Is there an advantage if the car is FWD or RWD?

Question

Some say RWD car better, others say the contrary and some would say that FWD cars are easier to manufacture, for that reason, most of the cars today are FWD.

Answer 1

FWD pros: lighter

better traction

FWD cons: not as robust

don't handle as well (larger turning radius and more torque steering)



RWD pros: stonger

better handling (smaller turn radius, more predictable more equal weight distribution)

RWD cons: heavier

less raction

Answer 2

in a nut shell, fwd is for economy cars and rwd is better for performance.



but i'll go into more detail.



first with fwd. fwd is lighter because you don't need a long driveshaft to the rear of the car and the differential is more compact. its also cheaper to produce than rwd.



also fwd has better traction in slippery situations at low speeds. so lets say your car is stuck in some snow, fwd has more traction than rwd because the engine sits above the driven wheels, so there's more weight on the driven wheels, therefore more traction.



but lets say if your racing, fwd is HORRIBLE in "high performance" cars. first of all, when comming off the line, fwd has less grip than rwd because when you accelerate, the weight moves to the back so the front wheels won't have much grip. also when going through corners, you will experience more understeer because the front wheels are trying to do two thinks, steer and accelerate the car. so since so much is being demanded from the front wheels, understeer occurs. that's why high performance or true sports cars are either awd or rwd.



so as i said, rwd won't be as good as fwd in snow. but personally, i like drifting around in the snow :P



also, rwd gets better traction off the line, and through corners.





so which is better really does depends on your needs. for most people, fwd will do just fine because not everyone races their cars. that's why most cars today are fwd.

Answer 3

It's all about weight distribution. FWD carries the weight of the engine and transmission directly over the drive wheels therefore getting better traction than a RWD vehicle. As was mentioned above,having everything up front meant that the manufacturers could design cars with flat floors adding interior space and reducing cost by reducing components. By reducing components they also reduced weight. True performance cars are RWD but their engines are mounted mid-chassis for better weight distribution such as Ferrari, Lamborghini etc.

Answer 4

For any type of racing RWD is better, but in every day situations, it doesn't make much of a difference in terms of how it feels to drive. FWD cars don't have drive shaft humps though, which means there's a little more room inside.

Under hard acceleration, however, FWD cars generally exhibit what's called torque steer, which is no fun.

Answer 5

RWD is more performance based, like BMW or Mercedes. FWD is less expensive, you get better MPG and its better in the snow.

Answer 6

It depends on where you live. RWD is awful in ice and snow it fishtails on slippery roads. For me it's a matter of practicality.