westendtoronto

What do you mean what size? They are 18"!

(As you can tell I'm not a real tire guy.)

I can go out and take a look. They are Pirelli's and real nice.

The dealership took the step of removing the performance tires and yeah they tout themselves as having a lot of inventory of both cars and parts, best in the land. I guess that extends to all season tires.

westendtoronto

225/40 R18 ...

They are Pirelli "PZero Nero"

zac1978

Congrats btw!

I think the best thing to do, is keep the 18" summer wheels and tires and buy a set of 17" snow tires. There are a few advantages to this. Longer life of of both sets as you only use them half the time each. Performance, the is no sense buying a great handling car and handicaping it with less than ideal tires. You spent a lot of money on a great car....make sure you reap the benefit!! All seasons are a compromise, they are neither brilliant in the dry or in snow....whats the point!! You'll save a couple thousand but getting all-seasons but its a false economy in my view. Besides below certain temps All seasons are about as useless as summers!

Also, don't over rev the car from cold, or just before you come to a stop and turn the engine off. The turbo needs oil and to be up to temp before you do any excessive reving! Use sunoco or petro canada gas...pref 93 sunoco. You'll get 10% better mileage and a few extra bhp. Dont be affraid to let'er rip every now and then....she likes it

Have fun.

westendtoronto

Thanks zac!

Yep I've heard all those arguments. But for my purposes, I'm not one for hassles, and as far as these particular tires not being good in snow and ice, nothing could be farther from the truth. For my needs in Southern Ontario it just seems that the combination of the great quattro system and the other handling attributes, and my superior driving in snow skills plus these tires, are more than enough to handle the slick surfaces.

I'll get a little less performance in the summer, but also as you say save a few dollars.

For me with a lease that is only for 3.5 yrs, I expect I'll just own and think about one set of tires.

If I believed in that no-compromise BS I would have built a nice heated garage and bought a Porsche

This is great advice, thanks. Luckily winter is drawing to a close here! Based on what they were saying in the Audi book I was going to be going with 91 octane at least (I think I went with the middle pump first time out at Esso, which is what, 89). Does anyone else feel that 93 is optimal? I've never had a car that really craved that Sunoco stuff. My dad used to love it in the 1970's before he got cheap in the 1980's

And yeah I credit the happy long life of my previous car to letting her rip on the highway. These cars don't do as well if you drive them at 95 km/h indefinitely

Clyde

I also will have only one set of tires, I've been looking at Michelin Pilot A/S's, but the price isn't very friendly-$300 plus! The car arrived last week and I've since been shopping for tires, the dealer suggested Dunlops, $500 to swap, still debating that one, thinking there are better options. As an aside, I drove a 2009 A4 service loaner (think Buick) on an incredibly wintery day in Calgary 2 weeks ago and found it to be unbelievably unstable and lacking traction compared to our A4. The service manager seems to think it's the Goodyear tires used now compared to the Continentals. If I had that rubber, it would be gone in a flash.