FWD vs RWD

[HannibalX]

Originally posted by: Toastedlightly
Central MN, rwd. Drove a 70's pickup w/ 250lbs of sand in the back for a winter. 4 speed manual, 5.2l v8. Positraction rear end . Had no problems in ~10 inches of snow.

I have never had any problems either. Never been stuck or spun out.

A big problem is that parents aren't teaching their kids to drive anymore. Passing a driver's test which consists of going around a parking lot does not mean you know how to drive.

If parents would teach their kids to drive and drive in the snow there would be no problems.

 

[DivideBYZero]

UK. I've owned all types, FWD, AWD and RWD. I like all as it depends on the application. For example, a friend of mine has just bought the Mk5 GTI 30 Edition with 240hp. That's a nice FWD car (although it could do with an LSD). I loved my Subaru WRX, which had fantastic AWD. I also enjoy my current RWD car, which has DSC to rein in the power in wet/greasy conditions (if I forget I'm supposed to be a sensible driver..)

 

[c3p0]

Michigan...and I will always own a RWD vehicle as long as I have that choice. I'm old school and grew up on RWD cars. I have had very little trouble getting around in the snow no matter what I drive. It's not the getting going that's the problem, it's the stopping. So for me it's all about using good judgment when driving on slippery surfaces.

c3p0
:beer:

 

[exdeath]

Arizona, RWD.

If you aren't a n00b you can control the traction as much as your heart desires with your right foot.

Stop blaming the platform and learn to drive or stop doing 0-60 pulls in the winter, for those saying FWD is better in the snow

 

[TheSlamma]

I like rear wheel peg-leg, you AWD people are pu$$ies

 

[Pliablemoose]

Central Texas, RWD, no real need for anything else since you only need FWD/AWD a couple of days a year here, and since I grew up in the Dakotas learning how to drive in the ice & snow in RWD, no problems for me on those typically 2 days a year when FWD/RWD would be handy.

But then again, people here forget that you have to stop safely on the ice so I stay the hell home when I can when it's slick out.

 

[vi edit]

I live in the midwest. My daily driver is RWD...but I've also got a little dial that says "4HI-4LO" on it.



I would never own a non-4WD truck in the midwest if it was my daily driver.

 

[Regs]

Unfortunately I have drove nothing by FWD cars in my "short" life here on earth. Toyota, Honda, and then a Mazda. I hate snow and I can't imagine anything less than a heavier automobile will help.

AWD will be my next step as a lot of car manufactures offer it standard or for an extra 500-1000 MSRP. I didn't see many RWD vehicles that catched my eye before I bought the Mazda.

 

[railer]

get fwd for god's sake. 95% of the folks prattling on about rwd think that they're race car drivers and read in auto mags that "purists" prefer rwd, so they parrot on about rwd as well. Ignore them, as they are mindless sheep. 99% of drivers in 99% of conditions are not going to be able to notice the difference between fwd and rwd, UNLESS they are 1) talking to their moron buddies at a bar, or 2) posting on anandtech.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: railer
get fwd for god's sake. 95% of the folks prattling on about rwd think that they're race car drivers and read in auto mags that "purists" prefer rwd, so they parrot on about rwd as well. Ignore them, as they are mindless sheep. 99% of drivers in 99% of conditions are not going to be able to notice the difference between fwd and rwd, UNLESS they are 1) talking to their moron buddies at a bar, or 2) posting on anandtech.

At low-speed or when you're not pushing the car you're right, there's not much difference. Once you're past about 5/10's though, it's obvious which is which.

If you spend time at the track and have raced, it's painfully easy to tell. And if you grew up in places with bad weather, then you damn well ought to be able to drive a RWD car through snow. All of this bullsh*t about it not being noticeable is said by the same people who can't tell the difference between a Lincoln Town Car and a Miata in terms of how it drives.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with viewing a car as an appliance, nothing more than a way to get from point A to point B. But there's certainly something wrong with the smug little pissant attitude that makes you want to run down anyone who happens to enjoy driving.

