buy snow tires. Then you'll be fine 99% of the time.

Plus snow tires are also useful for icy roads.

 

X2

 

any suggestion for snow tires for stock 16" wheels?

 

all depends on how much you want to spend.

On the cheap end:

General Altimax Arctic

On the expensive end:
Nokian Hakkapeliitta R

and there are plenty of choices in between.

 

X3 on the Snow Tires recommendation... I use the Bridgestone Blizzak WS60, works awesome... ordered mine from Tire Rack

 

Passat wagons are very, very poor vehicles in the snow; therefore, you should save yourself and send it to me!

seriously, it all depends on where you live as to if you should have snow tires or not.

 

My ACIDIC test exactly one year ago in 4,000-4,800 ft elevation of snowy ICY roads in Southern Oregon and Northern California with a V6 manual transmision Variant having just 2-3/32nd thread 16 inch Michelin MXV's left me with an astounding experience over a 30 hr period witnessing a score of jacknifed vehicles and truck/trailers:
Picasa Web Albums - Anson - Crater Lake South Entrance

Since then I have these
Buying 4 new tyres - b5.5 Passat Estate - help/advice - Passat World Forums

Only caveat: it's not like the jungle of the Tri-State area or other metropolis'!

It's my creative; customized solution for every situation faced in life.

 

I used to have the Michelin MXV4's... I wasn't very pleased with them. In WI snowstorms I was occasionally stuck, and they wore down too fast for my liking as well for such an expensive tire.

The Blizzak's are 1000% better in the snow. As for outside of winter, I've got 2 seasons on Kumho Ecsta LX Platinum tires and have been very pleased as well.

 

I've used B'stone Blizzaks as well. Recommend them 100% If I had the money, I'd buy another set for this winter because all 4 of my old ones are bald..

 

For the 1st time in 5 years i'll be 4mo-in. Will let you know, now that its finally snowed.

 

I get around Long Island and NYC (assuming that's where kc nyc is from) just fine on all season Potenza RE960's. Very well in fact, they're great tires IMO. The Passat is one of the better regular FWD cars I've owned (mostly Japanese and some american cars) if not the best. I cant imagine that you'd need snows if you're in NYC, unless we have a very unusually snowy year, or you have the worst tires now.

 

mine is burried under two feet of snow, so she is not going anywhere no matter what kind of tire. winter sucks.

 

Yeah me too.... this storm sucked... :icon_eek:

 

This is the seventh winter in my V6 fwd waggie and the car is phenomenal in snow. I've driven this car through more than a few blizzards, particularly a few 500km drives along the north shore of Lake Ontario (ie. lake effect snow which is horrendous) and the car has always performed like a champ.

I'm running Pirelli Snow Carvers on 15" steelies... Never been stuck and never had an issue while driving in freezing rain either. A very confidence inspiring car in bad weather.

 

I've been fine for 11 winters with all season tires, currently I have Michelin MXV4 (hard to read thru salt) on the V6 sedan. We had 2nd snowiest winter ever last year just missing 100in for the season in SE WI and only time I was concerned was one morning after realizing that while I knew where the off ramps should be I couldn't really see any definition road vs shoulder vs ditch. I've driven in blizzard and near blizzard condtions without getting stuck (yet). Eight inches heavy wet stuff 10 days ago only couldn't back into garage as drive is a hill until after clearing snow. Just keep your weight even if you are hauling a lot of stuff around.

 

The only problem with my wagon in the snow is that it doesn't have a limited slip. I've run blizzaks for years and they are great tires. The big thing about snow tires is not the fact that you can go, but it is the fact you can stop. They will get your backside out of a lot more trouble than they will ever get you into. You may not have four wheel drive, but you've got brakes on all four wheels and they can use good rubber.

In general, though, a non-4motion Passat is not a bad snow/ski car, but it is not a Subaru or an SUV. When you put good tires on a four wheel drive platform, it rocks. The problem is that it can give you too much confidence so that when you do get stuck, they will find you in the spring. Two wheel drive keeps you humble enough that you won't get into too much trouble.

 

I overlooked some important facets to my handling in yesterday's post on the year ago precarious episode:

A rear sway bar helps immensely!
Had FSD shocks
Had PMS upper strut brace tower (discontinued many yrs!)
Had the Audi Lower U chassis brace bar (only for manual trannies!)

