Subaru Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive Test

 

Independent study my ***..........

 

So what's new? LSD's have been around for 60 years. Any off-roader will tell you that without a locking front, rear, and center diffs, or at least LSD's all around, your 4WD is going to be a 1WD when the going gets slippery.

 

maybe. But it looks like it works.

 

Curious about the RDX with SH-AWD, pre redesign. Wonder how it would do

 

Would be interesting to see how Audi, VW, BMW, MB and Lexus systems measure up.

 

it depends on whose infomercial are you looking at, plenty of them on youtube :-)

 

I thought the RAV4's 4WD button was 4WD up to 25MPH?
I guess the 4WD button wasn't pushed.

 

This test video may have been produced by Subaru for its own purposes and "approved" by an independent agency, but that just means that Subaru did not lie about its abilities and did not lie about the abilities of its competitors. Subaru may not have told the WHOLE truth (it did not try to show ALL situations) but it did not tell any lies or use any funny camera tricks.

I would like to see those slip sections on the ramp reversed -- leave both rear wheels on slipping rollers and put the cover on one of the front wheel rollers -- and see how they all do. Considering that Subaru's Symmetrical AWD has limited-slip differentials in the centre transfer case and rear axle, but none on the front axle, I want to see the same test again but with the front wheels on different traction surfaces.

I suspect the competitors will react the same and I believe that the Subaru will do NO BETTER than its competitors in that situation.

 

Not all newer Subies actually use LSD's anymore, either, like my old Outback did. To cut production costs (and vehicle weight), some of them have gone over to a electronic brake/torque-vectoring system, which simply applies brake-pressure to a spinning wheel and re-routes the torque.

 

Isn't this a repost? Maybe just a rehash -- I've definitely seen this before.