Snow tires.....

[ricematthews]

(snip)
>relatively new, high quality "all season" tires and have NEVER >had the
>slightest bit of trouble.

The problem here is that "all season" doesn't necessarily mean "all
weather".  The current tires on my A4 are Dunlop D60 A2's.  These are
supposedly all season, but I nearly soiled myself in our only significant
snowfall of last winter.  These are apparently a notoriously bad tire for
snow.  I have always had decent luck in all weather conditions with BF
Goodrich Comp T/A HR-4's.  I have decided to go with high performance tires
for 3 seasons and snows for the winter.  This decision was really only
confirmed by last winter's experience as it was something I wanted to do
anyway.  My car came with the stock sport package, so I figured I'd do it
justice by running ZR tires as came from te factory.  I have a set of Plus 0
AVS Intermediates sitting in the garage awaiting mounting whenever these
Dunlops wear out.  I picked up a set of factory 16 inch sport wheels on Ebay
that I plan to use for my snow tires.

(snip)
>However, for someone who doesn't relish the thought of >driving in bad
>weather to begin with, and perhaps, is much older to boot, the >question
is:
>"What KIND of winter tires?"

I generally don't mind driving in snowy weather and at 35, I wouldn't call
myself "older", but last winter was an eye opener.
For anyone considering all season tires for snow and ice, I would recommend
that you do some research and look at the tread pattern.  My wife's Ovlov
S40 has some V Rated all season Continentals on it that appear to have a
tread pattern that should prove decent in the snow.  She never had a problem
in the limited snow that she drove the car in last winter.

The Nokian Hakka NRQ's (?) are supposedly an excellent all season/all
weather tire.  A bit pricey, but convenient if you want to run them all year
and true performance isn't your thing.

-Mark