im assuming it is because every car brand either makes all wheel or rear wheel. porsches, ferraris, benz, lambos, BMW.i have a 325ci and one random guy said nice car and its good because its rear wheel. so how does rear wheel differ from front. i know in snow rear is **** but on track and stuff. i dont understand it when people say it turns better?
The physics of it - a rear wheel drive car gives much better control in performance driving. In truth, a good driver will love rear wheel in snow (until they got stuck) because rwd gives better overall car control. It turns better because the back wheels are doing one chore (driving) and the front wheels do the turning and the better part of the braking. In front wheel the front tires are forced to do everything and the rears are just going for a ride. Having to do more means it tends to do everything a little worse. Those cars don't make rwd a good thing, it's (partially) rwd that makes those cars good things.
RWD is not necessarily better, it depends on the situation. However, nobody wants a sports car (or a expensive car like ferraris) to be FWD; the main reason is that high horsepower cars won't be able to put the power to the ground because when you accelerate from a dig, the weight of the car gets transfer to the rear. That's the reason why RWD cars are desirable for high horsepower applications and many people don't consider a FWD a sports car. RWD also has the tendency to oversteer which is something desirable in a track as oposed of understeer cause it helps you to roll around a curve. RWD is more unpredictable and takes more skill to regain control after losing traction in a turn. I think an advantages of the FWD is that its easier to drive in the winter cause handling is more predictable in every aspect. Another advantage is the lack of driveshaft and rear differential which makes the car lighter and gives you better gas mileage.
It depends what you want from a car. Front wheel drive is best for small, cheap cars because it uses a more compact drivetrain, with no propshaft or rear diff. so you get more space inside. check out the BMW 1 series. awful interior packaging. Front wheel drive is also more forgiving for the average driver, anyone can cope with understeer as you naturally correct it. Front wheel drive cars can NEVER be considered as sports cars, rear wheel drive is best for that, as you have more traction at the rear wheels due to lateral weight transfer under acceleration, and the front wheels are only taking care of the steering. you can use the throttle to steer the rear wheels, giving more overall controll. not really a problem for most people on the road, on a track it is an important consideration 4 wheel drive is only usefull in slippery conditions. you get more weight, less interior space and mostly understeering handling. but better straight line traction.