ZV

 

[imported_Truenofan]

zv's right. and for me, northern ny, north east and south east wisconsin, rwd for me. all year round.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: railer
get fwd for god's sake. 95% of the folks prattling on about rwd think that they're race car drivers and read in auto mags that "purists" prefer rwd, so they parrot on about rwd as well. Ignore them, as they are mindless sheep. 99% of drivers in 99% of conditions are not going to be able to notice the difference between fwd and rwd, UNLESS they are 1) talking to their moron buddies at a bar, or 2) posting on anandtech.

Or maybe the "99%" of drivers who wouldn't notice the difference aren't posting in the Garage forum...hmm? This isn't exactly a representative slice of the population here. I'd wager that most people who post about RWD have pushed their cars far enough to notice a difference.

I don't read auto magazines, they're crap for the most part.

I don't think I'm a race car driver, although I do autocross from time to time, and I drive spiritedly when it's safe and the road is good. Sucks that your area has too many cops and not enough curves; luckily that isn't true for all of us.

And I'll go to ZV for my closing argument:

There's absolutely nothing wrong with viewing a car as an appliance, nothing more than a way to get from point A to point B. But there's certainly something wrong with the smug little pissant attitude that makes you want to run down anyone who happens to enjoy driving.

 

[mitaiwan82]

RWD - TX

 

[railer]

how do you guys get from the OP that he's going to be spending time at the track? I missed that part. <shrug> If he's your average driver, like 99% of other drivers, then he should get fwd. The end. For those of you that do spend time at the track, by all means get rwd, or whatever wd you want. I care. I'm sure that a very large chunk of you 1) don't know how to drive and 2) would be better served in a fwd car, regardless of what you read while reading C+D on your mommy and daddy's toilet. Didn't mean to offend the fast and furious by suggesting <gasp> that most people should drive fwd.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: railer
how do you guys get from the OP that he's going to be spending time at the track? I missed that part. <shrug> If he's your average driver, like 99% of other drivers, then he should get fwd. The end. For those of you that do spend time at the track, by all means get rwd, or whatever wd you want. I care. I'm sure that a very large chunk of you 1) don't know how to drive and 2) would be better served in a fwd car, regardless of what you read while reading C+D on your mommy and daddy's toilet. Didn't mean to offend the fast and furious by suggesting <gasp> that most people should drive fwd.

It's not just the track. Any sort of enjoyable driving is better with RWD. I would say 60-70% of drivers are better off with FWD. The rest either (a)enjoy driving, (b)have sports cars...no reason for WWD there, or (c)have trucks/SUVs, which also should be RWD for proper towing/hauling.

People who want an appliance don't go onto car forums and ask opinions...they go down to the econobox dealership and buy their appliance.

And just because it took you eight tries to get your license doesn't mean that driving is some sort of exclusive art.

Oh, and they drove CIVICS in that movie. Not RWD.

 

[Arkaign]

I prefer RWD or AWD for where I'm at, and for the feel of it vs. FWD (Texas). We don't get much snow/ice. What everyone here has failed to mention however, is that FWD pulls the car from the front, RWD pushes the car from the back. Simple physics (and some fun expiramentation!) tells us that in inclement weather, when you step on the gas in a RWD vehicle, you're more likely to fishtail or have the rear slide out on you. It just doesn't happen that way in a FWD car. In the late 90s, I had two vehicles, a Ranger V6 5 speed, and a Gen 5 Prelude. We had a big ice storm, and I drove both in that mess. The Ranger was super touchy, and it was a real challenge to take off from a stop, even at near-idle speeds, without the rear slipping around. The Prelude behaved much better, as the front wheels just drug it along easily. Of course, when it comes to turning/stopping, you have to be equally cautious with any drive type.

