The IT Nerd

Since I’ve started to review cars, I’ve gotten the odd question about cars. Here’s one that popped into my inbox yesterday:

Hello IT Nerd. I have a question for you. I am in the market for a car and I am considering all-wheel-drive as I think it will make me safer. My Husband thinks it won’t. Who’s right? 

Thanks for your question.

I don’t want to start any trouble in your marriage, but your Husband is right. It will not make you safer. All-wheel-drive or four-wheel-drive (The differences between the two are explained in this article) is great for getting you going in slippery conditions, and depending on the system being used it may provide some additional stability when cornering. But it will not help you to stop better or regain control if you lose control on slippery roads. So if you’re expecting all-wheel-drive to bail you out of trouble, it won’t.

Here’s why I opted for all-wheel-drive in my Toyota Matrix. It delivers power to all four wheels from a standing start or under hard acceleration which limits torque steer (the tendency for a front wheel drive car to pull to one side) and assures that all the power gets to the pavement. I really love that. Plus in the winter it almost eliminates wheel spin off the line in slippery conditions. Other than that, I have no other expectations from the system. I fully expect that I will have to drive according to the road conditions. That doesn’t mean that all-wheel drive is not worth looking into. It just means that you have to go into this with an understanding of what it can do for you.

This entry was posted on December 6, 2013 at 9:54 am and is filed under Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.