kleinbus

Finally someone lays it down as it is.

Too often people seems to think all-seasons are answer for everything as hey, those are all-seasons...

HotRodW

Yes, it's absolutely true that all-season tires will be inferior to dedicated winter rubber in winter conditions. But it is also true that even among all-season tires, the Eagle LS2 is a poor performer. I've had the misfortune of dealing with the LS2's in the past, and I can verify the poor snow traction along with mediocre tread life. I strongly recommend dedicated winter rubber as your best chance to stay safe in the white stuff. I also recommend you research other options when it comes time to replace the Goodyears. Good luck!

The G Man

All season tires are a compromise between summer and winter tires, just like the Q5 is a compromise between a sport sedan and a SUV. I have driven thru over a foot of unplowed snow with all season tires. Of course snow tires would have been better, but thats like saying a Porsche will handle better than the Q5 in the summer.

UrbanExtant

With my 2011 Q5 I didn't have a set of dedicated winter tires, just the Conti all seasons that came with the car. We got a decent amount of snowfall around Philly last year, and I thought the Q5 handled mighty well in it. With my 2012 Q5, I purchased a set of dedicated winter tires/rims, and I can say the Q5 handles significantly better in the snow/ice with those, than the other one did with all seasons, but the Q5 on all seasons was no slouch. A lot of it really come down to the tire, and how it performs, all season, summer, winter, whatever, if it's a crappy tire to begin with, don't expect a lot, and it sounds like the ones that came on your car weren't that great.

rez

Rent a lot of cars on business travel in Canada and have found the so called all- seasons tiires to be a bit of a crap-shoot (some call them no-seasons around here). The best of them would be just ok in really serious winter driving conditions. Bought Blizzak DM-V1's for our new '12 Q5 and these were dramatically better in snow and ice than the the oem"all-seasons" Michelin Laitudes that came with the car. Thought it was a bit of a risk but went with tirerack.com for the tires and rims and worked well for us - great price and tires were well balanced.

SusieK

Thanks all. I know best solution is dedicated snow tires, but don't have storage space for that luxury. The reviews on the Conti tires are helpful, will also check out Tire Rack reviews to see what others are "happy" with and swap out the Eagles for a better snow performing all season - realizing its still a compromise.

cprg2011

Most dealerships I have dealt with have an off-season storage option for something like $100/season. Makes having summers and winters easy, and I can't say enough about having proper snows versus a compromising all-season (terrible false advertising) setup. There's no comparison.

The upside can also be when your rims & tires get lost in storage...which I experienced this year... and you get a brand new set all around. Pretty good deal for $100.

Cains10

Yes, there are good all-seasons, mediocre all-seasons, crappy all-seasons and really good all-seasons. It just seems that the OEM all-seasons are towards the bottom of the ratings list but at the top of the price list. The difference between the bottom and top of the snow capability list can mean the difference between getting home w/o drama or not. We shouldn’t be at the bottom with a premium AWD car. I do suspect that the tire manufacturers are highly competitive in bidding on tire contracts because a good majority of consumers just go back with the same thing they have on the car to start with.