You get a beautifully built interior that looks great and is very spacious with a litre boot that swallows almost anything you throw into it. Thanks to numerous rally wins, the Audi quattro badge is the most famous name in the four wheel drive world, and the Audi A4 Allroad gets the latest variation of the system.
It uses an A4 Avant as a base, adding pumped-up styling and raised suspension. Its quattro extra grip means the Allroad can chug through mud and snow, but also gives it a kg towing capacity, while its raised suspension gives it clearance over rough terrain and makes it more comfortable on road.
The Audi A4 is extremely quiet and comes with a posh interior that feels very well built. It has enough rear legroom to keep tall passengers in the back happy and the square boot is capacious and easy-to-load.
Meaning it looks great inside and out, feels posh and is spacious. The Mercedes-AMG C 43 4Matic is a perfect example of a performance estate which uses its four wheel drive system to get its considerable power PS to the road with as little fuss as possible. Its twin-turbocharged six-cylinder petrol engine sounds great and can rocket the C 43 from mph in just 4.
Its accurate steering and composed body control make it feel great in corners and the AWD system gives you immense traction accelerating out of them. Inside, the C 43 feels very posh and has sporty touches like heavily bolstered front seats and aluminium trim pieces.
You can have the C 43 as a saloon or a coupe, but it's most compelling in estate form which gives it all the space needed to slot into your family's life. This makes the Superb an even better all-rounder than the standard car, giving it extra grip on slippery roads and the ability to venture on fields without worrying about getting stuck.
You can pair the four wheel drive system with petrol or diesel engines and, whatever combination you go for, the Superb is a quiet and comfortable cruiser. Inside, its intuitive design is a joy to use and the Skoda feels robust and high-quality. It takes the standard Panda city car, gives it beefed up looks, raises its suspension, adds off-road modes and, of course, four wheel drive. And it all comes with classic Porsche usability thrown in. The Porsche can shuffle its power from one side to the other like the ball in a pinball machine and using the drive select you can choose between making the car feel safe and predictable or just plain lairy.
The four wheel drive gives the Porsche steam-catapult acceleration of mph in 2. There's loads of room up front and the tiny back seats complement the storage offered by the deep front boot. The Volvo V90 Cross Country uses the standard car as a base and — you guessed it — adds chunkier looks, raised suspension and four wheel drive to make it more capable of dealing with rough tracks and slippery roads.
More and more high-powered, high-performance cars are using AWD for its ability to harness big horsepower without spinning the tires. Just as it does in snow, an AWD system's ability to deliver torque four ways and feed it to four tires, rather than two, reduces any individual tire's tendency to spin when accelerating in a straight line or while powering through a corner.
This means faster acceleration from rest with less burned rubber and, for expert drivers who push their cars hard, the confidence to hit the accelerator in a corner with less chance of slewing sideways or, worse, spinning out.
This is the big issue that drivers of AWD sedans need to learn to deal with—and some learn it the hard way. In snow and slush and on icy roads, AWD reduces wheelspin whenever you're trying to accelerate, but it has no effect on a car's ability to stop or turn in those same poor conditions.
AWD sedans neither stop nor turn any better than their two-wheel-drive cousins. Drivers tend to judge winter traction based on how easily a car's wheels spin when they push the throttle. Does the car wiggle, fishtail, or feel unstable? If it does, you naturally slow down. But because AWD greatly reduces wheelspin when accelerating, it's easy to overestimate how much traction there is and drive too fast for the conditions.
Do that and you might find yourself sailing off the outside of a corner or through an intersection when trying to stop for a red light. In many cases, AWD is offered as an option, and it can raise a vehicle's price by thousands of dollars.
However, some automakers offer this feature as standard equipment—though the extra cost of AWD components at least one extra differential, various clutches, a driveshaft, software, and more is baked into the sticker price. Also, the complexity of an AWD system can increase service and repair costs down the road. Audi and Subaru are known for offering models that come standard with AWD. Here's the AWD conundrum: An AWD sedan on all-season tires has significantly less traction for turning or braking on snowy roads than a front- or rear-wheel-drive sedan does on a set of four winter snow tires.
We proved as much in a Car and Driver winter-tire test that we conducted several years ago, where we showed that winter tires are superior in those two key driving situations. What about in a head-to-head acceleration test? Would the AWD car pull ahead? We have not tested how well an all-wheel-drive sedan on all-season tires can accelerate on snow versus a two-wheel-drive car fitted with winter tires, so we consulted the experts at Tire Rack, who conduct extensive snow testing.
In a drag race on snow, says Woody Rogers, Tire Rack's director of testing information, "I can make the outcome go either way depending on which all-season tires I fit to the AWD car. But in terms of cornering and braking traction, Tire Rack agrees with the results of our own testing: AWD offers no improvement. Then there's the matter of cost: fitting a two-wheel-drive sedan with a set of winter tires and extra wheels is in many cases less expensive than the extra cost of an AWD system.
And running a set of winter tires also extends the life of your summer tires. Here at Car and Driver , we fit a set of winter tires to all our long-term test cars for winter driving, even if they're AWD models.
As we have seen firsthand, an AWD sedan with a set of winter tires is a killer winter ride. Because an AWD system adds weight and creates parasitic driveline losses, in most cases it will diminish its fuel economy—though the fuel-economy penalty may be so small it doesn't even show on the EPA combined figures.
For example, according to EPA estimates, the Chrysler 3. For some vehicles, the difference can be as little as 1 mpg or less, according to the EPA. It can activate much more quickly and accurately than any human driver. Four-wheel drive shines in deep snow, mud, rough or rocky terrain as well as sharp inclines or declines.
Low- and high-range settings allow the driver to dial in the right amount of power and torque delivery to gain the best traction for the situation. Both systems provide better traction to get going and to stay on the road, but neither helps a vehicle stop.
A common mistake that drivers make in snowy or slippery situations is believing that their SUV or truck makes them invincible.
Extra traction does not equal extra stopping power. This misconception often can lead to overconfidence. Vehicles equipped with AWD or 4WD generally suffer a fuel economy penalty due to the extra weight and mechanical resistance of the equipment needed to turn all four wheels. In some cases, the reduction in gas mileage is small but can add up over time. Many vehicles equipped with 4WD are large trucks and SUVs that already suffer from inferior fuel economy due to their sheer weight and size.
Complicated drivetrains also can be more expensive. In some cases, the upgrade can drive up the price of a new vehicle by several thousand dollars. Luxury brands such as Audi make several vehicles with standard all-wheel drive.
Subaru has built an entire brand around offering only AWD cars and crossovers. Tires also should be a consideration. In fact, a front-wheel drive vehicle with decent snow tires can better tolerate many scenarios compared with an AWD vehicle outfitted with all-season tires. A handful of crossovers and SUVs with all-wheel drive come standard with all-season tires that will not be as effective in extreme wintery conditions. New Cars For Sale. Used Cars For Sale. Sports Cars. Used Cars.
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