I've been reading through my owners manual on the 2001 A6 2.8 quattro that I bought a few weeks ago and I got to the page on tire rotation and it is saying to only rotate tires from front to back and vice versa, keeping the tires on the same side of the car.

Is this really necessary? I've never heard this before on tire rotation, and I owned a '97 Nissan pickup and got over 100,000 miles on the origional Firestone tires. I rotated the tires in a clock wise direction (looking down on the car from above)around the car rotating throughthe full size spareon a fairly regular basis....so I guess the tires really only had over 80,000 miles on them each since the spare was rotated through.

 

Follow the manual, the Audi engineers know their cars and the Quattro system.

 

Forget about getting 80K miles on your tires with an Audi, unless you drive like a granny, 40K max is more like it.

 

It also depends on the tires. My Cooper Zeons have a rotational arrow so they must be swapped on the same side of the car. Based on wear, I expect ~50k miles out of them. I agree that you should follow the manual.

The original owner had Pirelli's and another soft summer-only tire. He also did some light towing. I bought the car with 36k and the original summer tires were badly cupped and had to be replaced before I could use them. The Coopers are rated for 40k miles and they are wearing well. The original Pirellis had to be replaced at 81k. So assuming he and Iused the tires 50/50, they had around 40k on them. I expect the same or maybe a little better out of the new Pirellis. I have them rotated every 4-5,000 miles. I change from winter to summer and back in lateApril and earlyNovember.

 

I think most H rated tires are directional. And even on my94Accord I have never rotatedtires from side to side. I don't think it would make any difference as the outside of the tire is still on the outside,unless you took them off the rimandturned the inside edge to the outside.
You have to really considerthe driving conditionsyou will face. If you buy sport tires,get 20k miles on them then hitsnow or slush you will be in a ditch.
I have 98 A6, non - quatro. I bought Dunlop Sport A2s. Goodvalue, ran good for 15k then crapped out. Medium sporty-ness.
I then bought Cooper Lifeliners. Good value, quiet, soft ride, good in rain snow and ice. Great for me, but if you drive hard they are a touring tire and will not work too well.
Cooper has a new tire to replace that one and it looks good.