I can only compare the AWD in my two Subarus to the system in my old RAV4, and Subaru clearly beat Toyota there.
The RAV4 seemed to be fairly crude, sending power to the rears too quickly when it detected slip in the front...when turning on ice, even slowly, at some point the rears would suddenly get all the power and, whoa, here comes the whole back end wanting to be in front. The V6 probably made that worse...there was an electronic 4WD mode that I could pop into that would help a lot with that problem, but it only worked up to 25mph and seemed kind of like a bandaid.
No such problem with the Subarus...I can't remember the details and I'm not going to look them up right now, but they somehow work the power transfer diagonally rather than having a front/rear shift. I did manage to bury my Outback years ago when I was trying to help somebody who slid WAY off the road into deep plowed snow...didn't realize I was also driving on packed snow instead of a shoulder. My car sunk in and I was in about as bad a shape as the person I was trying to help...I asked the tow truck driver that came to help the first car to also help me when he was done. While I was waiting, I kept trying to get myself out and I could feel the power shifting back and forth from left front/right rear to right front/left rear...after about 10 minutes, I got out and cancelled the tow.
The CR-V's AWD system got a less than rave review in Sweden a couple of years ago...
http://teknikensvarld.se/honda-cr-v-4wd-system-is-not-working-again-163708/
The RAV4 seemed to be fairly crude, sending power to the rears too quickly when it detected slip in the front...when turning on ice, even slowly, at some point the rears would suddenly get all the power and, whoa, here comes the whole back end wanting to be in front. The V6 probably made that worse...there was an electronic 4WD mode that I could pop into that would help a lot with that problem, but it only worked up to 25mph and seemed kind of like a bandaid.
No such problem with the Subarus...I can't remember the details and I'm not going to look them up right now, but they somehow work the power transfer diagonally rather than having a front/rear shift. I did manage to bury my Outback years ago when I was trying to help somebody who slid WAY off the road into deep plowed snow...didn't realize I was also driving on packed snow instead of a shoulder. My car sunk in and I was in about as bad a shape as the person I was trying to help...I asked the tow truck driver that came to help the first car to also help me when he was done. While I was waiting, I kept trying to get myself out and I could feel the power shifting back and forth from left front/right rear to right front/left rear...after about 10 minutes, I got out and cancelled the tow.
The CR-V's AWD system got a less than rave review in Sweden a couple of years ago...
http://teknikensvarld.se/honda-cr-v-4wd-system-is-not-working-again-163708/
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