Most all season tires are not cut out for real winter weather despite the M+S (mud and snow) stampings on them. While these tires will be better suited for Winter than dedicated summer tires, they still lack the softer compounds found on real Winter tires and All-Weather Tires that feature the severe service winter tire designation. These tires are designed to perform even in temperatures below freezing and will offer significantly better braking, cornering, and acceleration performance.
Despite having Audi Quattro and modern technologies to assist with performance in harsh conditions, a true set of Winter tires will give the driver that much more confidence when the going gets rough. We went with a set of Pirelli Sottozero tires for this Allroad. These are high performance winter tires that sacrifice very little in dry and warm performance but have the special compounds that help it stick in freezing temperatures.
For the wheels, we went with the RTX Ingolstadt which is styled after an older Audi design. These will also take a factory Audi center cap for a more factory look. We think an alloy wheel is well worth the investment over steel wheels as the paint finish is typically superior and the lighter weight further improves fuel efficiency and performance. These wheels in particular are designed to take a factory lug bolt and are hubcentric so they are a direct fit.