A4 Italia

Hey everyone... how will the s4 perform in the snow with the stock tires? Do they impact the all wheel drive?

valis

it will perform horribly with stock tires, unless you get all seasons. the comes with high performance summer tires, those things will harden up and become like skis in the snow. The car will perform amazingly if you get some dedicated snow tires.

Hobbes

It's not just the snow that is a problem for the summer tires, but the cold. The rubber compounds in summer tires perform horribly in cold weather and the car will handle poorly in any cold weather, snow or not.

DeutscheAuto

i have tried doing winters with A/S or summer tires and it was not fun (even in Vancouver BC - very little snow)now that i'm in Calgary... its a no brainer
Since I ordered my S4 for delivery during winter i just went and got the following setup from Tire Rack:

18x8 MSW Type 16 Titanium Mirror

245/40R18 Bridgestone Blizzak LM-60

i hate buying wheels without actually seeing them in real life but they look decent for the winter.

canucklehead

No doubt, summer tires in winter = major accident. I think summer tires work well up to about 5 degrees C and then the traction starts to drop off quite a bit below that.

adbender

buy some proper winter tires and a fair set of 18" wheels.

stay out of the ditch.

DRPayne

Any recommendations on tire brands? I think my sales rep mentioned Dunlop SP ?

L0U

It will be nearly undriveable in snow, with summer only tires.

Inclined

It will get going a bit better than , say, a rear wheel drive car with the same summer only tires due to AWD esp on an incline , but in braking, both cars ...will...take... a ...looong ... time ...to ....stoooop.

Have been using a set of Nokian Z rated dedicated winter snow tires /wheels , but have recently replaced my worn out OEM summer Contis with the brand new Pirelli "P Zero Nero All Season " which come with the important XL load rating in Audi's size. ( BTW, these are OEM on the new Mustang and Camaro ) They perform pretty well in hot weather and I plan to try them this winter and keep the snow set in the garage . Will see how that goes.

canucklehead

I have the Dunlop WinterSport 3D's and have the WinterSport M3's before that. They aren't too bad although I have heard that the Blizzak's and the Pirelli's have performed better.