What are the advantages and disadvantages of front vs. rear wheel drive vehicles?

Question

Primarily when dealing with mid-to-full-size sedans.

Answer 1

Aloha from Down Unda!

After extensive research into this question, the most grevieous disadvantage of the front wheel drive is the unusual amount of weight over the front end rendering excessive wear & less stability to the front tires.

Best wishes~

Answer 2

Rear wheel drive offers better performance and is what you will find on most luxury cars (BMW,Mercedes). Will not drive well in bad snow and ice conditions.

Front wheel drive is easier to handle in almost all conditions and will drive a lot better in bad snow and ice conditions. Most Common cars (Accord, Sonata, Camry) are front wheel drive.

Answer 3

The biggest benefit to rear wheel drive is that it spreads the loads of the car across all four tires of a car.

In a rear wheel drive car the rear wheels do the pushing while the front wheels are reserved for the steering duties.

In front wheel drive cars the front tires must perform both functions. Each front tire in a front wheel drive car must do two tasks.

Both the cornering forces and the engine acceleration/deceleration forces in a front drive car act on the same tire.

So in a front drive the tires capacity can be easily exceeded. In a rear drive car the rear tires handle the engine acceleration/deceleration while the front only need to handle the steering forces.

Not only does this balance the load on the tires but it reserves the front tires exclusively for the all important steering duties.

Answer 4

Rear wheel horrible in snow and ice

Answer 5

FWD is easy to drive for just getting around town sacrifices handling which is what RWD is better at. FWD is better in snow and rain because you back end will lose grip first. RWD sucks in rain and snow,ice essply where I live your front end goes all over place. FWD is good in rain, ice, snow due to fact engine is weighing front wheels down for traction and its pulling the car not pushing it.