Quote:
Originally Posted by Gilles79
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wyldstyle
Thanks, Sportstick. You have taught me a lot in this thread! While I totally agree that stopping/maneuvering is most important, getting started does become significant in rush hour / congested situations; I shudder to imagine getting stuck and blocking a lane on the interstate, or even an intersection due to a red light, during a storm.
One other consideration with regard to starting power is that my driveway has a fairly steep incline where one enters it from the road, and it is narrow with retaining walls, so the AWD may be more capable of driving up it at a very low speed; there is no opportunity to build momentum ahead of entering the driveway, particularly during slick conditions. Not helping matters is that I have a neighbor who always parks on the opposite side of the street directly at the bottom of my driveway...
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This sounds exactly like my driveway. I spent years trying to get up the driveway on snowy days and even with front wheel drive, dedicated snow tires and playing with traction control on and off, I would occasionally get stuck half way up. AWD makes ALL the difference, I always make it up the incline.
And on these same days, the damn snowplow would always leave a big pile where our side street meets the main road, so it was always very dramatic trying to get traction to take advantage of a break in traffic. Now with AWD this is no problem.
Not to mention inclines on the way to work with stop lights, hoping the light doesn't turn red, meaning having to stop and lose precious momentum and trying to get going again.
I don't miss these challenges.  AWD makes all the difference, very confidence inspiring. |
Exactly the same situation with my neighborhood as well. "Confidence inspiring" is exactly how I feel about AWD as well. It keeps the car planted. MN snow storms plus uphill climbs were NOTHING for this car. However that was only possible due to AWD with awesome winter tires, at least in my case.
Also, for some reason, the front of the car seems to push aggressively with AWD, which is something I enjoy immensely. Hard to explain, actually. Adds to that sure-footed feel for sure.
I have tons of backroads here; I really enjoy how the XDrive feels like it is on rails, like a slot car haha
Edit: I have driven plenty of RWD cars here on these backroads so I speak with context; there is just something so beautiful and satisfying about gracefully carving a shape turn without worrying that the rear end would playfully kick out on these tight backroads.