[s-cars] Quattro.... there is no substitute

[Taka Mizutani]

I hate to sound like a Porsche ad, but there really is no substitute for
Quattro.

Today we received about 3" of ice and snow, with a nice slushy layer of snow
on top of the roads
and slick ice underneath. Not a good combination at all.

That said, I'd say these types of conditions are the most challenging, in
terms of traction,
kind of like loose gravel or mud.

With the V70R shod with Nokian WR, I can officially say that Haldex sucks
the big one.

I have not had issues with the car in fresh *snow* but this icy stuff has
the car completely
confounded.

Front drive starting off, then wheelspin and subsequent yaw, then DSTC tries
to get things under
control and with some countersteering and throttle inputs, it rights itself.
This cycle repeats over and
over with Haldex, because every time things get steady again, it reverts to
FWD. This totally sucks.

With the 5ktq on General Winterfire 195/65R15, I never had these issues.
With the 200q on Nokian NRW 225/45R17, I never had these issues.
With the A4q on Dunlop M2 205/55R16, I never had these issues.

All of the Audis were remarkably consistent in their responses- icy
conditions didn't cause the car to
freak out. Zero traction is zero traction, but when there is some traction,
having the car go from 100/0
to 50/50 or whatever, constantly changing radically, is really ridiculous.

I've had similar issues with Haldex on the Audi TT, so I really don't think
it's a Volvo-only problem.

Also, DSTC makes the car extremely difficult to drive- you can't initiate
any slides- the car wants to
perpetually understeer, makes it very difficult to turn on a really low
traction surface. Looks like I'll be
driving home with DSTC off (hit the button *7* times to turn it off!).

Taka
wanting an Audi again in a very bad way