Read the Toyota Executive comments!
Good article and interesting opinions....



http://steerbythrottle.dancing..._FWD/

 

I read all of the opinions. All of these guys make some good points...but they all seem to concentrate too much on just handling, steering, and traction. There are other very important differences between FWD, RWD, and AWD. For instance, service is often much easier on an RWD car. You can do a front brake job on the pads and rotors without taking the whole front drive shaft off and having to do a re-alignment. On a FWD car it is a mess....the whole drive shaft and CV joint hang down while you are doing it and must be hooked back up again. FWD cars are also a LOT more sensitive to tire rotation....the heavy front end and light rear end, combined with steering and torque to the front wheels, chew up the front rubber unless you constantly rotate them..it is a PITA. On a RWD car you also have a simpler drive train with fewer CV joints and boots to wear out....especially with a Mustang or truck-type live rear axle.
RWD cars, IMO, are good for high-performance driving with sharp curves and at lower speeds also on twisty roads, but most people don't drive that way most of the time, and of course one should not be pushing it too much on a public road anyway....that stuff is best saved for autocrossing. RWD cars, though, IMO, suck on anything but a dry surface, even with all-season tires and electronic traction aids. I would NEVER have one in a snowy climate....they are just too easy to get stuck, even with careful driving. And some RWD products (not all) tend to wander slightly...they don't track in the canter of the lane as well as FWD ones do, and sometimes require many small steering correcions. It is interesting that John Carey from Australia mentioned that unlike many other parts of the world, RWD is still widespread there. He doesn't say why, but the answer is obvious.....Australia's warm, dry climate ( most of the country is a desert ).
I myself though am becoming more and more convinced of the benefits of AWD....even on a dry surface. Yes, it does add some weight and drag, can make the vehicle difficult to service, and makes for a complex drive train, but the huge benefits of AWD for virtually all normal driving more than make up for it in stability, traction, equal weight distribution, even tire wear, lack of torque steer, and the ability of modern AWD systems to vary the torque to either the front or rear wheels ( and, in the case of the Acura RL SHD system, even left and right ) to give you the best of both worlds as the situation dictates. Subaru, perhaps more than any other automaker, makes relatively simple, effective, reliable, AWD systems using different types of center differentials depending on the engine ahd transmission involved.

 

Very good article but nothing we don't already know. I'm actually more interested in the rest of the topics on the magazine cover, especially the review of the Bose suspension.

 

Good link sicklex
Thanks for the summary mmarshall

 

BTW, they put the LS430 in the "RWD: Not for us" category in the last page, along with the 1-Series and the C-Coupe. What did they expect then? A luxury sedan in FWD?