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
