4 ms·

FWD has a reputation for being good in the snow, I grew up with a FWD Saab that was pretty awesome in the snow. Mostly because it had tall narrow tires, FWD, a

• lagadu 8y ago
  The problem is the tendency to fishtail on long, light corners, nothing to do with going up or downhill.
  • sliken 8y ago
    Oversteer (RWD without enough traction) and understeer (FWD without enough traction) are two sides of the same coin. Personally I'd rather have oversteer, which is easily compensated for (a bit of steering and let off the throttle), but doesn't impact your path around the corner. It's also quite fun. Understeer on the other hand does impact your path around the corner, the car plows straight ahead as you ask too much of it. Additionally the threshold for understeer is lower since it's the front tires trying to handle acceleration and steering. So a RWD has more traction at a given speed than FWD. Keep in mind that the that RWD in terrible in the snow comes from things like empty pick up trucks (no weight on the rear wheels) or old American sedans and sports cars that had large engines in the front and not much weight out back. Generally even with a perfect 50/50 weight distribution that the RWD is going to have the advantage.
    • dragontamer 8y ago
      I've always seen it as a thing of habit. If you're used to understeer (FWD loss of traction), then for safety reasons, you should stick to understeer. If you're used to oversteer, then stick with oversteer. Its not like it snows every day. Your opportunities to practice loss of traction are few and far in between.
      • sliken 8y ago
        Dunno, it's not rocket science. Sure if it snows a few times a year, ignore it. But if it snows often there's a simple choice. Do you want to lose the ability to accelerate (oversteer), or do you want to lose the ability to accelerate and steer (understeer)? Even a single hour in an abandoned parking lot should get you familiar with either, and it's quite instructive to spend significant time over the threshold of sliding to help prepare you for the occasional surprise on real roads.
• SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
  Are the roads all completely straight where you live?
• sunstone 8y ago
  Another important point to note is that with old time RWD the slipping tire got all the power while with electrics the rear tires work in a positraction mode where power is directed to the tire with traction, which is much much better in the snow.
• oblio 8y ago
  It's not about oomph going up or downhill, it's about control :)
• dsfyu404ed 8y ago
  >However RWD is actually better... assuming the car has a good front/rear balance near 50%... like the Telsa. Any FWD gets LESS traction when climbing than driving on the flats. A RWD gets MORE traction when climbing than driving on the flats. You don't even need "good" weight distribution for RWD to hill climb better. I live on a hill. My RWD pickup goes up it better than the FWD wagon which has near 50-50 weight distribution. The AWD wagon (same model and generation running the same exact tire) and the pickup in 4wd will run circles around anything with two driven wheels though. All three vehicles are old so no limited slip diffs or traction control so it's a fairly scientific comparison. >Additionally your limited traction budget in a RWD allows the front wheels to be dedicated to steering only. On a FWD you have to spend part of your traction budget on acceleration. Basically anything that makes a car handle well in the dry makes it handle well in the snow. Everything behaves the same but your coefficient of friction is less.
  • sliken 8y ago
    Wider tires and grippier tires both help in the dry, but are worse in snow.