Any other RWD purists out there?

[Brother Michael]

Originally Posted by thevictor390

One word: hills. As I said, I get stuck in my own driveway!

Somehow I won't take this very seriously. First of all you are an american, which automatically makes me suspicious about your choice of tires, I'm guessing all season or even summer tires ?

Second of all you drive an automatic. Combined with rubbish tires that is not a winning combination in slippery conditions.

RWD in the winter is fine as long as you know what you are doing and have proper winter tires, as in studded ones.

[Doctor Blade]

I've been driving long enough to know it's all relative. I drive a FWD Auto because it was affordable, and I couldn't get a RWD I wanted. Give me a large enough wad of cash, and I might go RWD/row it yerself. Or Auto, if I'm feeling lazy. I can have fun driving anything, to be honest. The highways aren't a race track, after all.

[thevictor390]

Originally Posted by Brother Michael

Somehow I won't take this very seriously. First of all you are an american, which automatically makes me suspicious about your choice of tires, I'm guessing all season or even summer tires ?

Second of all you drive an automatic. Combined with rubbish tires that is not a winning combination in slippery conditions.

RWD in the winter is fine as long as you know what you are doing and have proper winter tires, as in studded ones.

So I can get away with regular tires with a front wheel drive car, but I need studded tires for rear wheel drive. And that doesn't make them less safe?

I'm not trying to knock rear wheel drive here (look at my car) but they simply aren't as good in the snow. That doesn't make them undrivable or even less fun, it just means it's easier to lose control.

[public]

No, you can't have regular tires in winter unless you plan on keeping the car in the garage for the winter.

[Brother Michael]

Originally Posted by thevictor390

So I can get away with regular tires with a front wheel drive car, but I need studded tires for rear wheel drive. And that doesn't make them less safe?

I'm not trying to knock rear wheel drive here (look at my car) but they simply aren't as good in the snow. That doesn't make them undrivable or even less fun, it just means it's easier to lose control.

No you can't get anymore away with bad tires in a FWD car. RWD cars just happen to highlight the issue on hill starts, because there is no weight over the driving wheels like there is in FWD cars. For example Porsche 911s do rather good hill starts, because they also have a lot of weight on top of the driving wheels of the car. But doing a hillstart in a regular RWD car you need to have good tires, or you won't be going anywhere, whereas in a FWD you might have a chance.

That's one single case, doesn't mean RWD is horrible in winter. As far as I'm concerned FWD in winter isn't all that fun either, because the car will understeer very easily. For example crossing an opposing lane when turning, I'd rather throw the tail out than plow straight on.

But like public above me said, you can't get away with all season or summer tires regardless of the drivetrain layout in your car. You need to have proper, studded winter tires.

[epp_b]

240 drivers.....

...are awesome!

One word: hills. As I said, I get stuck in my own driveway!

Our gravel driveway has an ever-so-slight incline and gets really icy once the snow has fallen and gets frozen solid and impacted. At times, I can put my car in first, slowly let the clutch out, step out of the car and it will sit their stationary, slowly spinning it's wheels.

No, you can't have regular tires in winter unless you plan on keeping the car in the garage for the winter.

I have all-weather tires on all winter long. On the other hand, I live in the flattest location on the planet.

[sifu]

doing 180kph while being stationary is fun even its unintentional

[prizrak]

Originally Posted by public

No, you can't have regular tires in winter unless you plan on keeping the car in the garage for the winter.

I use all season tires in my car and don't see much benefit to winter ones. Yes my braking distance is longer and cornering is less stable but that means I don't go flying 50mph down the road and slam on the brakes at the last possible second or go around turns at 120.

Also keep in mind that there are different situations. As an example one of my friends (a 240 driver ) lives in a little street that never gets plowed. Most of the roads do though, running studded tires wouldn't work for him because after he is through his driveway/little street his driving on normal pavement so it would be less than fun.

Simple fact is that for most situations FWD with M+S tires works quite well and generally not so for RWD.

[argatoga]

Studded tires will do more than drive configuration. Winter tires that aren't studded aren't winter tires.

[ahpadt]

Originally Posted by Posmo

I've been getting a bit of flack on the forums for my view on front wheel drive cars. As some of you might know, I wouldn't accept a front wheel drive car even as a commuter box. I just feel that RWD does just about everything better, and allows you to do the most fun thing possible when driving a car, powersliding. I know it's childish to go everywhere sideways, but just by looking at Top Gear, you can tell it's a shit-ton of fun.

Sorry, but how can you know this when you've only ever owned 1 car? FWD cars are perfectly fine for commuting.

And to bring my balance: In my dream garage most of the cars are RWD.

