Probably asked and aswered before --- Rear Wheel/Front Wheel Drive

[MORE SPEED]

Most modern autos allow you to manually select a low gear for engine braking when e.g. going down a icy hill and not wanting to risk dabbing the brakes.

I find Autos on RWDs do not too bad in the snow, smooth take up and changes of ratio and better control of wheel speed.

Maybe I'm a traditionalist but rear wheels do the pushing and front wheels do the steering, women cook and look after kids and men who have top knots should be soundly thrashed.

Anyway you can't do donuts with a FWD.

You're like a 1960's time capsule.

 

[theone8181]

So i fitted my winter wheels yesterday, had no issues this morning despite it being frosty and -2. These are 265/35 (down from the 295/30 for summer) on the back and 225/40 on the front all 18's. They make life so much easier. I think the 4wd in my car sends approx 5% power to the front all the time then when the rears spins it automatically sends upto 40% to the front as its a simple viscous coupling so its not going to surprise me (i think haldex works in pretty much the exact opposite way). So for 420hp quite a normal trip, apart front he broken down fiesta in one lane of a roundabout causing absolute carnage.

 

[TacticalFish]

it's all about weight, tyres, tyre width and mainly the driver.

Yup. On my way out of Coventry Sunday morning, the first casualty I saw was a 320d that had managed to completely buckle their front left wheel. Must have been going more than 20 to generate enough force for the resulting damage.

 

[Django x2]

Nobody has really mentioned that an auto box + RWD makes things even worse as you don't even have control of engine breaking.

That's because if we mentioned it, we'd spell engine braking correctly

 

[titaniumx3]

Less percentage weight over the driven axle. Snow forms chocks under the front tyres. You get stuck.

This happened the other day when I was parked. It was just a tiny bit of snow behind my front tyres and the rears kept slipping. I also couldn't reverse park into my drive way.

 

[paintguy]

As has been said, it isn't just as simple as FWD vs RWD.

I've driven many different cars in the snow and tyres and/or driving style make a bigger difference. I remember a colleague getting stuck in our car park driving a skinny tyred FWD Corsa, while I romped past him in a RWD auto Merc. Gently does it.

As for 4x4, I've owned a couple of quattro cars and whilst the traction is significantly higher they still have the same problem stopping and turning on snow and ice as anything else. Only tyres and driving style can help there.

 

[Rilot]

Another factor is the width of the tyres. Big wide tyres sit on the snow whereas skinny ones tend to cut through it.
I've never had any issue driving FWD or RWD in snow though. Both are equally useless compared to 4WD.

 

[Iamzod]

People think BMW's are bad but try driving Ford Capri in snow without a couple of paving slabs in the boot, you are going nowhere fast.

I managed just fine in a 2.8i with Eagle F1's fitted and i'd only been driving for 6 months. No slabs in the boot and i never used to put more than £20 in the tank.

 

[dholdi]

I had a 3.0S and also didn't struggle in the snow.
I learnt to drive in an Opel Ascona which was also rwd.
Tbh out of the few cars I've owned the most fun were rwd.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

RWD cars also tend to have wide, low profile summer tyres, which are **** in the snow.

 

[paradigm]

RWD cars also tend to have wide, low profile summer tyres, which are **** in the snow.

I think you can scratch the "RWD" bit, and replace with "Modern", RWD or otherwise.

Older cars tended to have the right wheels for the balance of the car (see MK1/2 MX5, MK1/2 MR2, etc). Modern cars have to pander to the "S-Line, R-Line, AMG-Line, M-Sport, VXR-Line" etc brigade, and have comically large wheels even if they are a 0.9l 3-cylinder shopping kart.

 

[Nasher]

RWD can sometimes be better in the snow. The old beetle is one of the best cars in the snow and that is RWD

And yea, many modern cars have wheels which are really too wide for them. It might look "badass" but it makes the handling worse.

 

[Amp34]

RWD cars also tend to have wide, low profile summer tyres, which are **** in the snow.

Mine came with all season, all terrains. Still super wide though.

I had a couple of starting issues on some steep snowy slopes this weekend. 400hp, 295/65 tyres and no weight over the rear wheels so worst of all worlds. I probably should have spent some time practicing getting going, but I cheated and just stuck it in 4x4 and pulled off.