Riddle me this- front wheel drive

I think a big part of the idea that FWD > RWD for the snow is the average driver's pucker factor. If my car understeers, and seems to just slide a bit and not turn as much as I would like, I don't think that's particularly scary unless you are speeding, etc. With RWD, if the back end gets a little loose, I think the average driver would probably say that is a more drastic feeling change or more pronounced change than understeer, especially in the snow.

I had a 328i with sport tires. That was my first RWD only vehicle, and I happened to live up in Quantico about 5 years ago. I drove around a lot in 3 different snow storms, including one where I drove home to SC, and I-95 was snowed over down to about Petersburg. I only had an issue once time when I went up a hill I had no business trying to go up. The car got sideways plenty, but luckily I had some experience and skid pad training to know what to do about it.

My guess is the average driver doesn't have the snow experience or driving knowledge to know how to correct some oversteer, and let's face it, if you don't know how to fix it, oversteer can be pretty scary, especially when it is unexpected or the conditions are bad.

 

I rented a Mercedes B Class in Germany in 2011 and a SEAT Ibiza in Ho;;and in 2012. Both of these are front drivers.

 

MB still is but the numbers are dwideling MB gets around it with AWD. You can rent any thing you want there is some thing for ever one but the numbers of FWD cars are far greater than RWD even in Europe where they like to drive fast and take chances.

 

You need a solid rear axle for heavy towing and it would be quite silly to put a solid front axle up front and independent CV driven setups out back. Plus the durability of a solid axle can handle heavy loads much better. All modern pickup trucks still typically have a solid rear axle for this reason. As far as I know, Jeep Wranglers are the only vehicles still made with solid front and rear axles, which is about to be a thing of the past in the next few years when the new CARB fuel economy standards become law.

 

Ram power wagon?

 

I figured they were but wasn't sure so i just went with the gimme option.

 

Ford F series (f-250 and above)

 

Great for tearing up parking lots, or going to the ski hill. But mountain roads with feet of snow... I'll take the taco. How's the coast been for snow this year Oz? I'm lovin the interior's forest service road snow wheelin'

 

Hardly any snow so far , colder than usual though

 

Twin stick t-case upgrade and just settle this!

 

Bottom line really is a FWD will get you GOING in most situations a lot easier than a RWD, but once moving is where the FWD loses its advantage because of understeer, witch is where a RWD would be easier to control in turns and so forth. So there are pros and cons to both sides of the argument, witch one you like better just simply comes down to personal preference.

 

But in the winter time, if your front end is sliding, there's the old Han Solo expression.. Punch it Chewie! FWD = good RWD = bad.

 

One cool thing you used to be able to do with old 4x4's that had locking hubs was if you threw a driveline, you could lock in the hubs and put it in 4hi and get home that way. Doubt you could do that on these modern setups though without hubs and IFS.

There was a time when everything was rear wheel drive and took more skill to handle, and then FWD came along to make it easier for the morons to get around with. During the 60s, people used to drive 400 horse muscle cars all over during the winter and as long as they kept good tires on them and drove them carefully, they didn't have problems. Times have just changed. Personally, I don't mind either setup. In most cases, a FWD car with good tires on it gets around better on ice than 4x4 trucks do.

 

This.

I had a Jeep Wrangler that I installed a beefier rear axle shaft kit from Warn. It had and required the use of locking hubs. You could unlock the hubs, put it in 4 wheel high and run on front wheel drive. I did it once. It worked fine. Can't remember exactly why I tried it but it was fun to see.

What was funny is that there were locking hubs on the rear but not the front. Got some weird looks and questions when someone noticed.

 

Dayum, that's a blast from the past - nice lookin Fiero!

 

Had a GT with the V6 for a couple years way back in time. That was a fun car. If you played the clutch just right you could literally lift the front wheels off the road!!!! That thing had some wicked under steer though... No weight on the front end at all. I take that back, the radiator and spare tire were over the front wheels.