Are Quattro Audis good in snow?
Discussion
Hello Audi owners!
I'm absolutely barking mad. Or am i.
One of the four cars in my stable needs replacing. It's a shagged out Vectra Estate. The roles it plays are:
Bad weather car - snow in particular. Not because it's good but because I don't care if I prang it.
Autumn holiday car - great for dealing with s
te roads in Cumbria, Cotswolds, Yorkshire etc.
Tip run car. Although tip running has now been transferred to the Nissan Leaf.
Long journey car that we don't want to use the sports cars for.
Run guests around car.
Mrs drive it to the rail station leave it all day car.
So I put in the following criteria to Autotrader. 4WD, Petrol, four plus seats, and, for a laugh and because we love convertible cars, I added Cabriolet.
Autotrader found:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...
Now I have to say this looks brilliant. Ticks every box. Clearly there is manthinking going on here but that looks like a fab daily IF
1) It's good once the traction gets nasty on snow, crud and crappy British winter road slime.
2) The cabrio luggage space in the boot isn't ridiculously small.
Any Audi owners on here? Am I bonkers or could that be a good idea?
I'm absolutely barking mad. Or am i.
One of the four cars in my stable needs replacing. It's a shagged out Vectra Estate. The roles it plays are:
Bad weather car - snow in particular. Not because it's good but because I don't care if I prang it.
Autumn holiday car - great for dealing with s
te roads in Cumbria, Cotswolds, Yorkshire etc.Tip run car. Although tip running has now been transferred to the Nissan Leaf.
Long journey car that we don't want to use the sports cars for.
Run guests around car.
Mrs drive it to the rail station leave it all day car.
So I put in the following criteria to Autotrader. 4WD, Petrol, four plus seats, and, for a laugh and because we love convertible cars, I added Cabriolet.
Autotrader found:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...
Now I have to say this looks brilliant. Ticks every box. Clearly there is manthinking going on here but that looks like a fab daily IF
1) It's good once the traction gets nasty on snow, crud and crappy British winter road slime.
2) The cabrio luggage space in the boot isn't ridiculously small.
Any Audi owners on here? Am I bonkers or could that be a good idea?
All depends on the tyres really.
4 wheel drive is only effective with your foot on the throttle. No other time. My Audis with quattro were crap in the snow, but marginally better than a front wheel drive car, which is better again than a rear wheel drive. However, a rear wheel drive car on snow tyres will be miles better than a quattro on summer tyres. But most important, as soon as your foot goes on the brake, it's like any other car on summer tyres. Unfortunately, most people with 4x4 don't realise that bit.
4 wheel drive is only effective with your foot on the throttle. No other time. My Audis with quattro were crap in the snow, but marginally better than a front wheel drive car, which is better again than a rear wheel drive. However, a rear wheel drive car on snow tyres will be miles better than a quattro on summer tyres. But most important, as soon as your foot goes on the brake, it's like any other car on summer tyres. Unfortunately, most people with 4x4 don't realise that bit.
I've got a 05 quattro Avant on Conti tyres. No one told me they weren't anything special on packed snow a few winters ago when I passed lots of 2wd stuff using the extra traction. Fortunately I didn't have to stop quickly though. I've also driven away from plenty of faster 2wd stuff on slippery twisty roads.
Edited by blade7 on Wednesday 10th August 19:21
fatboy b said:
All depends on the tyres really.
4 wheel drive is only effective with your foot on the throttle. No other time.
Agreed. 4 wheel drive is only effective with your foot on the throttle. No other time.
fatboy b said:
My Audis with quattro were crap in the snow, but marginally better than a front wheel drive car, which is better again than a rear wheel drive. However, a rear wheel drive car on snow tyres will be miles better than a quattro on summer tyres.
I'm really surprised at this. The quattros I've had – admittedly old style ones with lockable diffs and not this modern electronic stuff which is fundamentally quite different in operation – have pissed all over FWD or RWD in the snow , regardless of tyre type.fatboy b said:
But most important, as soon as your foot goes on the brake, it's like any other car on summer tyres. Unfortunately, most people with 4x4 don't realise that bit.
Agreed again... 
4-wheels are alway going to give more traction than 2. I can't comment on the driving experience as I've been driving Audi Quattros for years now, but I have certainly never had a problem with bad weather conditions. And as said above, my A4 Quattro did a great job in the bad snow a few years back, driving up hills that other cars were stuck on.
All this aside, and again, as said above - you still have to stop the thing. And Quattro adds nothing to this experience ; )
All this aside, and again, as said above - you still have to stop the thing. And Quattro adds nothing to this experience ; )
I had a Quattro A3 Sportsback for 4 years and it snowed HEAVY twice. I had a RRS at the time as well so using that gave the wife an excuse to not go into the office on a couple of days, but I did like taking the A3 out for one very good reason in the snow.......it driffted perfectly around the roundabouts and gave more smiles per miles than the steadfast RRS.
