Coming home from Florida in February to a Denver snowstorm is never pleasant. But at least this time it was safe and secure. Waiting for me was a new Audi A4 quattro with all-wheel drive. So despite the slick roads and relatively poor visibility the drive back from the airport was uneventful: the A4 felt secure and planted, especially as I had configured the Audi Drive Select (which we’ll come back to) to firm up the steering yet soften the ride and throttle response.

Things got more eventful as I exited the highway; the mile-long, 3-lane wide flyover ramp into downtown Denver was very icy; cars began to skate sideways—then they began skidding every which way as the ramp began descending to its lowest point, which was probably a hundred feet lower than where it had peaked. We all came to a stop—without undue drama in my case—though some vehicles struggled, including a huge regional transportation bus, which, though completely stopped, began slowly sliding sideways towards the ramp’s edge!

Apparently there was an accident at the bottom, and though multiple police units arrived, and we remained stuck in place for over an hour, no one really knew what was going on—the curvature of the overpass prevented it. From time to time some intrepid soul would leave his or her car and venture out for a look, invariable slipping—and often falling—on the super-slick pavement. Out of curiosity (of what kind of tires shod our A4, not the wreck) I did to. Sure enough, it was almost impossible to safely stand on the ice-covered surface, despite Vibram-soled shoes. But the reason for our Audi’ secure-feeling progress was revealed: a set of Michelin Alpin winter tires.

Combined with the quattro all-wheel drive, I seemed to be king of the mountain (overpass). No surprise, really: Audi basically invented high-performance AWD (or at least made it commercially successful, as most folk have never heard of the Jensen Interceptor), rewriting the rules of one type of racing after another with the system. It’s still a hoot to watch the video of a quattro drive up a ski jump. And, as I’ve banged on and on about, proper winter tires make all the difference.

Of course, a day or so later (this is Denver, after all), the snow was gone, and I could revel in the Audi’s other talents, such as a stout 2.0-liter turbo that cranks out massive midrange grunt (0-60 in under 6 seconds), yet returned an admirable 23-27mpg during my tenure—amazing for any AWD vehicle, never mind one this fast.

And, of course there’s the signature, lovely Audi cockpit, made of high-quality materials and boasting a well thought out interface system and slick nav—though the relegation of a back-up camera to a very expensive separate option is aggravating. Also, I could never get the 3rd-gen Multi Media Interface system to consistently integrate with my iPhone’s address book; at least its iPod menu control was excellent.

But what set this A4 apart from others I’ve sampled was the aforementioned Audi Drive Select, which lets the pilot choose from three settings each for damper (shock) stiffness, throttle response/transmission logic, and steering weight/response. Note I say weight, as no matter what mode you choose, there’s never a tremendous amount of steering feel; there also remains a bit of friction around center, not present in the conventional system, but seemingly the norm in variable-ratio systems such as this.

Aside from that, though, I loved Drive Select; not only are there three preset modes (Comfort, Auto, and Dynamic), each with its own character and usefulness, but that you can tweak each parameter and combine them into your own preferred setting is terrific. I normally settled on the softest ride setting for our cruddy roads—but which still left plenty of body control, the medium steering setting, and the more aggressive powertrain setting. The result was, to me (which is the point) very pleasing, creating the kind of driving experience I’d want on a regular basis if I were the Audi’s owner. And as soon as I got a chance to head up into the hills, I could instantaneously switch to Dynamic, and the A4 was up for a good spanking. Or on the traffic-clogged morning slog to the office, I could switch to Comfort, and tune everything out except the excellent Bang & Olufsen sound system. Audi Drive Select definitely increases the A4 quattro’s already excellent ‘bandwidth’, though it isn’t an inexpensive option.

Price as tested: $45,675

Here’s what Audi has to say about it.

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