Which is better to navigate through snow (if you don't have 4WD), rear-wheel or front-wheel drive?

I have heard that front wheel drive, this is cause it is easier to correct in the slick conditions.

Does not matter which wheels are the drive wheels with stopping, they all stop the same. A 4X4 will not help you when you are stopping.

rear wheel drive is horrible in snow. if you cant or don’t have a 4x4 its much better to have a front wheel drive car

i have driven both. a rear wheel drive sucks you slide more than you could imagine. but having 4 wheel drive is great. a front wheel drive is better than rear wheel theres more weight on the front tires from the engine and all. you will still slide but is more manageable than rear wheel. up in the Northeast of the states you get used to driving in the snow quickly and you can see whats better

Traction control really help from the little bit of snow I have driven in.

traction control does help, some times alot of times it kicks in too late lmao snow sucks!

Oh….really? Hmm, I was way off then…sorry Annie!

It’s alright, I don’t know much about cars either :)

It is all cool, and I do not want to sound mean at all.

Our rear wheel drive Escalade did alright when we had the snow year one year, but it has traction control, but I have always been told that front wheel or 4 wheel is the best.

Rear wheels down hill, front wheels uphill.

I would think rear wheel going down hill could get you in a lot of trouble, but I would not know being from Texas, please enlighten me.

Actually anything less than all wheel drive doesn’t do it for me. I own a Jeep Grand Cherokee and an Audi S4 and the advice on stopping is good but AWD makes sure all the wheels stay in sync on the speed which is the most desirable part of traction.

Actually anything less than all wheel drive doesn’t do it for me. I own a Jeep Grand Cherokee and an Audi S4 and the advice on stopping is good but AWD makes sure all the wheels stay in sync on the speed which is the most desirable part of traction.

Most rear wheel drive cars have most of the weight in front so they tend just spin the wheels when things get sloppy. Rear or mid engine rear wheel drive cars do somewhat better though they still have more of tendency to oversteer or spin than front wheel drive. Front wheel drives tend to understeer instead of oversteer. Understeer is easier for drivers to recover from; especially inexperienced drivers who tend to make oversteering worse.

When I grew up in Michigan most cars were front engine rear wheel drive and we managed. Generally we’d throw a couple of big bags of sand or kitty litter in the trunk to get better traction and if we got stuck we had something to put down for more grip.

yep front wheel and 4 wheel drive is the best to have with snow.

I am sorry 4 wheel or 2 wheel drive does not help you stop, 4 wheel drive will help you go, but this is not the question. The question is what is better for snow and ice rear wheel drive or front wheel drive.

it’s front wheel drive for a couple of reasons. The engine is in the front so there’s more weight where the power is being distributed to (the front wheels) which is also the wheels you turn with. They also tend to be much better on fuel than rear wheel or all wheel being that they are very often 4 cylinders and they also don’t have as much moving parts or resistance in general coming from the drivetrain which also explains why they tend to be lighter.

you can get something like a buick with a v6 its front wheel drive. not to mention a high performance engine. There are many front wheel drive vehicles with more than 4 cylinders.

you definately want front wheel drive

Annie, it’s car talk baby (^_^)

bananaonion, to start off with; there are many v6 fwds because there are very many fwd vehicles in general. Most of them have Inline 4 cylinder engines. She’s looking for a car that’s good in snow too.

Annie, i’ll tell you why you would rather a Inline 4 rather than a v6.

First off, the v6 has 6 more cylinders and is a hog on gas as compared to the I4.

(the I4 is better on fuel)

If you ever worked on a transversely mounted v6 you would know that it’s a very hard set up to work with. You have a cylinder head pushed up against the fire wall and crammed right infront of the radiator and fans. Maintenance because of this cost very much because they are so hard to work with. Almost all of the transversely mounted v6 engines that ive worked on, you have to get under the vehicle to change plugs or wires and even then its still hard and timely to do the work. The two exhaust manifolds off of the cylinder heads are also quite crammed because of the v config and this makes it even harder to do any exhaust manifold or cat-back system work. More over almost all cars with v6 engines have a cover to them which hide so much at first sight which makes it even harder to work on.

(All in all, the v6 is a gigantic bill on wheels when it comes to maintenance =P)

The I configuration is much more durable being that it has 5 main caps for its 4 cylinders in comparison to the v6 4 main caps for its 6 cylinders. This also gives more space for the rod journals and ultimately results in I config engines to have much beefier rods than v config. Being that the cylinders are inline, it also results in better engine lubrication. All together the inline 4 cylinders have much beefier or stronger engine internals.

(the I4 is much more durable than the v6, also noticeably more reliable.)

The I4 cylinder being that it has larger engine internals than the v6 is also noticeably heavier. It’s crank is longer than the v6 and so is the entire engine block in general. This ultimately makes the I4 a heavier engine than the v6 which means that there is more weight on the front wheels so this gives you better traction for FWD vehicles. Better traction means the better it is in the snow.

(the I4 cylinders are better in the snow than v6 FWD’s)

In comparison to a buick 3.8 V6 series 2 weighs about 395lbs. A I4 H22ag1 for example weighs 510lbs. An extra 115 lbs focused on the front wheels can be quite the good deal in the snow.

(^_^)

Front wheel drive cars hands down. They Pull you through snow instead of push, giving you more control seeings as you steer with the front wheels. Back wheel just pushes your car and doesn’t give your steering traction, so if you start to get pulled into slush or fishtail on the ice you will more likely be able to regain your control with front wheel. Kitty Litter is a great idea, along with traction treads you can buy online, so if you ever do find yourself stuck you can get out.

I would say 4 wheel drive is better to handel in snow.

yes, but that isn’t the question.