halik

Well I was really hoping I could get away with all seasons; on monday I ended up spending 2+ hours digging the car out from the driveway after pulling out from the garage.

Mister Bally

Dozens of posts here discussing winter tires are necessary in the Northern climate. Michelin X-ice for me.

Darren Coogan

Living just outside of Toronto, I will never drive a car without dedicated winter tires.

My B7 A4 Avant had RS4 reps with Hankook iPike(fantastic tire)
My last car was a CTS-V with Nitto NS2(garbage tires came with car)

My current S8 has Dunlop Wintersport 3D on the 20" wheels. They're not bad

halik

My 911 and M3 both had winters, on the account of having dedicated summer sets. I thought with the S8 I could get away with alleasons, but as it turns out the allseasons (ContiProContacts) are total garbage on snow. Blizzaks WS60 for the win.

We've got Hankook Winter i*cept Evos on the A4 Cabrio; awesome snow grip as well.

Darren Coogan

All seasons are generally realistically considered a 3 season tire. AWD will only get you going. A good tire will help you stop and turn.

For example, my wife's MKT is AWD and came with all seasons. I went out and got her 18" winter alloys with Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2 SUV and put the factory 20" in storage. One of the best tires on the market. It'll do circles around my S8 with performance winter tires mounted in the snow. So much grip. And the AWD system in the MKT is laughable at best even with torque vectoring LOL

Oh Blizzaks are awesome tires too.

ichtus

Halik -

I missed your post, but I too am in Chicago (west burbs,and commute to rosemont). I was torn between blizzaks / xice / Nokian. I just got a set of Nokian R2's from discount tire (172 a piece). I have been tearing through the stuff we got (and went on a joy ride on monday in the heat of all the snow). Awesome tire.

I just looked up the nokian r2s on discount tire direct on a 17 and they are 155...

ichtus

+1 for Hakka R2

Been killing it in Chicago's 20 inches this week...

parkrog

Nothing like studded snows for ice in mountains of utah.

jandreas

The old adage, "All-season tires are useless in all seasons" really is true.

Pothole5000

I have Dunlop 3d's on my A4 for winter and I really like them, however we rarely see snow here in the Seattle area. They seem to be a better handeling tire on wet / dry winter roads then the Blizzaks my friends have on their cars. The random patches of black ice on the hills are what get you into trouble here.