12.05.2024

During my many years of driving I have owned various cars with rearwheel drive. frontwheel drive. Fourwheel drive and now I own a Subaru Outback with all-wheel drive. I bought the Subaru not because it had all wheel drive but because it was a nice looking car. Designed for country and outback traveling, which is what I enjoy doing. But since owning it. I've been wanting to know what is the difference between allwheel drive and four-wheel drive, and here's what I found out?. Fourwheel drive is not on all the time under normal conditions. Only the rear wheels drive the vehicle forward while the front wheels spin freely. To activate a modern fourwheel drive system the driver has to push a button or pull a lever to engage it. But fourwheel drive isn't meant to be on all the time. So you have to know when to turn it on and when to turn it off.

But allwheel drive is on all the time and mostly used in cars and the computer manages the system. Just going down the highway the system will send most of the power to the rear wheels. For maximum fuel efficiency if the road condition changes such as rain or snow. the system adapts and evenly distributes the power evenly to all four wheels. So you have maximum Drive grip with little to no chance of wheel spin?. In contrast on a normal twowheel drive car or even a four-wheel drive in two-wheel drive mode. the power transmitted to the wheels will always look for the path of least resistance. Which is normally the tire that is spinning and not the vehicle forward. Most people will be familiar with this when it rains when they accelerate off at the lights. Or at an intersection and the drive wheel just spins on the wet slippery road all wheel drive cars do not do this.

Since owning my Subaru Outback. I have never spun my wheels on a wet slippery road either taking off the lights are turning at an intersection. When I drove my two wheel drive cars and fourwheel drive in two-wheel drive mode. I would slip all the time and I even spun 180 degrees in my Nissan patrol. So what advantage does 4wheel Drive have over all wheel drive?. well in extreme surface conditions such as loose stones dirt deep mud snow or water a. Fourwheel drive system can provide more traction and control for the driver. but vehicles still set in full drive mode can be dangerous once back on dry tarmac roads as. Axles are not designed to rotate at the same speed in normal cornering. Fourwheel drive is better for offroad in extreme weather conditions. But is usually only turned on when required for those conditions.

But allwheel drive stays on all the time and is better for more general driving conditions. Plus it gives the car a sporty feel. Both systems add quite a bit of weight to the vehicle. And you will end up paying for this at the fuel pump as both types of vehicles are not very fuelefficient. fourwheel drives because they are usually big and heavy with heavy complex drive systems and. Allwheel drive because it is always active. I've been driving my Subaru Outback for two years now. And I love it it is less fuel efficient than my old twowheel drive car. But I have never had any wheel slippage on wet roads when taking off at lights or at intersections. And it feels like a heavier and safer car. But even though you have all this extra safety and peace of mind. 90 to 95 percent of the time you were just driving around your local suburb.

And it does bug me that I'm not as fuelefficient as other cars. To give you an idea how bad it is my old 94 Mitsubishi Galant v6. frontwheel drive got about 450 kilometers per 60 litre tank in City and suburb driving my. 2006 Subaru Outback. 4cylinder gets about. 350 kilometers per 60 litre tank so two cylinders less. And I still get a hundred kilometers less per tank. It does make you think is this constant allwheel drive really worth the extra money. I guess it all depends if you drive often in bad weather conditions, then I think you will agree it does. Anyway, that's the end of this video. Thanks for watching, and we'll see you next time. Bye. Bye