Whilst most of you are digging OUT this is what San Diegians experienced yesterday take I found the time to capture:

Picasa Web Albums - Anson - Mostly Aerials of La Jolla: Pre Xmas '09 Daytime temps close to 80*

 

I don't know if you are allowed to run studs, but this winter I put on some cheap Hankook I-pikes with studs and it is now amazing on ice and snow.

 

Like many commentaries I've read especially those from Colorado! what you got is:thumbup:

 

My 01 GLX 5spd was great on Blizzaks.. I remember passing a Durango uphill on 6-8 inches of unplowed snow, and getting reamed by a cop at the other end of the road for traveling it when it was closed..

 

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the ASR system yet.

When you see the traction light start blinking while you try to accelerate, don't let off the pedal. Keep the pressure steady and allow the computer to do the work. It will brake the spinning wheel to give more power to the tire with traction. This is VW's "electronic differential lock". If both wheels slip it will reduce power on its own. Just keep it pointed straight.

I haven't tested it in the snow, but it works well around here when it rains.

 

VERIFIED I had it ON all the time I was driving on ICY roads: yet another key element I left out from the above posts as the totality of the experience left a deep impression, yet it is now whole- Thanks Dave!

Prior to this thread there have been a few threads that predated and verified my experience above!

 

:beer:

 

http://www.tirerack.com/videos/index.jsp?video=26&tab=winter

Found this video on tirerack's site, it's about how cars handle the ice equipped with Summer/vs. Allseason/vs. Winter tires. Amazing results, I can not believe that having winter tires allows you to corner like that in the video on bare ice. Simply unbelievable.

 

Pretty intense video! I believe it though. After driving only one full season on my Blizzak's, I saw such a tremendous improvement that I told myself I would be buying winter wheels & tires along with any future car purchases. Can't put a price on safety... and really, aside from the wheels, it doesn't really 'cost more' to run two different sets of tires... because theoretically, each set will last twice as long.

 

I have the FWD 1.8T with ASR and EDL and took it for a three day trip on snowy/icy roads around Mammoth Lakes CA this week. WOW! I have very worn Potenza 960s with no sipping left and the car worked great. I was pushing it a bit to get a feel for how the car would perform (new car for me) and found the limits were MUCH higher than with my old Civic with new M+S tires.

Snowy roads: Almost no slip on flat-ish roads under accel or around corners at posted speed limits, even under moderate breaking or accel. Lateral grip was impressive.

Icy roads: Good accel under most conditions. Under hard accel the ASR light would blink but always kept me moving forward. Some noticable problems while starting up steep icy hills from a dead stop, but remember my car has bald tires. Under breaking the car stopped well as long as I stayed out of the ABS. Once the pedal starts to vibrate traction gets terrible; probably loses 30% traction under ABS.

I'm planning on putting on a set of 4 Continental ExtremeWinterContacts as soon as I can afford them. Once they're on, I'm certain the Passat wagon will get us up the hill in any conditions the roads are still open, assuming my heater core doesn't re-clog.

Another point worth mentioning is we saw dozens of A4 and Passat FWD wagons in Mammoth. It's a go-to snow car here and everyone loves them in the winter mountains with proper tires.

So in conclusion, even though I have a 4x4, after our test spin, I will only take it if the roads are R3 (4x4 + chains required). Otherwise, the Passat is coming.

-g

 

I have a smile pasted on every time I go out in the wagon (1.8T 4Mo 5M, ESP, Michelin Pilot Exaltos) during the winter. By contrast, my previous car (95 Accord wagon) was a cause of continuous anxiety during snow even with good tires.

That said, there's still no immunity from the laws of physics. During yesterday's snowstorm, I deliberately got the car to move sideways in short spurts at low speeds, just for fun and away from immovable objects.

 

I've got about 20'' here in Stockholm,Sweden. I'm guessing it'll stay like this or worse until late Febuary. Luckily my trusty V6 4Motion -04 takes me where I need to go.
I run on snowtires from October to March (Continental, studless) and I'd say 80% of the Swedes do as well, it is in fact the law.

Here's a translated article showing a review of the latest snowtires. Google translate is OK translating words but the grammar is horrible.

http://translate.google.se/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=sv&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vibilagare.se%2Fzino.aspx%3FarticleID%3D14139&sl=sv&tl=en

I've got studded Gisslaved on my FWD SAAB 900 -90. I get by better than lots of newer Asian and American cars in this old heap.

 

i run my all seasons and i'm fine, i find the ASR is very intrusive, so i turn it off to get moving then switch it back on once i'm going. these are heavy cars, you'll be fine as long as you're not plowing streets with it.