Reggie

Read the manual - it tells you to use snow tires for the winter.

4 X 0 = 0 so AWD is not a panacea for going in the snow.

Note all cars in the category as Audis - BMW and MB do not come with snow tires.

sickspeed

Locking diff or not, summer tires dont grip on ice and snow regardless of the vehicle.

3707

What tires do rental cars have, even in snowy climates?

All seasons.


What's next, complaining to the builder of your hilltop house that they should have provided a flat driveway?

bhvrdr

absolutely agree there.

joeymagl

Has never had anything to do with the tires the car comes with.

Stopping and starting in snowy icy conditions depends on how much traction is available. That depends more on the tires. A/S tires do not have anywhere near the traction offered by winter tires. The difference becomes larger as the temp drops.

Crispin

and since I built the house and driveway myself, I probably won't be complaining to the builder.

Crispin

take a free lot overlooking the Queen of American Lakes if your family made the offer, "if you can build there, you can have it"? We've had many episodes with our cars and our friends' cars too. There will be many more. As the trend toward wider, lower profile tires has become even more common, we have even more people stuck on our driveway. I have seen that not all that many people are on the snow tire bandwagon like we have been all these years. We'll fix the problem. It's just painful right now, while starting two(2) businesses, to plunk down $1,000 on wheels and tires for a car we don't own. Thanks all for the input, C.

irenesbob

Sorry I got into this late, but here are my 2 cents:
Quattro with the stock (on my '08 sedan) 235/45 x 17 all seasons is better than most fwd cars on their all seasons; the particular all season you got with your car matter - my Pirelli Four Seasons aren't as good as the Conti's that were on my '06 A4; I had a similar twisting icy driveway at my weekend house in the Catskills in NYS (added to that a one mile private road that the town did not maintain) and I found it really helped to keep the driveway sanded and occasionally (only if needed) some damned crystals (not salt); also found ABS does not kick in under a certain mph (like 5-8 mph) - so if you're crawling down an icy incline they don't do anything; I found using the parking brakes going downhill would help since it made the rear, non-steering wheels do the friction-slowing; dedicated winter tires help obviously.
Question - have driven this vehicle on the driveway with the same results as your wife's - or is this totally her view?

irenesbob

I just posted above too but couldn't resist commenting that you might be missing the point that Audi is selling cars to people who generally speaking expect great handling year-round. If you live in a place where there is ice and snow year-round then they should probably put ice & snows on all cars sold there. If even you want the better handling of all seasons or summer tires for a good half of the year or more you should understand that a manufacturer equips their cars for the use of the majority of it customer base, not just for the few exceptions. Probably if they offered the kind of narrower snows you want and you had gotten them you might be complaining about a $35K + car not handling well once Summer rolls around.

Crispin

and I wondered the same thing as I thought it couldn't be THAT bad. I thought I could hug the inside(away from the cliff) and keep 2 wheels in the unplowed stuff. I guess the crown is getting worse through the years; I too began to slide to the other side. And this is at a crawl. I think this car would be a whole different beast with some maybe 205's. I just don't think a grocery-getter needs 235 17's to sell. It would be better in the rain too, especially after a little wear. We didn't order the car but my wife did make them find a stick for the lease. It's a 2.0