If it seems like most new cars are sold with all-wheel drive, you’re not wrong.
More than half of new cars come with it, but you need to be mindful.
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Not all all-wheel drive vehicles are the same, and you might not even need it.
Karlie Stephenson recently bought this 2018 Mazda CX-5 for her growing family.
“I don’t want as much room as an SUV, but I needed something bigger than a car,” said Stephenson.
She said all-wheel drive was a must.
“Living in Missouri, you can get all the seasons at once.”
If you want all-wheel drive for that sense of security…
“Safety and peace of mind,” said Stephenson.
Consumer Reports said you should know, not all vehicles with all-wheel drive are the same. For example, Subaru’s AWD system always directs at least some of the engine’s power to the rear, and it can direct a larger amount if needed. That’s not the case for every AWD.
“There are cost-effective ways or different ways of doing this where maybe the car is primarily driven as front-wheel drive,” said Knizek. “The front wheels are getting most of the power all the time and then only in certain situations will it send power to the rear wheels.”
Yes, there are more AWD cars on the road nowadays. Thanks to technology, this transfer of power happens with a mechanical driveshaft running the length of the car. But, electric vehicles and some hybrids utilize individual motors at each axle with no physical connection between them.
“Where these systems just allow all-wheel drive to almost be implemented easier in a vehicle …With a hybrid vehicle like from Toyota, for example, they take an electric motor and they just put it at the rear and that’s what’s giving you all-wheel drive, right? So they really don’t have to change much from the regular car to enable all-wheel drive.”
By the way – all passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. starting with the 2012 model year come equipped with electronic stability control, which, along with traction control, significantly improves road-holding capabilities, regardless of the drive wheels.
So, who really needs AWD?
“It’s people who really live in snowy areas, who see a lot of slippery road conditions, things like that, or, you know, at the, they live at the bottom of a steep driveway that is often wet or snowy or covered in ice.”