rev up your engines, today I'm gonna talk about who makes the best all wheel drive
vehicle and here I'm not talking about the big boys giant trucks or anything
I'm talking about cars and SUVs all-wheel drive, now sometimes people get
confused with the idea of all-wheel drive, all wheel drive is the system
that's on all the time that provides a certain percentage of drive to all four
wheels, as an example let's talk about this Celica is front-wheel drive it only drives
off the front two wheels, where cars like a classic 67 Mustang
were rear-wheel drive only the rear wheels drove the car, now there are four
wheel drive vehicles those you can turn the systems off so you can have just the
rear wheels Drive in the vehicle, or when you're worried about being stuck you can
put it into gear for the front then you have front and rear wheel drive, but the
all-wheel drive systems they're the most sophisticated they adjust especially the
best ones for whatever driving condition you're in
what percentage of drive is the front what percentage is the rear, the new ones
are very complicated and when they work well and they really handle, now the
four-wheel drive system came first and that was mainly like I said for trucks
military vehicles, it was more for a lower speed thing to get traction
eventually they started to think let's put all wheel drive in higher
performance higher speed vehicles, take the exotic vehicle the Jensen FF that
was a high speed vehicle that had all-wheel drive and that was for
performance because you could corner better when all four hour wheels were
driving, and you wouldn't have the non-drive one slipping, then in more true
Road base cars for driving on the road, the Subaru
Leone and the Audi Quattro were high-speed all-wheel drive cars, now in
terms of pure technology the Audi's been owned by Volkswagen those have probably
the all-wheel-drive system that operates the best of course that's when its
operating when it doesn't break down, and Subaru has been building all wheel
drives for a long time, matter of fact all their vehicles are all-wheel drive
now except for their BRZ sports car, everything they make is all-wheel drive
but there's one vehicle that takes all-wheel drive to the most insane level
of Technology, and that of course is the Tesla Model S they have a motor at each
wheel an electric motor, so in the tesla since each wheel has its own
electric motor, you're talking about ultimate control of the power that's
transmitted by each wheel, because it's controlled by computers and
electronically, so if one wheel is in really bad ice and the other one is on
dry pavement, the thing can pretty well set it up
so you're not sliding all over the place and still have good traction, but then
again we're talking about megabucks here so I'm gonna tell you the best all wheel
drive systems out there that out outrageously expensive, so I'm not gonna
include the tesla, now the next best all-wheel drive system is the Audi
Quattro system, that came out in 1980 so they've been making it for quite some time,
now the Audi system is extremely complex and
sophisticated and expensive too of course, but it's set up more for speed, it
automatically gives the most power to the wheels that it sees has the most
traction, believe me it is really complicated, but when it's working it
really works well, but just like the rest of the car that's connected to it
hey road test a brand-new Audi you're probably fall in love with it, but if you
own it for 6 or 7 years, you probably find it to be a nightmare of repair, so
keep that in mind, technology isn't always the best way to
fix a problem, originally the Quattro system was a lot more mechanical than it
is today, but today it uses extremely sophisticated electronic components to
give you not only the power, but really good control when it's snowing or
raining outside too, there's no arguing that, so here the Germans have fascinating
technology, but at what cost, take world war 2 they only made so many
King Tigers they all kept breaking down couldn't go that far, obviously they lost
the war, sometimes the technology goes too far if you want something that's
gonna last a long time, now the next good all-wheel-drive system is the one
used in the Acura MDX yes the suv, it's called SH all-wheel drive super handling
all-wheel drive, that came out in 2005 it uses an active differential that you often
find in high-performance race cars it's a sophisticated system too, the Acura
system is known for its torque vectoring formulation, it's a handling thing and it
only makes sense cuz it's in an SUV you're not supposed to be racing around
in those things straight line, but it really helps cornering so they don't
slip, which is what you really need in a relatively large sized SUV, but that
system it helps you stay on the pavement instead of sliding off it, and let's face
it these aren't off-road vehicles you want
to stay on the road the system's designed for the road, another good all-wheel
drive systems that might surprise you, it's the one that they used in the Ford
Fusion, Ford's intelligent all-wheel drive system has the ability to put 100
percent of the power to either the front or the rear wheels making it work great
in snowier wet weather, it's a tech heavy system that can react 20 times
faster than a blink of your eye to adjust the system for the road
conditions as they change as you drive over them, and one your cornering it has
the ability to compensate for oversteer, or understeer using the drive system so
that it handles really well, so really for the average Joe the best system out
there is the subaru, every vehicle they make is all-wheel drive except for the
BRZ, now unlike a lot of the all-wheel drive systems out there, that started as
a two wheel drive system and then adapted that system to make it all wheel
drive, that system was designed for all-wheel drive right from the get-go
provide power to all four wheels continuously under all conditions, the
Subaru symmetrical system they've been building these things are quite some time
although I'm not a subaru fan myself, I have to say if I lived in a really snowy
mountains climate, I'd think about buying a Subaru
next time you go skiing check out the parking lot, you probably see quite a few
Subarus parked under there, now of course with all these all-wheel drive systems
today you're dealing with a high level of Technology, and understand that it's
going to be more in repairs as time goes on, even simple repairs like changing a
starter I've seen it end up costing five six hundred dollars more to replace the
starter on all-wheel-drive system, because all these pieces were in the way
of the starter, and you had to remove them to get the starter off, understand
that, but if you live in a snowy wet rainy environment, or you really want
an suv that's safe and handles well, hey now you know which all-wheel drive
systems are well-made, so if you never want to miss another one of my new car
repair videos, remember to ring that Bell