TJay74

None of those tires stand out as a true high performance summer only tire. The Bridgestone Potenza RE-11, Michelin Pilot Super Sport and several others are way better options if you are after a true summer only high performance tire.

A6forMoi

Was wondering the same, although I can see the difference between a pure sports car (maximize performance) and a sporty utility vehicle. The advantage of all season is at least during shoulder seasons (varies by locale of course) you don't need to worry on that frosty November (or April) morning that you haven't swapped out for winter tires yet. If the compromise in performance isn't that great (and a Q5 is probably pushing tire performance less than, say, an RS6) the sacrifice may be limited.

But it's a good question.

tigers7

we have unpredictable winter here in CNY, we got snow in May and we can expect it early October too, instead of taking chances i prefer all season over summer.

MP4.2+6.0

+1. I don't think the tires are not the limiting factor on Q5's. Drove it to the limiter max on the Autobahnen w/ the original 235 55 19's. It was not that comfortable past 115. Besides the wind buffeting and related hood vibration, it felt tippy on even modest curves once pushed way up there. Net I would call the ride height, sway bar set up and/or suspension stiffness the greater constraints. If it was in the aspect ratio of the tires in any material way (didn't feel like it), I dealt with that in switch to 20's. Having switched to 20's and found ride harshness increased noticeably, if anything I would now prefer a quality A/S just to tone it down a bit. 20 summers are also noisier than the 19's A/S were. Maybe both the compound and the inch or so greater tread width.

When I get there wear wise, next choice will be a performance A/S that can cross to shoulder season snow. Deciding when to pull dedicated winters is always a question, and those are noisier and wear fast on dry payment. Just went through it literally two days ago where chanced a Tahoe trip with some minor snow reported at summit with the winters. Turned out to be conservative forecast mostly, but prefer not to sweat it.

Net, it's not a performance sedan or coupe no matter the wishful thinking. COG is way too high for that, let alone the overly porky weight and engine hung way out front almost all Audi's are saddled with these days.

canon_mutant

And, again, suggesting dedicated summer/winter tires was only just food for thought but 2 things:

1) Even though the stock Goodyear Excellence tires don't have a great reputation [which I still don't understand??], our summer tires are NOT noisier than the A/S they replaced. On the contrary, they are much quieter.
2) Yes, the Q5 isn't a R8 [duh] but they handle amazingly well for a SUV especially when they have appropriate shoes on.

tigers7

Went with pirelli scorpion all season plus and they are very quiet and better than stock conti.
Thank you all!

dassq5

My vote is for the Conti ExtremeContact DWS06. Very high ratings from the Tire Rack in the Ultra High Performance Category. Will serve you well in summer yet have enough wet and snowy weather performance to handle the transition to/from winter tires.

I have them on my SQ5 and highly recommend them.

BlackSVT

I have to second this. I'm at ~10k miles on my DWS06s, and am still very pleased

TJay74

If I was going with a Summer only it would have been the Michelin tires or the new Nitto 555 G2. We are going to give the Conti DSW06 a try on a set of forged TSW Geneva wheels in the coming months.


That is unless I can find a set of the stock Audi 20" SQ5 wheels.