Quattro handling

[belly buster]

After a life of front wheel drive cars, I am now in my first 4WD.

During normal driving, there isn't noticeably much difference; a blast away from the lights does provides a much more assured take-off.

However in slightly more extreme conditions, i.e. a snappy turn out of a junction, I was very surprised by the handling. In FWD you may get a bit of understeer and maybe a bit of wheelspin - that I'm used to. In the quattro it seems to behave very differently, but the characteristics are hard to describe.

I would be interested if any long term Quattro owners have any top tips regarding handling to be aware of.

[Guest 2]

no real issues, send the car into a roundabout at speed and it will grip and grip no matter how much pedal you give it. very good control in the snow, even with 255 wide summer tyres, winters + quattro is the ideal solution. very fun doing snow drifts too with the esp off, mega mega fun :approve:

you will however chew tyres quicker than a fwd car, it will destroy cheap rubber so splash out on a good set of Michelin's which have just been removed from my 3.0 TDi quattro C6 after 37k miles, that wasn't driving like miss daisy either.

btw, quattro has a small q ;)

[daycartes]

quattro plus tiptronic = fantastic getaways when turning right out of a t junction, just steer and put your foot down. Really miss that in my manual fwd. Never bothered with winter tyres, half worn michelins were fine. Drove 10 miles on ice and left a Land rover in my wake, but most pleasing was driving south through the lake district to windemere and overtaking (all other traffic was static) everything in sight and leaving so many bee ems at the side of the road. If I had the money I'd be at the dealership right now.

[Passatier3]

And me for an RS6! :D

[ukgroucho]

Generally you get a lot less understeer with quattro than you do with a FWD configuration - and a lot less understeer than with a RWD. They are not entirely 'neutral' - there is some understeer if you corner very hard without enough power, but if you get your foot down they will generally break free into a 4 wheel 'drift' that you can balance on the throttle. You have to be pushing very hard for this to happen but it is all pretty controllable. I'd certainly not recommend trying to drive like this on public roads too much but it's an interesting thing to try on a big empty roundabout if you have plenty of space to try it safely, simply so that you understand the limits.

With regards to driving in snow. There is an 'odd' behavior that you need to be aware off - and cautious about.
Quattro, even on 'summer' tires, seems to be able to find loads of grip and will get going where other 2 wheel drive cars are struggling. This tends to instill a lot of confidence but, not surprisingly, the ability to STOP is no better than 2 wheel drive cars. You need to be cautious in snow until you get to grips with this - yes you can get going in very slippery conditions, which means you can build up speed where other cars can't - but you will need to read ahead a long way in order to give yourself chance to slow down.

That's one of the reasons I just went down the winter wheels and tires route - my old A6 C6 Avant 3.0 TDi quattro was really good in the bad snow we had a few years back. I remember driving around a supermarket car park and watching a C6 A6 2.7 TDi avant with FWD struggle to pull out of a parking space on a really modest gradient. My old A6 never had an issue. However, it did scare me a couple of times when it came to stopping in snow.

[retired99]

Prior to my Allroad BiTurbo I owned a BMW 535D (F11). When I sold that I drove an A6 S Line 2.0 litre front wheel drive for about a month prior to the arrival of the Allroad.

Taking the BMW first; as long as it was dry and the road not too bumpy (rules out a lot of the UK!) great fun to drive, neutral up to quite a high cornering speed then would begin to understeer which could be managed with throttle and turned to oversteer if the electronics were disabled. Very responsive to steering and throttle inputs. Tried this on a track with big run offs so no danger of bending the metal. In the wet the traction from 2wd was all too easily overcome by the power. On public roads this meant being careful with T junctions, exiting roundabouts and being cautious with the throttle when going for an overtake in second or even third gear, esp on bumpy roads. Ride quality dismal, main reason for getting rid of it. Steering quite communicative, you could feel what was going on through the steering. Great fun on dry roads.


Audi 2.0 S line.
Only driven on public roads so not pushed to see what would happen at higher cornering speeds. Wet T junctions saw wheelspin if a quick start was attempted. As far as I pushed it on the road it seemed neutral up to quite a high cornering speed when I thought I could detect the onset of understeer. Little communication from the steering. I thought the ride was firm but quite acceptable. Didn’t really encourage you to drive enthusiastically.

Allroad.
Again only driven on public roads, some in Germany so have some high speed experience. Traction wet or dry is, as you would expect, impressive. Stability on German autobahns well into 3 figures is really good. Runs straight even on bumpy surfaces and corners ( not bends on Autobahns at speed) in a confidence inspiring fashion. Corners pretty neutrally up to high cornering speed and then understeer sets in. Ability to drive hard out of corners, wet or dry, is excellent. All good stuff, but the steering is almost totally inert, feels like a video game controller without feedback. Worse than the 2WD A6. Air suspension gives more or less whatever ride your mood requires.

If you want a car which is communicative and fun to drive fast then I suspect that an A6 is not the answer, possibly excluding S6/RS6. However, if you want a fast car which can transport 4 people and their luggage over long distances in comfort in a wide variety of weather conditions and over both good and bad roads then the A6 Allroad, esp in Biturbo guise, is an excellent choice.

I’m deeply impressed by my car and even if funds were unlimited, which they’re not, the only other car I’d consider is a Panamerica. Or maybe a 4wd BMW 5 series if they ever produce a RHD version and sort the ride quality out,but it would have to be pretty damn good to be better than the Allroad..

[daycartes]

With regards to driving in snow..., the ability to STOP is no better than 2 wheel drive cars. You need to be cautious in snow until you get to grips with this - yes you can get going in very slippery conditions, which means you can build up speed where other cars can't - but you will need to read ahead a long way in order to give yourself chance to slow down.

.

Without disagreeing too much on this I quickly found that this is where the paddles (of the tiptronic) come into their own. I found that I could change down quite freely to slow the car down, so much so that I didn't need to use the brakes. Obviously you do need to read a long way ahead as UKgroucho states, but in an expensive car this should be de rigeur.
I'm already hoping for not too much snow this year as pulling a caravan with 2WD could be fun. Not.

[ScottyA6]

My last car was a Jag XF Diesel S and that drives up to silly ingoing speeds pretty much neutral with pin sharp steering then mainly mild understeer which with the electronic nanny on was cleaned up for you but when switched off you could hang the back out very easily and catch without too much trouble or talent. It did Aquaplane too easily on the outside lane of the motorway but it is on big wide 20's so the laws of physics were probably to blame there.

My D3 A8 was Neutral/mild understeer with a lot less feel in the steering than the Jag but you could push that big car pretty much as hard as you liked and it never bit back. In the white weather the A8 was never stopped once (in North Yorkshire), in that regard Quattro was amazing. A couple of flakes on the ground and the Jag is pretty much a static exhibit.

I last drove a C7 in April this year (test drive for the weekend) and there was a fair accumulation of snow down in Dalby when I took it up there. It walked up the hill and I parked it on sheet ice. No issues detected, there or back !

[belly buster]

Just spotted this old thread and thought I would provide an update.

The quattro handling is/was very different to the 2WD I had previously been used to. But now I have got used to it, I have to say it is just so absolutely brilliant in every driving situation once you have got used to the car and used to difference.

[zollaf]

couldn't agree more. grip grip grip :)

[Doctle Odd]

Even the old 1.9 TDi with the AFN engine was a great car in winter. Bit hard to get a decent one now