Evlengr

My 2013 S4 will be arriving in September and I ordered it with the 19 Summer performance tires (not sure what they are...Conti's I think).

How do they handle in rainy weather? My last two AWD have been BMW's with All Season Pirelli or Michelin and never had any issues even in heavy downpours. Granted they were 17's.

I have heard the term "Hockey Puck" used with the summer performance tires they minute the thermometer dips below 40 degress as well.

I am tempted to go right to 19" all season extreme Conti's given the area's propensity for a rainy fall season.

Any constructive feedback?

Toecutter

I'd use the summers and get another set of winter tires/wheels.

mannelito

I got 19" Ultra Performance Summer. I drove with them through this past winter (so did I with my previous Audis for the past 4 years). In rain they are awesome - nothing to complain about. In extreme cold, salted wet roads they also work great. But if you hit things like hard packed snow, a little bit of ice or black ice - then they are absolutely horrendous and the term hockey puck comes well put. But consider how obsessed they are in salting the roads here on the East Coast, it's a minimal risk.

spin188

I spent two hours yesterday driving my new car on the 19s with Contis through extremely heavy rain on twisty roads with a lot of pooling and was very impressed. They did a great job in my opinion.

I have no experience on snow so nothing to add there but if it is rain you worry about, I'd say you've nothing to fear.

moose_head

Had a big rain storm a few days ago here and drove home with them. Big puddles etc. They seemed to hold up ok. Even slammed the brakes on to test them out (empty back road) and no issue.

Summer tires are fine in the rain. We aren't talking about racing slicks here. A lot of people would say that summers are better than all-seasons in the rain.

It's really a matter of temperatures. They aren't designed to work well at 40 deg F. If it gets colder than that in your area, you are sort of on the cutoff of needing winters. All-season rubber also has diminished grip at that temperature anyway.

LeoR604

My car came with the Dunlops and they are brilliant in the wet.

Last year's Quattrofest at Portland International Raceway started out VERY wet. I had an instructor in a highly modified S4 come up to me after a session to see what kind of tires I was using as he said I just slowly pulled away corner by corner and he couldn't stick with me. His driving skills are FAR beyond mine and his car is FAR faster than mine. Could only be the tires that made the difference.

I would never use these in cold/ice/snow so I do have dedicated snow tires for winter.

Evlengr

Thanks good to know. I had originally planned on looking for a set of 18"s with wheels in the classified or getting a set at Tirerack.com. Keeping one complete balanced set for winter and one set for summer.

Looks like I can stick to that with these comments. The only car I had previously with tires this large was my GTO and that was all over the place in the rain. Granted that was over 20 years ago and tires have made huge strides since then.

It seems to me then that the big thing to watch for is temps consistently below 40 F.

Anyone that has a set of tires/wheels (prefer 18's for winter) they want to sell please pm. I will drive a distance or pay for ups shipping for the right price and tire/wheel.

Anyone had any experience with Conti extreme All Season 19"s? i prefer not to remount tire to wheels, but I want to keep costs down for now if possible. This is if I cant find a set of 18"s at a fair price.

JD15

I've used the ExtremeContact DWS for the past couple of winters and they work well as an all-weather tire. They sacrifice steering response and dry-weather grip for winter performance, which would make them a good winter tire for the DC area.

NHman

OP, as others have commented, I would recommend buying a winter setup. The issue is when the temperatures go below 40F the tires will not be as pliable. Once this happens the tires will become useless. For snow/ice, go with an 18" rim/tire.

JohnEnglish

I had summer only Bridgestones on my last car and yeah, as soon as it dropped below say 40 or so (even if the ground was free of snow) the tires became noticeably less grippy. Forget about using them in the snow. I tried once and the car moved every way but forward.