quantumrace

Great to hear the Continental is an excellent tire.
I really don't know why the dealership is being so stubborn. I had even agreed to pay for the cost of the deinstallation/installation of the tires on both the Audi and my former Volvo. But now that the dealership's excuse that the CPO would be voided if the All Season Tires were installed no longer is valid, given that another Audi dealership in Albany NY does install All Season tires rather than Summer Performance tires on their CPO cars, it will be interesting to see what the general managers position is as I've forwarded to him this information, along with the salesperson that I chatted with. I'm hoping they do the right thing, but for now they continue to stall.

superswiss

Are you trying to make the dealer pay for the tires? That might be the sticky point. I can understand their reluctance to putting on a used set of Nittos. For all they know, the tires could have suffered damage and they no longer meet the manufactures speed rating. Damaged or repaired tires lose their speed rating. That's a potential liability for them.

But if you expect them to throw in a free set of Contis, then I can also understand their hesitation. They can't resell the used Goodyears.

quantumrace

Today the dealership conceded and agreed to swap out the tires (the newly installed Nitto NT421Q on the Volvo XC60 that I had traded in) onto the SQ5 and take back the Goodyear Excellence. In both cases, the Nitto and the Goodyear have in theory less than 250 miles on each set of tires.

But the dealership then offered to only swap out the tires for a charge of $440, which according to the dealership, was to employ 2 technicians an hour each to swap out the tires at their going hourly rate of $220/technician.

I passed as I felt the dealership at that point was just trying to gouge me. I had offered to pay up to $200 for the swap, given that I had priced out what America's tires would have charged per car, which was $64/car.

So the moral is to have the dealership make any sort of changes to the tires, if desired, before purchasing the car, as that appears to be the only time there is any chance of the Dealership doing the right thing.

HZ60

Similar situation with the 2016 3.0T I bought new in July. It came with Goodyear Excellence OEM summer tires. I asked the dealer, before the papers were signed, if he could put on a set of Conti DWS 06 instead. He said that he would put on a set of all seasons of his choosing, keep the Goodyears and “only “ charge me an extra $500 for his efforts. I of course passed on his generous offer, bought a set of Contis and sold the Goodyears for $600. FWIW I agree with the others that the DWS 06 is a great choice.

superswiss

That charge for two cars actually sounds about right if they road force balance the tires. America's Tires and most other places only spin balance the tires. Low profile tires are much more susceptible to out of round wheels and tires and differences in side-wall stiffness, so road force balance is the the way to go. I pay about $200 to mount and road force balance tires at my indy shop. I stopped going to your average tire shop when I saw one patch one of my tires and then just putting it back on the wheel without re-balancing it. He just marked the tire and wheel and then lined up the markings by eye. That's fine on a Prius, but not an Audi RS or S with low profile performance tires.

When is Road Force Balance Overkill?

quantumrace

Further update. The dealership accepted my offer to swap out the tires for $200. So I'll be taking back the Nitto NT 421Q off of the Volvo and giving them back the Goodyear Excellence tires currently on the SQ5. I'm happy, although I think without my pressuring them from the start, they never would have arrived at this decision. Once again, if I had to do it all over again, I would have not signed the paperwork to purchase the car until they installed a set of All Season tires onto the SQ5.

I also reached out to 3 Audi Dealerships. 1 in Delaware, and 1 in NY install the All Season tires on the CPO SQ5, without any worry about the CPO. While a conversation with the Denver dealer would not install anything but High Performance OEM Summer tires on the CPO car. I think Audi USA needs to reconsider their position and allow the dealerships to install either OEM or OEA tires with CPO cars, including All Season tires.

J. Patterson

$200 is a fair price for dismounting remounting and balancing 8 tires. I pay an Indy guy $100 to mount and balance a set of four when I buy from online sources. My Audi dealer would probably charge more.

Redd

For eight tires, considering the Audi is AWD with alloy wheels so the mounting job risks wheel damage if not done carefully, and the other wheels may have TPS monitors on the valves, requiring valve stem or o-ring kits as well...$200 is by all means not unreasonable.

However...if your goal is getting to and from Tahoe over snowy roads? All season tires are not what you want in snow. They're better than racing slicks, aka "performance" tires. But all season tires are made with a rubber compound that generally gets stiff and loses traction ~40~45F, and they are nowhere near as good as real snow (MS, Mud and Snow) rated tires. You might want to consider getting a set of real snow tires for winter use, it is another expense but then again, your "summer" tires will only get half the usual wear.

You might ask the dealer, with a straight and worried face, whether using your own thermal cup in the gen-you-whine Audi cupholders will also void the warranty, and whether you should buy a gen-you-whine Audi cup in the dealer's shop to avoid that horrible situation.

Matter of fact...maybe you have to buy Audi coffee to put in that cup as well. Other brands might, well, be corrosive if they spilled in the car. (sigh)

Yoshimura

Surprisingly, my DWS06 are much noisier than my studless winter tires.

When I put my winter tires this fall, I had the impression they were quieter than the DSW06 but could not be sure 100%. I just put back the DWS06 this afternoon and immediately noticed how much noisier they are.

DennisMitchell

That makes sense to me. The all-season compound is stiffer at winter temperatures than the winter tire compound which is softer. Hence the winter tires are in this case quieter.