definitely not true, audi uses a torsen diff where subaru uses a viscous coupling. thats the simplest way to describe audis superiority. i had an engineer friend explain the differences to me, it took him like 20 minutes, and i got maybe 20% of what he said, but there are many reasons why audis AWD system is better. basically, other than the simple fact that a torsen diff is much better than viscous, audis system is much more complex, but at the same time, more reliable, more predictable, and more controllable in snow. power is transferred between wheels before a wheel actually slips, dont ask me how that works..
anyway ive driven a butt load of cars, and a good amount of subarus and audis in snow, a b5 s4 a4, 2001 a6, audi 90, and a mid 90's s6. all but the s6 and a6 in snow. as far as subarus go ive driven an 04, 07, and 2010 sti, all in snow(all the same guys, yes hes gone through 3 sti's) an 02 wrx, and an 04 outback xt.
in general the subarus have a lot more understeer in snow, its very hard to get the car to hook up and turn in with any decent amount of speed, the front end of the car does not work very well, not very communicative, doesnt respond very well to driver inputs, which really effects the rest of the corner, makes it hard to turn in with speed, or hook up well enough at turn in to get any rotation, which makes it hard to point. and the front didnt get any better mid corner to exit. which is why for the most part i experienced a lot of understeer in pretty much every subaru. i felt the same habit in the dry too. though definitely not as bad. it made the cars feel unpredictable, and not confidence inspiring, just a lot less fun to push hard.
for the most part, i felt that each audi had a very communicative front end, it would hook up extremely well at turn in in snow, better than any car ive driven in snow. it would let you set the attitude of the car right at turn in, and it only got easier to control through the rest of the corner. each car would just take a set and seem to slingshot through the rest of the corner. they were very predictable, you could feel and sense any tendency for the car to oversteer or understeer before it happened and adjust accordingly. that and the superior grip of the quattro system was very noticeable. part of it was the balance of the car, but you could just carry sooo much more speed through every part of the corner.
you had to drive the subaru's more like slow in, just drive it to the apex, trying to keep the minimum amount of understeer you could, then hammer the throttle to get the back end to break loose at apex. which is far from ideal, you shouldnt have to use power to rotate the car, the car should do that naturally, you should be able to use the power in an AWD to make adjustments and straighten the car out from apex to track out. so where you should be straightening the car out, carrying as much exit speed as possible. in the subarus, that was when you were starting to get the car sideways, and it just meant a slow exit also.
now it sounds like im bashing the shit out of subarus, im not, they have a good awd system that will get you where you want. but when it comes to performance, its not even comparable to audi. i was able to go faster in the audi 90 with all seasons, than an sti with hardcore nokian winter tires.
