The Beast from the East has given us over 7” of snow, but the A3 has coped without any problems. Traction has been incredible so far in fresh snow. Hopefully it will still be good if it turns to ice.

Nice one Phil glad you're still getting around :) I've been naughty and not even brought the a6 out in this weather. My daily has coped alright though. 

Make it 0-2 to the Quattro's

First time in 10 years we have had snow down here, on the generally sunny south coast. so everyone was not sure how to drive in these conditions

This is the first time I have driven mine in snow and going up hills it was superb.

Left the white Van man and his spinning wheels well behind.

Any hill it came too, down into second and straight up the hill the car went.

Quattro everytime for me now.

Nice one Graham :) glad you've managed to get through the snow ok :) 

I have quattro and a new set of Continental WinterContact TS860 tyres and the car was slipping about quite a bit. It did go and stop but seemed to be sliding a little sideways when going round bends etc. Kind of twitchy.

Expected better from it. I have a Skoda VRS (FWD) with TS850 winters all round too and it amazing.

The only thing I can think of is that this is very different very powdery snow rather than the usual wet "sticky" snow.

I haven't driven the VRS in this snow but the wife was absolutely confident when she drove it.

I haven't tried the A3 on hills yet to test it further. Was quite wary about it so avoided Them but I want to try it now to hopefully get more confidence in it.

 

After two bad winters I bought a Tiguan and then an X1, but haven’t really had enough snow to see how they would cope. I was not sure how well the A3 would manage on the standard tyres but I needn’t have worried. We have had three days of dry, powdery snow here. The only time I’m a bit nervous is when braking as the ABS cuts in. With a manual you can change down before braking, but with the DSG it’s not so easy. It still stops OK but not without a little drama.

Despite dsg being a great gearbox I don't think any auto is good in the snow. They just can't predict what gear and conditions like we humans can. 

On 01/03/2018 at 10:38 PM, Fatbloke said:

I have quattro and a new set of Continental WinterContact TS860 tyres and the car was slipping about quite a bit. It did go and stop but seemed to be sliding a little sideways when going round bends etc. Kind of twitchy.

Expected better from it. I have a Skoda VRS (FWD) with TS850 winters all round too and it amazing.

The only thing I can think of is that this is very different very powdery snow rather than the usual wet "sticky" snow.

I haven't driven the VRS in this snow but the wife was absolutely confident when she drove it.

I haven't tried the A3 on hills yet to test it further. Was quite wary about it so avoided Them but I want to try it now to hopefully get more confidence in it.

 

Still not tried on the hills yet and it's still sliding about into ruts on hard packed icy snow but after seeing other cars just sitting spinning today (and having to shove them to get them going) and me having no trouble whatsoever, I am getting much more confident in the winter tyre / quattro combination. No probs going or stopping and just need to take a bit of care on the corners as normally required.

I have a front wheel drive A3 with Avon WV7 winter tyres (back on summer tyres now) and laughed at all the snow too.