FWD vs RWD vs AWD cars. Which do you prefer & why?

[suysuy]

FWD sa akin. mas predictable sa akin ang handling ng car. ok lang understeer wag lang oversteer.

[juntzo]

I rephrased the question in the poll... choose what you want, not necessarily what you need! And please post your reason.

[Dr.Kamiya]

AWD for me.

[HardCharger]

I remember reading somewhere that AWD vehicles such as the aforementioned Subarus are safer than either FWD or RWD vehicles.

Safety is a good thing especially on local road conditions.

Granted that, as one poster said, it doesn't snow here, but it does rain a lot.

Rain + oil that leaked onto the road from ill maintained vehicles = bad!

The control given to you by the AWD drive system can save your life when the moment of truth presents itself.

Isn't that worth the additional cost?

I think so

[Walter]

There's a Top Gear video on Youtube comparing AWD, FWD, 4WD.

[Bogeyman]

RWD.

No torque steer, better traction due to weight transfer, more balanced weight distribution, better center of gravity, and lower long-term cost (tipid sa langis, tipid sa CV joints, tipid sa front tires, tipid sa wheel alignment).

[niky]

AWD and FWD are slightly safer than RWD on track because you can counter oversteer by stepping on the gas. When you're understeering because you've entered the corner too hot, you can't hit the gas on a RWD car to induce oversteer to counter it... you'll just send yourself into the bushes that much faster.

But when you lose traction, you lose traction. Whether you're RWD, FWD or AWD, once the car starts spinning, you're a goner.

A RWD car, though, often has better balance, and you can hold the throttle in on long corners without inducing too much understeer (depending on suspension geometry... some RWD cars understeer under power due to the front end unloading too much)

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Torque-steer is more a function of drivetrain design than drive-layout. Transverse-engine vehicles with no LSD have a problem with unequal length drive-axles, where one side gets more power than the other. Ever see the video of the Toyota MR2 that does a drag-launch and drives off the road and into the bushes? That's a RWD car... with torque steer.

Lotus worked around torque-steer by creating a FWD drivetrain with equal-length axles. Nissan is taking this tack, too, with the new Altima. Without an LSD, you can't eliminate it completely (in fact, with an LSD, it's still a bit of a problem), but it's not always there.

Personally?

I prefer RWD for performance driving. Period. On a well designed sportscar, the steering feel is much better than in AWD or FWD (sadly, modern hydraulic and electric systems remove much of that advantage), tire use is equally distributed between all four tires, making the vehicle predictable lap after lap, and lap times are generally faster, due to the lighter weight and better balance.

AWD is nice, and there's less on-power understeer than FWD (unless you've got a FWD with an LSD), but it's still not as dynamically "pure" as RWD. It's great for beginners on track, though, and great in mud. Newer AWDs with rear-biased differentials put less stress on their front-tires than older AWDs, but they still scrub them faster than pure RWD sportscars.

FWDs in general, are not as good as RWDs, but with the advances in chassis and suspension technology, there are a lot of FWDs that are sharp as tacks, and oversteer in corners is just a lift of the foot or a dab of the brakes away. Modern FWDs are so much better than before that a lot of FWD cars are showing good results in autocrosses and on trackdays compared to RWDs and AWDs. They're still inferior when it comes to racing cars, but for daily-driven sports cars, FWD has finally arrived. FWD is good for track novices and old "hands" alike, and a lot of racing schools use FWDs for beginner and intermediate classes. A lot of those race instructors also race FWDs on track or at the autocross on their off-time. They're cheap, easily modified and easy to maintain... perfect for track-beater work.

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Give me one of each. RWD for competitive driving, FWD for fun runs.

[juntzo]

Thanks... very good info!

[empy]

basta ako may FWD, RWD n AWD na cars :snob:

:lol:

"cars" daw bosing. RWD nga yung bisikleta mo, but i don't think that counts

[wren]

Symmetrical AWD!