Four-wheel drive cars have a special transmission design in which all wheels are connected to the engine. This increases the cross-country ability of the car, but at the same time makes it more difficult to control.
Features of all-wheel drive vehicles
An all-wheel drive vehicle is a vehicle with a transmission mechanism that transfers engine torque to all wheels. Simply put, in a four-wheel drive car, all four wheels are connected to the engine, so that they turn and propel the vehicle. There are also front-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive cars, in which the front or rear wheels rotate, respectively, and the other two only rotate in the direction of the vehicle.
Initially, all-wheel drive vehicles were designed as off-road vehicles, but today they are widespread on domestic and foreign roads. In addition to high cross-country ability in various weather and terrain conditions, such cars have a number of disadvantages:
- complexity in management;
- the high price of the car;
- high fuel consumption.
Difficulty in management is characterized by the presence of various options for the implementation of four-wheel drive: permanent four-wheel drive, manually connected four-wheel drive, automatically connected four-wheel drive. Each of the transmission schemes has its own control characteristics, which can be difficult to apply in extreme conditions.
Mostly, the purchase of cars with an all-wheel drive transmission is associated with a hobby or work as a driver, where there is a need for increased cross-country ability. The class of all-wheel drive vehicles is represented by VAZ-2121 "Niva", UAZ, SUVs. Four-wheel drive vehicles make up 10% of the model range of almost every passenger car manufacturer.
Popular types of transmissions - with rear and front wheel drive
When driving a rear-wheel drive vehicle, special attention must be paid to the precision and speed of the steering wheel and to the accuracy of handling the gas pedal. Abrupt and excessive movements of the steering wheel and accelerator pedal can cause the vehicle to skid, especially on slippery roads. The movement is stabilized if the accelerator pedal is released smoothly.
Rear-wheel drive cars are represented by the VAZ-2101-07, Moskvich-2140, Volga, Mercedes, BMW models.
Front-wheel drive vehicles are dynamically stable. They are less agile, less maneuverable than rear-wheel drive, and are resistant to skidding. The disadvantage of such cars is their stability in linear motion on any surface. This means that the driver has little feeling that the road can be slippery, and when cornering, the car can be demolished.
The front-wheel drive class is represented by such cars as VAZ-2108-15, Moskvich-2141, Volkswagen, Audi, Opel, Nissan, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Volvo.
