Hey guys, My buddies and I are planning a trio to Mammoth CA this winter for a snowboarding trip. Im planning on driving my Audi A8L 4.2 quattro up there. The roads might be pretty icy up there so i was wondering if it would be safe to take that car up the mountains on icy roads. Also do I need chains? will the quattro be able to handle the ice and snow?

the other option for transportation is a chevy avalance 2 wheel drive. the problem with that is that the tires are pretty worn out and hes not planning on changing them any time soon.
does anybody have an opinion or some helpful info in this matter?

 

its a quattro, youll be fine, 2wd<quattro...the avalanche with bad tire will get you killed, i crashed my montero on wet roads with bad tires......now im car less....

 

as long as you don't make any sudden, abrupt control inputs (gas/brake/steering) you should do fine with quattro and decent tires. All-Season tires work best, in my experience. Pure snow tires sack bulls when you're NOT driving in snow. Quattro will get you safely through. For sheet ice, nothing, and I mean NOTHING short of an actual tank will help. If you do encounter sheet ice, drive as if you have a raw-egg between you and each of the control surfaces (steering wheel/gas pedal/brake pedal), and drive as if you don't want to break ANY of them. Otherwise, you'll end up braking something much more expensive than eggs...

Don't let ANYBODY talk/goad/push you into driving faster than you are comfortable with and you will survive.

SUV's are NOT inherently better, simply because they are SUV's. Bald tires are BAD, regardless of what type of vehicle they are mounted on. All-Wheel-Drive (i.e. Quattro and other types of systems) will out-perform 2WD (FWD or RWD) in inclement weather/slippery driving conditions 99/100 times, all else being equal.