thats true, an awd car on drag slicks isn't going anywhere in the snow or rain. you rarely see Subarus off the pavement though, 90% of Subarus i see are driven by college people and stay in the middle of the city, unless it's a 2003 outback, those are mostly high school kids. riced wrx are everywhere
AWD/4WD Explained
- Thread starter CharBaby
- Start date
Many FWD-biased AWD systems don't have a center diff. The clutch that locks up to transfer power to the rear is in many cases mounted just before the rear differential, which these systems tend to limit rear bias to 50%. The front mounted clutch system tends to be able to transfer more torque to the rear (like SH-AWD, i-VTM4, Quattro with Ultra Technology). Subaru's have a center differential.
Or in Toyota hybrids.... they have an electric motor at the rear axle providing power (no mechanical linkage to the front axle).
The typical FWD-based Awd system.
Here's Audi Quattro with Ultra Technology
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Lifted with AT tires Subarus are for people that think they can offroad like a Jeep Wrangler.
Even Subaru recognizes this market segment of customers and introduced the "Wilderness" trims
Is a LandCruiser, Touareg 4XMotion, etc AWD or 4WD?
They have full-time AWD system (Torsen TBD in the center differential), but also a transfer case that gets you low range like a 4WD system.
They have full-time AWD system (Torsen TBD in the center differential), but also a transfer case that gets you low range like a 4WD system.
edyvw
$50 site donor 2025
If clearance is an issue, yes. If not, you won’t catch up with my BMW or Tiguan.
Problem is weight. Those vehicles are heavy! They like to slide and if there is substantial downhill, gravity likes to take over.
That is the problem. Renting Escalade at Denver airport might be interesting proposition, until one hits downhill grade on I70 in icy conditions.
The answer is yes. As mentioned in the video it’s semantics/marketing, but if I had to draw a line I’d say 4WD but it’s really best of both worlds. (albeit, with a weight penalty from having the two-speed transfer case, etc)
It's irrelevant - a system that forces both front and rear outputs to rotate at the same rate is no differential.
If you start introducing electric motors, then they would turn at the same rate to be defined (by me) as no differential.
The KL Cherokee also deleted a transfer case
Yeah, its no jeep with low range for sure! We've scraped a couple times on cottage roads/logging road but we take it easy as I'm not running decent off-road tires on it. Probably a Crosstrek would be better mostly from the smaller foot print.
For roads, a subaru is usually fine, but for trails, a real 4wd little Jeep or old Tracker is way more capable and fun.
4WD
$50 site donor 2025
Nor will you follow my Rubicon where I go … most people here know the difference … most others don’t …
Years ago I went on a 4x4 day trip with my boss, co-workers and some of their families. We went on a really scenic trip that was south of Boulder and wrapped around kicking us back onto I-70 above Idaho Springs. I dislike when manufacturers don't allow you to disable traction control or abs. A few of the sections the Toyota 4 Runner up front had to disable the traction control as it kept trying to pull power. Thankfully it had a real 4 low.The "4wd" in my RAM 1500 begs to differIt uses clutches and a ball/ramp setup to engage them with an encoder motor to apply varying levels of pressure based on what the various computers *think* you need.
The funny thing is, the hardware is stout and could last a very long time (even the clutches) but Mopars terrible s/w programming put it in a state where the ABS, traction control and ball/ramp engagement all fight each other. Leading to a constant on-off-on cycle under the right (wrong) conditions. Then the clutches overheat and need to be replaced.
You can't fully disable traction control, and you cant disable ABS at all. Someone actually "fixed" the issue with a switch you wire in that gives the encoder motor "full send" which gives 100% clutch engagement. All the issues disappear and the system works really, really well.
I long for the chain driven mechanical linkage xfer case that was in my old Nissan Frontier.
edyvw
$50 site donor 2025
What about the full-time 4wd systems? The Subaru svx wasn't awd, a few of the Jeep Cherokees had full time 4wd, the Lexus GX is definitely full-time 4wd.
Both! I'd lean towards 4WD to denote the tougher components/low range but it's all marketing.
that's correct
Agreed.
Ive never owned a vehicle that could completely disable traction control (without pulling fuses, anyway). I don't need it to save me from myself, Ive driven plenty of vehicles with no ABS, no traction control system, etc and can continue to do so if they would just make them that way.
The RAM I can disable traction control fully in 4WD modes, but only up to 30 or 40mph then it turns itself back on. In 4-auto that is very dumb because auto is meant to be used on highway speeds.
Having owned an AWD car with a front, center and rear diff, it was amazing. With good snow tires, it could easily drive through snow that was halfway up the bumper. Losing dry traction at high speeds is definitely a pucker moment with AWD more so than other drivetrain types though.
4WD
$50 site donor 2025
Sure - snow over mud comes back to favor true 4WD systemssnow over roads
