Well, we got our first real snow here in Ohio this weekend. Over a foot fell late Friday night, and was followed intermittent freezing rain throughout the day on Saturday. This was my first real chance to see how my A4 handled the snow, so I was looking forward to it, with some hesitation. I've put off buying snow tires, and am still running the 17" Pirelli P7000SS's. I've heard bad things posted here about their snow handling abilities.<br>I didn't have any problems with them, however, and I was very impressed with the way quattro handled the snow. I was up early in the morning. My GF had to go to work, and I didn't want her driving her FWD Nissan through the unplowed streets, so I went to pick her up. It was just me and some SUV's (not even any plows) out there, but I had no problem negotiating the streets. I just drove very slowly and cautiously, and was fine. I noticed some "floatiness" when the snow was particularly deeper, part of which I attribute to the A4's low ground clearance, and the other to the relatively wide tires I have. But no real problems as long as I didn't try to exceed caution.<br>I posted last week about noticing some unstableness in light snow when accelerating, but I didn't have any problems with that this weekend.<br>The only time I was stuck was when a plow came behind my parked car and left a pile of packed snow higher than my bumper behind me. The ground under my wheels was all ice, and I couldn't get the traction to push through the snow, so all four wheel were spinning. But, I kicked some of the snow down, and it was fine.<br>Other than that, my 1.8TQM handled the snow incredibly well! I was nervous being out seeing other people (a guy in a red camaro comes to mind) who were sliding all over the place. But it was reassuring to know that I could point my car in the direction I wanted to go, and it would go that way without problem.<p>I'd be interested to hear what other people's experience in the snow was like.<p>Miles<br>

I ran the p7000ss all last winter here in the Northeast and found them to be much better than reported by some. I think this board is now full of drivers with limited experience, both with cars and driving. Opinions run rampent, and many times I read comments like " my friend had those and..." this is not a valid method of testing. pirelli has won several Monte Carlo Rally's on these tires, and snow is part of the mix! Even the stock tires are not as bad as most people say. Does any one really think Audi spends all that time developing a cars suspension, then puts on the worst tires they can find (please save me the "big Corp. consperacy" bull), even though I agree the stock tires in general are for the average driver, I think the stock tires make good winter tires for most conditions.

Well, I'll probably get flamed for still having my Dunlop SP8000s on in this weather, but I haven't had time (and there hasn't been any snow till now) to get em changed. Suffice it to say my 1.8TQMS was the only car that got out of my street (where they haven't plowed yet) aside from some SUVs. There was some wheelspin, but in general the Quattro did an excellent job and I was out on the main streets (thankfully plowed) in no time.<p>As far as snow performance goes, well the SP8000s are not great as many of you know. But with some careful and defensive driving, I think one can get around without too much problem. I just leave myself lots of room in front of me, and take turns nice and slow (hard to do since I got the car you know...too much fun). I have noticed some drift that I would not expect even when I'm taking corners slowly, but it's still controllable. I don't drive very far to work every day, and I don't plan on taking my car to ski trips etc etc, so I think I just might be able to manage this winter without swapping em out...and the fact of the matter is, the streets get plowed pretty fast, so you don't have to worry too much...<p>I think in the end, using the SP8000Es reduces your margin for error by quite a bit, but if you're careful enough, you might just get by. For those who want total peace of mind and one wicked snow-capable car, go for some good snow tires and the A4 Q is unstoppable.<p>No flames please, this is just my opinion and who knows, I may yet get some snows.<p>Cheers,<br>-Ash 98.5 Silver 1.8TQMS w/ stock SP8000Es - not so bad in city driving with snow.

I didn't realize it would generate so much tire-specific discussion, but I'm enjoying reading it all!<p>Miles

Hi,<br>I took out the car on Sunday morning on to the back & side-streets of Oak Park, IL for some FUN..!!. As you had done, I cautiously drove it around and I must say I was impressed with the control I had on the car. It was also fun notice the bewildered looks of my neighbours when I was driving through what seemed to be accessible by SUVs..!!!. Oh yes...my wife was mad at me as I took over two hours (15 min actual shooping & 2 hrs of AWD driving..)just to do a grocery errand..!!!!<p>Regards<br>Kandiah<br>97 A4QM with Stock (Goodyear) tires

drove 75 miles on ice & snow saturday night on the oe tires with sports suspension. no real difficulties although i kept it slow(35-50 mph) 1.8tqm 1998