[Supreme_Being]

...but what about 4WD?

[Polygon]

Originally Posted by Posmo

So, I ask you, are there any other people here who feel that front (fail) wheel drive is for feeble people who don't know what they are missing?

Get ready for some flack. I get sick of the wrong wheel drive attitude and that's the first time I've heard someone say it's for feeble people. I'm a car enthusiast and I like cars no matter what wheels move the car. Granted, most great cars are not FWD but there a lot of cool ones that are. To me it isn't wrong, just different.

That being said, I just changed my first FWD clutch and I don't know if I ever want to own another FWD car just for that. What a PITA.

[sifu]

i would agree if there werent any interesting cars with fwd layout, but there are soo many...

[syncview]

Originally Posted by LeVeL

Well to be fair your car isn't exactly sports-car material And I never said that there is anything wrong with having a RWD daily. But yes, the chances of me buying a FWD car next are slim to none, mostly because good/sporty FWD cars are out of my price range (MazdaSpeed3, GTI, Mini, etc)

^ the 190E will REALLY surprise you.

[MacDubois]

For about 90% of my driving, I've stopped caring. I used to think RWD only, but then I had to get a car to commute (150 miles a day) and I couldn't afford a RWD car that would do that reliably that I wanted. Now I have different tastes and I could, but I'm just not bothered by FWD enough to change.

Even rediculously fast driving is fine. Even autocrossing, I can get my car to do what I want most of the time. It's just a different set of limitations.

That said, I probably won't buy a FWD car for my next vehicle. And if I screw up in a FWD I'm probably going to get killed to death, whereas in a RWD car, I can probably save it before I get iced.

[EyeMWing]

Originally Posted by Brother Michael

RWD in the winter is fine as long as you know what you are doing and have proper winter tires, as in studded ones.

Studded tires aren't permissible in all states. Yes, this is retarded. They cause "undue wear on the road" (and yes, I'm talking about rubber studs, not metal ones) and state governments are cheap bitches that love to prolong pavement life as much as possible at the expense of lives and inconvenience. Tire chains are recommended on an as-needed basis (i.e. never because NOBODY owns chains and even fewer people have half an idea how to put them on) instead.

In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a set of studded tires IN MY LIFE. Plenty of tires that could be studded, but no actual studs.

[snoro]

Originally Posted by Night_Hawk

I sold a $250 FWD car and replaced it with a $1900 RWD car and I've been satisfied ever since. And the only problems with the Thunderbird have absolutely nothing to do with the driven wheels.

And I think the snow driving arguement is invalid as long as RWD drivers like me and Posmo keep getting more and more snow every winter than pretty much everyone in North America. I'm using snow tires currently for the first time ever and It's only because they came with the car previously mounted to matching alloys.

dont forget the quebecois , 660cm of snow in one winter is not a small amount of snow. As for fwd or rwd, i cant really argument on this since this winter will be my first winter that i will drive and if the winter tire that my dad bought are about the same quality as the summer one, i ill have alot of trouble. But still, with the amount of snow we get over here, i would be more going for a 4wd winter beater and a rwd summer car. But still, plenty of fun can be had with a small hatchback fwd car. None want a little honda z600 with a cbr 600r engine in it to have a bit of fun ?

[GM_IV]

Count me as someone who won't ever buy a FWD car as tempting as a select few are. I've been driving an elderly RWD Toyota for at least 6 years and only in the last year and a half have I been driving a lot of FWD cars. Toronto snows quite a bit sometimes and I actually felt safer in my RWD car, the sense of control, balance and in the case of my car...predictability.

[prizrak]

Originally Posted by argatoga

Studded tires will do more than drive configuration. Winter tires that aren't studded aren't winter tires.

You missed my post didn't you? Studded tires don't work in all places. In WA its fine as you get quite a bit of snow consistently. In places like NYC, Baltimore and so on snow is very inconsistent and having dedicated winter tires just doesn't make any sense. There is still enough snow/ice/rain going on that an RWD with all season tires will have a hard time more so than FWD.

I am not saying that it is impossible to drive RWD in the Winter or on slippery surfaces but it is more difficult than FWD.

Which is why AWD pwns j00 all!!!! mwhahahahahhaha
<--- been wishing for an RWD car for a year now

[stevanford1]

Originally Posted by NooDle

this thread has nothing to do with WANT. The question the OP is asking is more like : are there any other people out there who will not even consider an FWD car, even as a daily commuter box.

So far, I see one guy who says 'yes me'. And he's scary

In my personal experience, want has a lot to do with it. A few years ago (before the RS) i would've had the same answer as Posmo. (Although the RS is the only FWD car i want.)