy brakes, but reliable as hell (280k) and it had a rear diff lock. The old battle wagon was only hampered by ground clearance so when the snow was deep the bumper would push and push until it was too much, you would then just back up and get another good run and push some more. I would curse audi sometimes because the rear diff lock was designed to disengage when you reached a certain speed, so when you were really moving keeping momentum trying to get through the snow the rear diff would sometimes kick off. Oh well, they are designing cars more and more for stupid people but it still worked pretty well.

When the time came to replace the old wagon we decided to go allroad. My wife's daily commute consists of a half mile of unpredictable bad road, curvy mountain highway, then straight big city interstate. On paper the allroad is the perfect car.

Ok, back to the pissed wife and the allroad. She tells me on the phone that the allroad sucks in the snow and "the ESP thingy is dumb," and "the freaking suspension keeps going down." I figured she was just having a bad day and the ar was still a worthy ride.

Well, this evening after the wife gets home I steal her keys to the ar and sneak out for a test drive to see first hand how this thing performs in the snow. I start with a plowed, icy, well used road. No problem handles like an audi should. I then turn onto a side road, still no problem. I keep hitting progressively worse side roads until I find one that looks fairly challenging. I stop, go to level 4 and hold to lock. Then I hold ESP for "off road mode." I proceed down the narrow snowy dirt road, the ar starts to struggle, I feel the car digging itself down, I give it a little throttle and pick up my momentum, if I don't I know I'm going to get stuck. The ar starts to bog down again, now I'm pretty heavy on the throttle to keep speed, turbos are spinning, EDL is going crazy, and now I look down and see that the suspension light is blinking as the car lowers to level 3. The ar can't tell the difference between highway driving, and sideways snow driving. All it cares is that the speedo is past 20 mph and it better lower down for "safety." I finally make it through the deep stuff and pop out onto a "good" road. I go to hit the breaks and its like nothing is there, I nearly **** myself with the sinking feeling of no brakes. I push really hard and whew, the brakes slowly start to come back.

Bottom line. EDL is a joke, the brakes are fighting the power of the engine the whole time. The best way to move foreword is with a true locking differential sending equal power to both rear wheels. When you need the ground clearance of the ar most the car takes over and lowers itself right in the thick of things, as if to make sure you get stuck.

So if the suspension won't stay up, and the drive system is inferior then what am I left with? Seems like an extra heavy A6 with more power but without the reliability. I think audi was a little ambitious when they came up with the allroad name. Perhaps "manyroad," or "someroad" would have been a better choice.

Hey Audi, stop making cars for dumb people. Bring back the old school manual center and rear driver operated diff locks! Let the driver decide when and how to use the suspension settings, give me my gauges back and keep your Autocheck!

Ok thanks for reading.

spedrcr

Agreed! Nuff said.

HR-ALL

"...18" of snow..."!

Locking diff or no locking diff, how did she expect to plow through it when Allroad has only 8" of clearance?

Maybe you should buy her a Jeep with 36" lift Rancho suspension...and a winch!

Like many things, cars - all cars, including the Allroad - are a compromise. Can't say I've had problems with it in Canada...plenty of snow up here too.

spedrcr

Comfort, convienence, safety...etc. Just the other week I hauled two kids in baby seats, my wife, a ton of gear to go into the woods and chop down an XMAS tree, threw the tree on the roof and went home. That's a great car, and we left the Tahoe at home.

I hate the driver aids and wish you could choose what degree of ABS/ESP/EDL you want with buttons on the dash but alas, Audi didn't build the car for me and only me. I recognize that and will live with it. Snow tires have greatly improved my snow driving experience. All seasons in snow just make the ABS/ESP/EDL go crazy.

It's ALL about the tires. No matter what you do to the car to make it go faster, stop quicker, handle better, it all still has to translate through four small plate-sized rubber patches. It's ALL about the tires.

trg

<ul><li><a href="http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/cto/957909026.html">Here.</a></li></ul>

Concentric190

We had a pretty bad winter storm here in chicago aswell, and the allroad handled it like it was nothing. while all the other cars on the road could barely move. Traction controll worked great and always kept me in line. I even took it off road a week ago in some trails with deep ruts, inclines, and with snow and ice on the ground and had no problems with crappy all seasons.

It wasn't no 18" of snow on a dirt road, but comon now who in thier right mind would drive in that without a big truck with big tires and not think that they have a good chance getting stuck. Don't blame it on the car when that was pretty dumb in itself. If my wife ever tried that I'd ban her from driving for a while for bieng a dumbass, EXPECIALLY if she was 8 months preggo.

Tenacious auDi

including some 18" unplowed streets last year just for fun.... my buddy followed my in his pickup (full size, huge tires, lifted and ready for the snow) and he had far more issues with spinning tires but neither of us got stuck at all.

2002ar

The suspension craps out in cold weather and won't stay at the level you want it when it does work. Some days it's slammed to the stops below level 1, usually when it's around or below 0°F. The wipers are terrible in even light snow. More clearance would be nice. And of course, EDL often hurts more than it helps. So, I try to go fairly slow when going through the deep stuff to keep it on level 4 and the EDL disengaged. The car has studded 16" snows all around, which really helps.

But, all in all, it's a great car and more things well than any other vehicle I know about.

Reliability has been excellent, for us.

morecarsthanbrains

Its first and foremost a car and I did 2.5' of snow over Thanksgiving and it did it without a problem at all. In fact, my dad and I were so incredibly impressed by what it could do, we were going to take it further into a bit more nasty areas. Decided not too since I had two mt bikes hanging off the hitch and didnt want to attempt of camber stuff while those were there. I will do those trails eventually though. It does all the stuff that a crossover suv will do and is better than most full sizers. Have you ever seen a Tahoe in the snow? That is a waste of time.

You are right, a locking rear would be nice but with that locking rear comes more wear in the rear and not to mention, a drop in our already crappy fuel mileage. The engine was more than enough to pull me through and smart application of the gas can get you through a lot.

Can someone explain to me the off road mode? I have tried it before but cant seem to get, or dont know I am, in said mode. I have an 05. I tried the press and hold ESP thing and nothing happened. Does a light blink or buzzer sound? I was in level 4 but still couldnt get anything to move.

18" of snow is pretty tall. 18" of snow on top of a wet dirt road requires some serious tires. If I was regularly expecting that much snow, I would have serious tires, some sort of a skid plate in the front under the bumper to pack the snow down as I drove over it, a parked allroad in the driveway and a cheap $2k Jeep Cherokee with all the above requirements. 18" is a lot and in that much snow, I would have a truly built auto for it. The allroad is capable but lets be realistic here.

Also, if clearance is an issue, why cant you go in and do a 402 or whatever mod, and make the computer turn level one into level 4 that way you wont have to worry about it? Would something like that work?

4Ring Jelly

tires make more of a difference than you would think.

though i will agree a locking rear diff in this car would be great.