dawkins20

Does anyone with the sport suspension have any significant experience in snow driving? I am coming from a Subaru legacy GT w 5.9 inches of clearance and intentionally never dropped it because I ski and drive through deeper snow at times. I think the standard A4 is a touch lower than this but wasn't able to easily find the actual ride height numbers. With the 23mm drop , has the sport package made this more of an issue? I have only driven the sport and love the handling so don't want to lose that but don't want to get stuck in a poorly plowed ski area lot either.

Also I could care less about the asthetics of a dropped car, so given that does the sport suspension add enough performance to care?

JDA_yeg

This has been my concern as well. Living in Edmonton, we get lots of snow so I never wanted the dropped height to begin with, but I like the S-Line package. Apparently if you add the adaptive suspension, instead of -23mm, it is -11mm.

However, I don't know what the height is to begin with. Anyone have that info?

mplsbrian

Unless you're driving in frozen ruts or in exceptionally heavy/wet snow that then freezes into ice, you're going to be able to clear the exact same snow depth as the non-sport A4. Your front bumper will push that extra top inch of the fluffy stuff out of the way like a plow, and even then you'd have to be the first car that low out of the parking lot to have to do that...there will probably be a suped-up Impreza that beats you to it.

dawkins20

Agree for the most part, but I did rip the engine undercover off a Subie in iced over parking lot snow in the past and that was with more clearance .

dawkins20

As another part of this question, how much performance (not appearance) is gained by the sport suspension?

KBeagle

It adds about 2 litres of performance...

On a serious note, it's really hard to tell and better tried out yourself. Just test drive both.

VM

Is that still true in 2018? My understanding (from this forum) is that 2017 only offered the 'comfort' adaptive suspension in North America, while in 2018 they switched to the 'sport' adaptive suspension. The sport one... might be lower.

(It's worth noting that I believe in the early years of the B8, the adaptive suspension was as low as the sport one...)

dawkins20

In the US the Prem+ and above trims have the S line body goodies sport package or not. The DSG auto sport package only gets the seats and the black headliner in addition to suspension. Unfortunately w the wife I can't get the 6MT, which sucks since there is a beautiful Daytona Grey sport plus at my local dealer

mplsbrian

On my test drives I found it to be minor. I also found the sport seats that get added (as part of the package that includes that suspension in the US) were not an especially noticeable upgrade either.

I suggest you go for a very spirited back to back test drive of both for yourself. Try to take the same corners at the same speed and see how each feels. Make sure your drive select is set to Dynamic in both cars.

Barrels41

I had a 2009 and 2012 A4 with sports suspension. They came with summer tires which were great. I bought winter wheels and performance winter tires which were also great. I had a 2017 A4 loaner a few weeks ago and thought the suspension was firm and the higher height was comfortable.

All season tires are marginal in the snow and are worse each winter. Get winter tires and save our OEM tires for warn weather.