tire suggestion

[SKIQUATTRO]

Car: 2002 Audi A4 Quattro, 5 speed, sport suspension
Current Rubber: Conti Xtreme Contact
Location: Long Island, NY
Occasional trips north with the Audi, usually will be in the Volvo

down to the warning bar....wondering if i should get a set of winter tires and a set of summer or go with the Contis again...was a great tire

 

[Geoff]

Car: 2002 Audi A4 Quattro, 5 speed, sport suspension
Current Rubber: Conti Xtreme Contact
Location: Long Island, NY
Occasional trips north with the Audi, usually will be in the Volvo

down to the warning bar....wondering if i should get a set of winter tires and a set of summer or go with the Contis again...was a great tire

If you are driving on snow and you can afford them, you want snow tires. Nokian has the best tread life.

Nokian Hakkapeliitta R is their best studless snow tire. You will get excellent snow and black ice performance
http://www.nokiantires.com/tyre?id=11949&group=1.01&name=Nokian+Hakkapeliitta+R

The Nokian WRG2 is an all season tire with good snow and black ice performance. For your location and use, it would be a good compromise. Way better in snow and black ice than your stock tires. You'll hate them in the summer compared to a performance tire.
http://www.nokiantires.com/tyre?id=11899&group=1.01&name=Nokian+WRG2

I run Bridgestone Blizzak WS-60's on my VW GTI. I got a tire+alloy wheel+tire pressure monitoring system drop-shipped from TireRack.com for $1K. On Long Island, that's probably overkill since you're mostly on dry roads.

 

[Marc]

WS-60's will squirm a lot and will feel very loose on a car with good suspension. Actually... I might be thinking of the WS-50... but at any rate

I had Dulop Wintersport M3's on my S4... can't recommend them highly enough. Good dry performance esp for a winter tire... great snow performance. I had lots of drives plowing snow with the bumper of the S4 uphill, no problem. And way cheaper than Michelin Alpins...

 

[snoseek]

I prefer the ghetto line. I thnik they are called snowtrackers and sold at Sam's club for like 50 a tire installed. They pull my little shitbox over Berthoud or LL pass in any condtions like a champ. This is my third winter on them but I too am looking to replace soon. You laugh but they are damn cheap and effective.

 

[Marc]

I prefer the ghetto line. I thnik they are called snowtrackers and sold at Sam's club for like 50 a tire installed. They pull my little shitbox over Berthoud or LL pass in any condtions like a champ. This is my third winter on them but I too am looking to replace soon. You laugh but they are damn cheap and effective.

Having driven both sports cars and shit boxes, and can say the "ghetto line" of winter tires will not come close to the dry performance of a Dunlop, Michelin or Blizzak and on SKIQUATTRO A4, it would be ridiculous to sacrifice dry handling for a slightly better deep snow performance, especially when the deep snow driving is 3% of the time and will be limited by ground clearance on an AWD, not the tire, as long as it is some kind of winter/snow tire.

 

[Geoff]

WS-60's will squirm a lot and will feel very loose on a car with good suspension. Actually... I might be thinking of the WS-50... but at any rate

I run WS-60's on cheap 16" alloy wheels. Compared to my performance summer tires on 18" rims, the Blizzaks feel like I have four gum erasers out there.

I usually only have my snow tires on for 4 months. I can live with the crappy handling for that long.

 

[Glenn]

The handling of snows and being in southern NE or New York makes it hard to justify snow tires. In and ideal world, we'd all have a lift in our garage and we'd swap the snows on when it was going to snow...or we're heading up north.

For what you're doing, I'd get a set of good all seasons. IMHO.

 

[deadheadskier]

FWIW

It can't snow much harder than what it is doing right now outside and I just got back from 10 mile round trip drive from the Grocery Store in what would be a killer snowmobiling trail instead of a state highway. I purchased a set of 17" Firestone Winterforce's delivered to me for $400 from Tire rack this fall. $40 for the mount and balance. During a snowstorm I would take the Hyundai that they're on over my Subaru that has decent All Seasons any day of the week and twice on Sunday. They work just fine on drive pavement as well.

 

[air0rmc]

Car: 2002 Audi A4 Quattro, 5 speed, sport suspension
Current Rubber: Conti Xtreme Contact
Location: Long Island, NY
Occasional trips north with the Audi, usually will be in the Volvo

down to the warning bar....wondering if i should get a set of winter tires and a set of summer or go with the Contis again...was a great tire

What size are your rims ? Or are you thinking whl/tire package ? Also I have ran conti extreme's on my 01 A4 and am wondering what you got for tread life with them.....thanx

 

[WWF-VT]

Another vote for Dunlop Wintersport M3's. 2001 Audi A6 wagon. Weekdays commuting car in the Boston area and every weekend drive to VT.