Can snow tires help to stop you more quickly (than all-season)?

I never had a car that was 4WD, but every car I ever had seemed to have 4-wheel-braking.

 

I want to get 225/55 16" (winter) wheels for another car, and these wheels will fit just fine on my A4 Cabriolet. However, the standard tires on the A4 are 235/45 R17.

Could I use these tires/wheels on the A4, or is there really at all likely to be a problem with the teensy difference in diameter (I calculate it would raise the overall diameter of the wheel/tire by 0.4" (less than 1/2"). That's less than a quarter of an inch radial difference.

 

Snow tires do shorten stopping distances. Tire Rack use to have some video's, as well as the Canadian government on Youtube.

Also be careful using different size snow tires. If you blow a tire, your regular spare won't be the correct hight, possibly damaging the quattro system. The manual warns against mixing different size tires.

 

If you really wanna rip get studded winter tires. You can climb trees in those but not all states allow them. I had them on my subaru when I lived in Vermont. I am in Chicago now and have two sets of tires since I drive a lot. I just put my winter ones on and they are Hankook Ice Bears 17". They are pretty good but not the best you can get. It just depends how much you want to spend. Good luck

 

Talked to directly to Audi today. The Audi website showes the B7 package being equipped with 205/55 16's winter tires. The problem is that the tires are about a third of an inch less in height than the 235/45 17's on my car. They definately said that you should not use the 17 inch spare if you use the 16's the website recommends. Both the dealer and Audi told me to flatbed the car if I blew a tire or buy a 5th 16 as a spare. I don't want to deal with having to flatbed over a flat. I probably will just go with separate rims and stick with the 17 inch size I have. A narrower tire would be better, but damaging the quattro drive line is quite expensive. Supposidly a 215/55 16 inch tire is almost identical if not identical in height to the 17's I have.

 

wow. so after using the new conti extremecontact DWS on the audi, i must say, these tires suck on icy roads but they're good on snow. the tirerack review showed these tires are great on ice too and i believed it. the OEM pirelli 4 seasons P6 had bad tread wear because they were better all seasons (softer rubber). now i'm buying another set of tires for the audi...conti extremewintercontact. the extremewintercontacts work fabulously on the golf. even stopping on ice is done with more control.

 

So that's a couple of months now I've been driving the A4 with wheels for an A5, and all's well. I had even tested the suspension by loading the A4 trunk with concrete blocks (about 700lbs!) and clearance was still enough I could get my fingers between the tires and body.
This M.O. might not be for everyone (extreme drivers, e.g.), but once I sell the A4, I can use these winter tires on the A5 for which the tires are ideal.

 

I have a set of Blizzaks that I have put on in November and take off in April. This is the 2nd year for them and I will probably get another winter out of them. The stock tires were about as good as having 2 wheel drive. Now the only thing that will stop me is the height of the snow. When you push the snow up to the height of the headlights the car doesn't want to go anymore. Then I pull out the 350 4X4

 

i'm amazed how well the continental extremewintercontact tires work on ice and snow. it's like the car is on rails.