Truck and Barter: Front vs. Rear Wheel Drive

October 17, 2004

Front vs. Rear Wheel Drive

By Kevin

Over the lion's share of the automobile's history, most cars had an internal-combustion engine in front of the driver powering the wheels in back of him. But the fuel crises of the 1970s changed that. Manufacturers scrambled to save weight to save fuel, and they adopted assorted variations of the front-engine/front-drive layout...
Lately there has been a resurgence of rear-wheel-drive family cars. And, their makers claim better traction and handling than front-drive models, thanks to sophisticated electronics...

Popular mechanics performs a matched-pair experiment on a set of V-4, V-6, and V-8 powered cars:

One in each pair had front-wheel drive, the other rear. We ran them through our normal battery of performance tests. Then, we soaked the track and repeated all the tests to replicate the conditions you would face on a rain-slick road.

The reviewers conclude that computer control has eliminated the expected difference in power and handling between front and real drive:

Neither front-wheel drive nor rear-wheel drive is really better than the other. Today's sophisticated traction and stability control systems are so good they can mask or enhance the true driving dynamics of a vehicle. That said, through most of this test we found the effectiveness of these systems had more to do with a car's performance than which wheels were actually doing the driving.

One could quibble over the sample size of the test--in terms of cars and drivers--and insist that there must be some difference, but that would miss the point. Computers have made the difference between front and rear wheel drive so small that finding its exact level, or range of levels, is a waste of time...

Posted at October 17, 2004 02:40 PM

Comments

Here is everything you need to know about fwd vs. rwd:

BMW and Mercedes don't make fwd cars.

Despite what Popular Mechanics thinks, you can't really get more than about 220hp to the ground with a fwd car. As cars continue to get more and more hp, fwd will fade and rwd or awd will become more commonplace.

Unless, of course, these high gas prices are here to stay. In that case, expect hp levels to come down and fuel economy to increase. In that case, fwd has an advantage in terms of gas mileage.

Comment by Buzzcut at October 25, 2004 09:52 AM | Permalink

I am so tired of the assumption that every red-blooded driver wants to go faster. I want beauty, safety, features, comfort, handling, and economy. I don't want super speed. You guys pushing speed and fast driving are doing America and the world a disservice. Yes, high gas prices are probably here to stay, but even if they are not the environment is here---until we totlally destroy it. I would like a comparison of front and rear wheel drive of cars as normally driven, not race cars on a track.

Comment by Jack Burgess at March 14, 2005 02:33 PM | Permalink

What is the reason behind not making a pickup with FWD? Less gas consumption when loaded, better handling on a slick surface when empty.

Comment by Don Abel at April 8, 2005 02:38 PM | Permalink

In Europe most pickups are FWD

Comment by joris leemans at May 30, 2005 08:42 AM | Permalink