So, FWD has it's place, and it shouldn't be sneered at, there are even many vehicles with FWD that perform exceptionally well. A tuned Integra/Prelude/RSX/etc, will handle better on the track than many live-axle RWD cars. Of course, there are serious issues when the HP/weight ratio exceeds sanity, which seems to be in the 250-275hp range for most FWD cars. With RWD, with the right setup, even 1000+hp is doable.

 

[imported_Truenofan]

sorry railer, but my car is going to be 80-90% track car, with a track car height, suspension, and near track car weight.(without abs as well i might add and ps) and its going to be my near daily driver.
for normal driving on the road, you just need throttle control, its not drive train that people should worry about, everyone seems to just enjoy giving it too much from a stop and in the winter, thats where you get the idiots that dont know how to drive that go flying off the road when they don't know what to do in a rwd.
yes rwd is a bit more tricky in snow/ice because it will want to slide around from too much acceleration, you just need to be a bit more careful. I've driven on pretty much sheets of ice and attempted to stop on them as well, honestly, you have to feel what your car is doing. you can tell when your turning your car suddenly lets lose and under steers when you lose grip. you can tell when your brakes lock up because it suddenly becomes a smooth ride instead of the normal bumpy road. and when you over accelerate, you just slightly countersteer to keep moving in the direction you want, and ease off the accelerator to let the tail get back in line. its honestly not what some of these guys seem to think it is. and yes, i throughly enjoy driving in general, its just fun to drive on an empty road and relax with you and the road.

 

[nismotigerwvu]

Originally posted by: Engineer

Originally posted by: nismotigerwvu
I live in Morgantown WV, and if you didn't know this already, the roads are pretty windy and hilly and we get a pretty decent amount of snow (not a ton, but enough to mater) and I drive a 240SX (super lightweight, RWD sports coupe) and as long as you have a manual transmission I actually prefer it over FWD in all situations besides a dead stop. Unless you are moron and mash the gas going around a turn (which would cause loss of control in a FWD as well) it is just far more maneuverable. All you do is turn your wheels where you want to go and lift off the throttle. Its more myth and bad experiences with older large cars (with more importantly a floaty suspension that also happened to be RWD) that add to the perception that wrong wheel drive is beneficial. The only benefit is a reduced manufacturing cost and increased difficulty in service (meaning shade tree mechanic is less likely to do the repairs and more likely to bring said car to dealership).

So you don't agree that the added weight of the motor over the pulling wheels gives you a better traction?

Sounds like a benefit to me.

And where does said weight transfer to the moment of acceleration?

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: railer
how do you guys get from the OP that he's going to be spending time at the track? I missed that part. <shrug> If he's your average driver, like 99% of other drivers, then he should get fwd. The end. For those of you that do spend time at the track, by all means get rwd, or whatever wd you want. I care. I'm sure that a very large chunk of you 1) don't know how to drive and 2) would be better served in a fwd car, regardless of what you read while reading C+D on your mommy and daddy's toilet. Didn't mean to offend the fast and furious by suggesting <gasp> that most people should drive fwd.

Firstly, the OP wasn't asking for a recommendation. He was asking for our opinions on the matter. But I guess you missed that part?

No-one is disputing that for simple point A to point B driving FWD is superior to RWD.

What we're taking issue with is your whiny b*tch attitude about those of us who do have a preference.

If you had posted and said simply, "For normal driving on the street, FWD is more practical than RWD in almost all instances" and left it at that, no-one would disagree with you (though a few pedantic types might chime in and say that RWD is better for towing a trailer, but we'll ignore that possibility since it's not relevant). However, what you did was say, "FWD is better and anyone who likes RWD is an idiot and a poser". See why people got annoyed?

When you're finished with high-school, you'll understand. Until then, feel free to continue passive-aggressively attacking people and then pretending to be surprised when it pisses them off.

As I pointed out, we don't think RWD is better in practical application (my current daily driver is FWD out of practicality actually), only that 1) it's very easy to tell the difference and 2) with a competent driver it's possible to take a RWD car through winter snow just fine, although it requires more attention than FWD would.

But anyway, e-penis++ for you for being so much better than the rest of us who happen to enjoy our RWD fun cars.

ZV

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: nismotigerwvu

Originally posted by: Engineer

Originally posted by: nismotigerwvu
I live in Morgantown WV, and if you didn't know this already, the roads are pretty windy and hilly and we get a pretty decent amount of snow (not a ton, but enough to mater) and I drive a 240SX (super lightweight, RWD sports coupe) and as long as you have a manual transmission I actually prefer it over FWD in all situations besides a dead stop. Unless you are moron and mash the gas going around a turn (which would cause loss of control in a FWD as well) it is just far more maneuverable. All you do is turn your wheels where you want to go and lift off the throttle. Its more myth and bad experiences with older large cars (with more importantly a floaty suspension that also happened to be RWD) that add to the perception that wrong wheel drive is beneficial. The only benefit is a reduced manufacturing cost and increased difficulty in service (meaning shade tree mechanic is less likely to do the repairs and more likely to bring said car to dealership).

So you don't agree that the added weight of the motor over the pulling wheels gives you a better traction?

Sounds like a benefit to me.

And where does said weight transfer to the moment of acceleration?

Wow. Just wow.

It takes reasonably forceful acceleration to transfer any meaningful weight rearward. Acceleration that just isn't going to happen in slippery conditions. It's not as though 100% of the weight instantly shifts to the rear wheels upon the lightest touch of the accelerator. In practical application the additional static weight over the drive wheels on a FWD car far outweighs the rearward weight transfer at the speeds encountered during snowy/icy conditions.

ZV

 

[natto fire]

This argument always ends up in the same place with the same results. There are purists and people in the know about physhics, and then there are automobile companies. The point of a corporation is to make money. FWD is, for the most part, cheaper to make than RWD. Ergo, there are a lot more FWD platform cars available. It is also more efficient, albeit slightly. Let's not forget the lawyer friendly characteristic of understeer...

<insert opinions here>

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
Wow. Just wow.

It takes reasonably forceful acceleration to transfer any meaningful weight rearward. Acceleration that just isn't going to happen in slippery conditions. It's not as though 100% of the weight instantly shifts to the rear wheels upon the lightest touch of the accelerator. In practical application the additional static weight over the drive wheels on a FWD car far outweighs the rearward weight transfer at the speeds encountered during snowy/icy conditions.

ZV

MR FTW

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: Captain Howdy
This argument always ends up in the same place with the same results. There are purists and people in the know about physhics, and then there are automobile companies. The point of a corporation is to make money. FWD is, for the most part, cheaper to make than RWD. Ergo, there are a lot more FWD platform cars available. It is also more efficient, albeit slightly. Let's not forget the lawyer friendly characteristic of understeer...

<insert opinions here>

From a manufacturing standpoint, I don't see how FWD would be cheaper than RWD to make. The parts on a standard live-axle RWD car should be cheaper, as they are much simpler in design, instead of the differential being stuffed up there by the motor/tranny with CV axles poking out. I think that's why cheap 4-cylinder manual-tranny rwd pickups are so cheap.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
Wow. Just wow.

It takes reasonably forceful acceleration to transfer any meaningful weight rearward. Acceleration that just isn't going to happen in slippery conditions. It's not as though 100% of the weight instantly shifts to the rear wheels upon the lightest touch of the accelerator. In practical application the additional static weight over the drive wheels on a FWD car far outweighs the rearward weight transfer at the speeds encountered during snowy/icy conditions.

ZV

MR FTW

Z rocks, I'm continually impressed with his knowledge and attitude.

 

[JulesMaximus]

RWD

That said, I drive a FWD car but my next car will be a 1900+ lb rear wheel drive two seater with 190hp. I might keep the FWD car though because it is better for family duties.