girlroad

I tried to go into to town to get medicine and juice for my granddaughter who isn't feeling well so that my daughter didn't have to get out with two kids...her husband just left for work out of town (he works on wind turbine towers) and it was starting to rain...they had predicted freezing rain all day, but it didn't come...until just about an hour ago...the driveway was frozen, but that is pretty common....I thought I had a half hour to make the round trip before it got too slick...WRONG!! I got out on the blacktop county highway and it looked slick, but not really like black ice...WRONG again...no one behind me so at the bottom of the hill I tried the brakes...nothing...nothing stopped this thing except its shear weight and all the Audi quattro nannies working together...stopped straight though...scary business as I thought maybe I could still make it and went to the first road to turn into town and couldn't make the corner...took the gravel adjacent and turned around for home...everyone that I met going the other way was thinking the same thing..."you stay on your side, I'll stay on mine"...my only thought was that I might get some better traction from the shoulder, but the rain was making it pretty icy too...then I was worried I would over shoot the driveway and end up in my own ditch <there would be some really bad karma associated with that I am sure>...then my next worry was sliding into the garage door...home safe and sound due to the allroad...God I LOVE THIS CAR!!!
Moral of the story...do not drive on black ice no matter what vehicle you have

HR-ALL

Glad you made it. Lets hope your granddaughter gets better soon.

gragravar

now you know why I bought studded winter tires for the rover.

glad you made it home safe.

I have as of yet been unable to get these sideways no mater what the conditions:
<img src="http://1strule.org/62/hakkas_disco.jpg">

girlroad

This was the only time I've felt the back end and the front end slip at the same time
Now I now why you didn't have to stop last time you were through...those are serious winter tires.

Sarge

However, the best non-studded tires outperform studs on anything other than polished (hard) ice. In those cases, the sipes do a better job than the studs (more surface area, with pressure to cut - ice = insufficient pressure 'psi' to cut, via rubber alone)

<b>If you really want to have fun</b>, try driving a car in early evening traffic that goes into limp mode while climbing a very twisty two lane 10% grade 2200' pass (6200 to 8400 ft elevation, and back down) with no shoulder and snow banks from 8' to 40' in the DARK! Here's the fun part - to regain power to climb the grade (i.e. get it out of limp mode and restore ESP/ABS/Suspension)<u> you have to recycle the ignition 3 times, which kills the headlights not once but TWICE (EACH TIME) and you have to leave it off just long enough (lights off) to let the electronics reboot themselves. </u>

On this stretch of road, you cannot pull off, turn around, or stop. None of the normal safe options are available. The only choice is to get it moving on the fly, or put yourself and others at a VERY high risk for a serious accident (the snow banks are now so high that you can barely even see reflections of headlights coming around some corners, much less any other parts of a car).

HOLY $%*# that was the most dangerous, unnerving automotive experience of my LIFE. Oncoming traffic, blinding lights, impatient people trying to pass on 2 lane road, etc. with NO FREAKING HEADLIGHTS. #@(^!

Did I mention it's the 'polished' variety of ice? Yeah. Nice...

<b>Thanks ASP, Mark Slazak, et al, for nearly killing me tonight.</b> (Any number of abhorrent expletives can be appropriately inserted here).

Until now, I never realized the car turns off the headlights when you recycle the ignition. Suffice to say I won't try to leave home via Teton Pass, or return, after dark, in my Autospeed allroad ever again.

drivingforever

Drove around tonight in the freezing rain. Can't believe I put 200 miles on. I agree, I love this car!


<a href="http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b135/FrameRotBlues/Audi%20Allroad/?action=view&current=IMG_3059.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b135/FrameRotBlues/Audi%20Allroad/IMG_3059.jpg" border="0" alt="Grille"></a>

<a href="http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b135/FrameRotBlues/Audi%20Allroad/?action=view&current=IMG_3062.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b135/FrameRotBlues/Audi%20Allroad/IMG_3062.jpg" border="0" alt="Stalagmites!"></a>

<a href="http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b135/FrameRotBlues/Audi%20Allroad/?action=view&current=IMG_3060.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b135/FrameRotBlues/Audi%20Allroad/IMG_3060.jpg" border="0" alt="Yeah"></a>

2002ar

Sounds like you had a scary ride. I'll remember not to do business with ASP. Hope you get this all sorted out. The Audi service dept in Idaho Falls has treated me well; you might consider taking your car there.

Sarge

The warm front we had last week, followed by this high pressure sure made a mess of the roads!

Usually I enjoy driving on snowy, even icy roads, but not in the dark with no headlights!

2002ar

They've treated us well, with reasonable prices. Don't know the mech's.