Winter tyres or quatro - Proof of which is best

[carl-1968]

Read this with interest as Im about to dive into a quattro conversion on my A4 Tdi (never offered in quattro). I found 2wd just adequate in the recent cold snap but tried a friends A6 Quattro and it had no problems at all as he has a set of summer and winter wheels with propper tyres.

Anyone breaking An A4 B6/7, 3.0 quattro with a manual gearbox please get in touch
Thanks

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[cornwallman]

Interesting test. I didn't appreciate that there was a difference between the kind of 4wd on the Skoda (Haldex) and the Audi (Torsen?) Is a Subaru the same as the Audi out of interest?
We got a set of Vredstein Snowtrac 3s for my wife's VW Touran 2 yrs ago, and they have been fantastic. Terrific grip in the wet and muddy roads, and very good in the snow recently. It was able to get up hills that all other 2wds on school run couldn't do.

I have a 2009 2.0 T Avant Quattro, currently on P zeros, but have ordered some Vredstein Wintrac Extreme tyres for replacements. I don't do enough mileage to justify switching for the summer, so hope to keep them on all year round

[OddBallBoy]

Quattro is seemingly better for traction, not getting stuck in the first place, but I think cornering and braking are a tad more important in the snow.
And Adamss24 - whilst I agree the haldex system would be unlikely to perform as well as a permanent 4x4 set up, a 4 wheel drive car still usually has a propensity towards understeer so I would expect a two wheel drive on winter tyres to still out perform a permanent four wheel drive on summers in cornering and braking in snowy conditions.
Four wheel drive and winters is obviously the ideal though!