I did notice that it used to go slightly at an angle in the snow on straight roads but driving past the rest of my team who had opted for BMW 3 and 5 series at the time on the hill into our office was awesome...
I did notice that it used to go slightly at an angle in the snow on straight roads but driving past the rest of my team who had opted for BMW 3 and 5 series at the time on the hill into our office was awesome...
LeoSayer said:
In my experience (A6 Quattro) on summer tyres it's was good for getting going and good for slowing down using engine braking but cornering and braking are no better than any other car.
But on winter tyres my 993 would leave it for dead and I'd feel much safer doing it.
How about winters on the A6 and summers on the 993...But on winter tyres my 993 would leave it for dead and I'd feel much safer doing it.
CoolCurly said:
I did notice that it used to go slightly at an angle in the snow on straight roads but driving past the rest of my team who had opted for BMW 3 and 5 series at the time on the hill into our office was awesome...
RWD on summer tyres in the snow = useless. I have two RWD sports cars that live on summer tyres. They just don't go out if it is snowy at all. BMWs tend to be daily cars rather than toys so you do see them in use in winter and if they're RWD on summer tyres it really isn't pretty however nice they may be in the dry.If we do the Audi it will likely be shod with all-season tyres. I'd best go check some reviews of those now...
Thanks for your comments, everyone.
fatboy b said:
All depends on the tyres really.
This + the driver.But generally in UK conditions decent winter tyres will make any car capable of dealing with whatever snow we've had.
Once you start getting proper amounts of snow it doesn't matter whether it's FWD, RWD or 4WD you have to know how to handle the car. I was in a ski resort last season when it started dumping during the day before they could clear it...utter carnage despite every single car being on snow tyres and most being 4wd. You could tell who the locals were....
I was under no illusions....despite my X5 having proper snow tyres it didn't move for a couple of days.
fatboy b said:
However, a rear wheel drive car on snow tyres will be miles better than a quattro on summer tyres. But most important, as soon as your foot goes on the brake, it's like any other car on summer tyres. Unfortunately, most people with 4x4 don't realise that bit.
That was my dilemma, which car will be better: Audi Quattro on summer tires or RWD on winter tyres. You solved it for me. I will put winter tyres on RWD just in case, when the time comes. Yertis said:
fatboy b said:
My Audis with quattro were crap in the snow, but marginally better than a front wheel drive car, which is better again than a rear wheel drive. However, a rear wheel drive car on snow tyres will be miles better than a quattro on summer tyres.
I'm really surprised at this. The quattros I've had – admittedly old style ones with lockable diffs and not this modern electronic stuff which is fundamentally quite different in operation – have pissed all over FWD or RWD in the snow , regardless of tyre type.Agree completely with the comments re: tyres and driver skill, and about 4WD making bugger all difference under braking (or sliding...).
I've got an A5 quattro, it's nearly as good in the snow (moving off anyway) as my old FWD A5 with winter tyres on. I've not tried it with the winter tyres on yet as I've only had it for 6 months. The wife had a S3 which was good in the snow but that had the Haldex system not the Torsion, so was predominantly front wheel drive.
I've had both B5 and B6 A4s and they were excellent in the snow.
I remember one occasion driving in to a car park on a steep hill in heavy snow - getting in (and up the hill) was easy, getting back out was tricky - I had to perform a series of zig zags to get down the hill lol.
As others have said, you still get 2 wheel drive braking, but engine braking can be better I found.
I remember one occasion driving in to a car park on a steep hill in heavy snow - getting in (and up the hill) was easy, getting back out was tricky - I had to perform a series of zig zags to get down the hill lol.
As others have said, you still get 2 wheel drive braking, but engine braking can be better I found.
blade7 said:
How about winters on the A6 and summers on the 993...
I never drove the A6 on winter tyres.Summers in snow on the 993 was an experience I don't want to repeat. Getting the car out of the garage was impossible without a run up due to camber of the kerb outside. Traction and braking were, I guess, 5% of of normal and any slope seem to reduce that to 1%.
It would have been fun in a deserted car park but not with kerbs and cars in close proximity.
LeoSayer said:
Summers in snow on the 993 was an experience I don't want to repeat. Getting the car out of the garage was impossible without a run up due to camber of the kerb outside. Traction and braking were, I guess, 5% of of normal and any slope seem to reduce that to 1%.
Getting our TVR Chimaera back from Basingstoke rail station in the snow was an interesting challenge. To get it up our drive I had to clear the drive of snow almost completely and then have two mates sit on the boot and/or push the damn thing. That's when we decided it would never go out on a day with the chance of snow ever again...Gassing Station | Audi, Seat, Skoda & VW | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff