The difference between 2WD and 4WD:
You have to walk 5 miles further out of the woods when you get stuck.
The difference between 4WD and 4WD with a winch:
You have to walk 5 miles further out of the woods when you get stuck.
Does she have a specific and legitimate need to be able to travel when others can’t? E.G. She’s a: ER Physician; Security Officer; Nuclear Power Technician; etc. Is she a caregiver for someone with special, urgent health needs? If no to any of the above, why on earth would she want to spend the extra money to have a feature she doesn’t need?
Tell her to take the day off when it’s icky out. The world won’t come to an end without her.
Just kidding, I have been in 4x4s since '76 and the only ones I have seen with true locking diffs are after market. Now possi-trac is a little different animal. And I believe that most of these systems are ingaged automatically AFTER one wheel begins to spin. I have a friend that broke an axle when this happend.
or if you can get passed the looks (some people actually like how they look)
The AWD Pontiac Aztek
I’ve spent a great deal of time in each. For daily road driving with occasional snow these are excellent choices. All these AWD systems are passive and only provide torque to the rear wheels when a speed differential is sensed between the front and rear tires.
i would say that 4wd gives drivers who don’t know better the feeling of invulnerability when the weather turns unpleasant (thus the high percentage of suv’s amongst the vehicles which end up in the ditch during the first good snowstorm of every winter).
This is a pretty silly statement. AWD cars have a serious advantage over 2WD cars on anything but dry pavement, and the best AWD are superior performers on all surfaces.
You know why the Subaru WRX keeps rocketing to the top of all the 10-best lists? Because its AWD drive system, with limited slip differentials and 60/40 power split rear to front is simply a ball to drive.
Just speaking of performance cars, here’s why AWD is a big deal:
A front wheel drive car behaves badly under power. Specifically, almost all of them have bad torque steer. Floor a front wheel drive car, and the steering wheel will jump all over the place and try to pull you off the road. In addition, the power to the front wheels typically makes the car understeer (the front end ploughs out to the outside of the curve).
A rear-wheel drive car handles much better on dry pavement, but you still have traction problems, and when you apply power going into a curve the car wants to oversteer (the back end want to swing out). In extreme cases, the car will actually spin out of control if you apply too much power going in to a curve.
The tendency to oversteer makes rear-wheel drive cars much harder to drive on ice, snow, and wet roads. Front wheel drive is generally more controllable, but with that nasty torque steer.
A properly set up AWD car, on the other hand, goes around curves like it’s on rails. The Subaru system, for example, is set up to prove 60% of power to the rear wheels, and 40 to the front. So it has that desirable rear-wheel drive ‘feel’, and there is no torque steer. But if the rear wheels start to break loose, the system automatically diverts power to the front wheels, pulling the car back into line. This all happens smoothly, and results in a car that just feels rock-solid stable in all conditions.
Plus, there’s less wheelspin under extreme power. The Subaru WRX does 0-60 in 5.4 seconds, despite only having 227 horsepower. A Mustang cobra has 65 more horsepower, weighs only a little more, but isn’t any faster. That’s because the Mustang loses time to wheel spin, where the WRX just rockets off the line. By the time the greater power of the Mustang starts to come into play, the WRX is already a long way down the road.
Here in Canada, we have average to poor road conditions for six months of the year in winter, and then average road conditions on the rainy days in summer. AWD is a significant advantage here. I’ll probably never buy another 2-wheel drive performance car. It’ll be an Audi or Subaru.
