Well, here we are in an age in which it can be easily said that at least half of the motoring world is front-wheel drive and the other rear-wheel drive. (I know, I know, 'what about Audi and Subaru and all the rest that offer AWD?' Another blog for another day).
It's already been a fairly long time since front-wheel drive became 'the norm' among the North American driving public. I'm old enough now to say I remember when cars weren't measured in meters or feet but how long it took them to stop bobbing back and forth at the red light. I also remember that all American cars were gigantic and not particularly efficient. I remember all 'foreign', (as in not built on this continent), cars had this unusual configuration know as front-wheel drive. Only the foreign cars had this set-up. (I'm also old enough to have seen the 70s fashions come and go twice... I hope they stay gone, gawd!)
Now, back in the day, when more and more people were buying the tiny Japanese Civic Accords (that's what they called them back then), they were about as large as the trunk of a modern-day Chrysler. And you had the likes of Fiat, Renault, Peugeot back then too. Most of them were running the front-wheel drive platforms. But why? Well, for those of us in the snow-belt of North America, the belief was that since the weight of the engine is above the the wheels with traction, that this additional weight over the wheels would allow for more grip.
Remember, this is easily 25-plus years before traction-control systems. When your father lost control of his 21-foot-long Imperial in the snow, it could take hours to dig out the ten feet of it that got rammed up inside the snow bank. The thinking was that despite the huge girth of the North American cars, they were too light over the rear wheels. So, in principal, the front-wheelers had the traction advantage over their Yankee counterparts. It was also the growing belief that since there was less weight involved altogether, since there was no heavy and long drive-shaft running down the middle of the car mated to a huge and clunky differential, the front-wheelers had the fuel-savings advantage. In theory.
However, here we are some nearly 30 years later and half the American brands are front-wheel drive and the remainder rear-wheel drive. So... which is better?
That's a helluva question that most people probably wouldn't think about. What's really the best? All-wheel drive. But that's not today's discussion. For the casual driver, front-wheel drive is probably what they've grown up with because mommy had a Renault Alliance and daddy had a Lincoln Towncar that was as big as most country villages today. You were more than likely to have learned to drive, (whether you had a learner's permit or not... hehehe), on Mom's silly little French car. So, most of today's over-30 club grew up with front-wheelers and know how to drive them in the white stuff. But do they know what's actually happening when they're driving through Mother Nature's dandruff? Probably not.
So, enough dodging the ultimate question: which one's better. It depends greatly on how you drive. Are you a driving enthusiast? Yes? Then it's a rear-wheeler for you but you already knew that, didn't you?! Are you a 'greenie' driving a useless Prius? Then it's front-wheel drive for you. But I'm ignoring two important scenarios here: Winter driving and sport driving.
Well, personally I love combining the two, though it's very not-easy to do so, so let's keep them separate. As i said earlier, it was thought that front-wheel drive wold provide more traction because of the additional weight over the nose. Well... it doesn't work. Ever get stuck in a Camry or Civic, etc? Ever try to 'rock the car' with the transmission, shifting forward, then reverse, then forward again? Doesn't work, does it with a front-wheeler?! The reason is because the directional wheels are ALSO the traction wheels, they are essentially being compromised at both tasks by converging energies.
Huh, you say? Well, it's like this. The front wheels are trying to do two things: steer the car and pull the car. Both actions are canceling each other out slightly. Surely you've been in a front-wheel drive car and the wheels are spinning crazily and nothing's happening but the melting of the snow under the tires to turn into slightly-less 'tractionable' ice!
And in the summer, when your driving down that winding country road with the tight but perfect s-curves, do you let off the gas just a little as you enter the corners? I bet you do. Do you know why? You probably never noticed that you noticed that when taking turns at high-speed in a 'fronter', that the car never really takes the line your aiming for. The turning radius is just a bit larger than you want. You don't really know but you do, that in power-on turns, the car's losing traction, basically sliding just a little bit sideways on the front wheels. Scary, isn't it? It's called understeer and can be quickly quite deadly in certain situations.
With the scenario described above out of the way, we can talk about rear-wheel drive. Now, the classic set up of having the engine's power being put down onto the road by the rear wheels is the oldest setup in automotive history. It doesn't automatically mean it's outdated or the right way to go. But humans have been driving cars of all sorts now for over a century-and-a-quarter and we all started with the rear-traction back in the 1800s. From the old days of Mercedes-Benz' bicycle-wheeled steam-engined car to today's Ferraris, the original setup had the traction coming from the rear. it was easier to push rather than to pull.
So, we have an inherent capacity to "drift" a car through a corner. Or in more physics-related terms, to oversteer or power-slide. All these terms really mean the same thing: the rear is sliding out of alignment with the front wheels, so basically they are turning a wider circle than the front wheels. The rear is 'coming out'. Despite how that sounds, the car is still under control. (If you intended for the car to do this, that is). You can still drive a car through a corner with the rear out, basically still pointing the car in the direction you want to go and still getting there intact. In this scenario, each set of wheels is doing only one thing: the fronts are steering, the rears are pushing. Even in the snow, you can still control your car with the rear going out, you can bring it back in to where it needs to be. If you were trying to turn in the snow, under power, you'd more then likely end up going in a nice straight line into a situation that you would best want to avoid.
I've learned this to be the truth as I've owned cars with both setups. My wife's car is a front-wheel drive Cavalier and mine's a rear-wheel drive CTS. Now I grew up in the age that rear-wheel drive was a nightmare in the snow. Well no more. With today's cars being as computer-equipped as the bridge of the Enterprise, the Traction-Control wizard is making sure you don't slide around like a fool. In my CTS, the computer allows a little bit of slide, but then it tells the brakes to be all grabby-grabby and it applies the necessary pressure to the appropriate wheels to make there's the right amount of traction. (Then again, I can always turn it off and go whizzing around in circles at the nearest Costco parking lot on a Sunday night after a snow fall... not that I'd do such a thing... *ahem*).
So, in cornering in the snow, today's rear-wheel drive cars are once again the better of the two to choose from. However, the front-wheel drive cars have a fun spot of their own. If your car happens to have a hand-brake sitting beside you, oh the fun you can have. If you're going into a tight turn in snowy conditions, halfway through the turn, pull the handbrake up, hold it and then drop it back. You've just simulated a power-slide.
Now, all of the above is moot if you factor-in All-wheel drive cars. That goes without saying. So, is the conclusion that today's modern rear-wheel drive setups are better for low-traction scenarios and playing with slightly above-the-speed-limit jaunts? Yes. And to prove it, just look at any form of car racing. Are ANY of them front-wheel drive cars? Not a one. They're either rear-wheel drive or for the off-road racing, all-wheel drive.
So, if you're looking for another car and you enjoy the occasional burst of speed in a corner or you're worried about traction in the snow, think about the car's setup. Front-wheel will let you drift wide in corners and offer less traction in the snow or rain or even on dry roads. Rear-wheel will provide traction with a higher tolerance before losing that traction and sliding out, but remember, you can control that slide and still put the car where you want.
And don't forget this thought: don't bother going on the cheap and buying all-season tires. They compromise traction in both winter and summer. It's just smarter to put on winter tires when it's winter. In not so long, it'll probably be law throughout Canada to do so. And when you really think about who will be on board along with yourself, your spouse, children, even strangers sharing the same road as you, isn't your life and theirs worth the extra bucks of putting winter tires on?
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