Opps..I should have posted this here.<br>Snow Storm Update. The last couple of days have been a lot of fun cruising around watching the front wheels drives going somewhere very slowely and especially seeing the rear wheel drive SUVS getting stuck. Ha!!!. Cruising through 8 to 10 inches of powder with not even a hint of a problem felt like I was snow skiing in my car. Getting to streets that have been untouched and blasting through drifts - what a blast. I guess after the snow/ice melts I will make it back up to around 20 MPG. It's really hard not to stand on it when all you have to do is point and go. This is my second year in the winter with this car and I forgot just how great this thing is. My Quattro Avant rules !!!<br>I spent about 3 hours just driving around at the start and during the storm. Now it sucks because it is like ice mountains anywhere snow has been plowed and all the side streets have 3 - 4 inches of solid ice. The part about this that sucks is that now I have to really watch out for the others on the ice sliding into me. I'm fine alone.<p>Dave K<br>98.0 Avant 2.8 QT Powerslider/ Skier/ F1 wannabe<br>

Yes, snow tires (or even all-seasons) would be better, but I had no difficulty getting around in the 10 inches of snow that fell here over the weekend.<p>I saw several people with fwd or rwd who were spinning their wheels (I don't know what kind of tires they had), whereas I didn't have a hint of slippage. The ABS did activate several times, but given my mile-and-a-half commute to work, I never felt unsafe with the 8000s.<p>Eventually, I'll put all-seasons on the car, but it's good to know I probably won't get stuck even without them.

I use the P7000 SS's on my 94 911 Carrera 4 and they work great. I did some brake tests with my 911 and my A4 1.8Tq. Braking was virtually the same in both cars from 30mph. The A4 has the RS-A's by the way. Driving the 911 C4 (Porsche's quattro) around in 10 inches of snow gets some pretty odd stares from other drivers, like what the fluck are you doing driving that car. This morning was typical, guy in a Ford Explorer pulls up next to me at a red light looks down at the 911 and starts laughing and talking to his passenger. Light turns green and he tries to accelerate as fast as possible but all he does is eat my snow! Enjoy the AWD!<p>Regards,<br>George<br>97 1.8TqAS TAPII<br>94 911 Carrera 4 Autothority chip/K&N cone

Quattro rules! My chipped 98.5 1.8TMS (w/filter and exhaust) will not even spin a tire in the snow if you floor it second gear. What an incredible feeling! <p>With the addition of the K04 turbo this car has to be the best all weather performer. (except for maybe an S4 or S6)

We had about a dozen inches of snow in the St. Louis area, providing a great opportunity to check out my Guardex tires on 15" wheels. (We didn't get more than few flakes last year.) With a lowered car, ground clearance was an issue at times but traction was excellent!

This is the second winter I've had my 97 A4 2.8 with the SP 8000 (and first really big snow). I agree that the SP 8000 are definitely manageable in snow as long as you drive carefully. Where I had room for error, I attempted some higher speed turns and noticed that although the car drifted substantially, it almost immediately straightened itself out and self corrected in situations where I believe a FWD or RWD car would have spun out completely. Also, with the caveat that I was sure to leave plenty of room, I had no problem stopping, as witnessed by the fact that my ABS did not activate once.

This is the second winter I've had my 97 A4 2.8 with the SP 8000 (and first really big snow). I agree that the SP 8000 are definitely manageable in snow as long as you drive carefully. Where I had room for error, I attempted some higher speed turns and noticed that although the car drifted substantially, it almost immediately straightened itself out and self corrected in situations where I believe a FWD or RWD car would have spun out completely. Also, with the caveat that I was sure to leave plenty of room, I had no problem stopping, as witnessed by the fact that my ABS did not activate once.

I live in Oak Park, across from Bye school. Isn't this weather awful? Last time I drove in such bad weather was in January of 96. I was driving to Florida and my route of travel was conveniently hit by a big snow storm. It was truly awful driving. You couldn't see the road, going a safe 40 mph in the right lane with trucks flying by me. After 8 hours of that I was drained. Needless to say, I have a bad taste in my mouth when it comes to driving in the snow. I ventured out in my 93 Prelude today for the first time. I'm home from Purdue for break. The Prelude actually does quite well in the packed stuff. Still sucks though, people don't want to slow down and the streets are narrower than usual. Supposed to get down to negative 15 tonight, ouch!