snapc3 said:

I had a FWD 1g for about a month, found an AWD and pulled the trigger on it. Glad I made the switch early!

I live in Florida, and one thing that's great about the AWD is in the rain you can still accelerate with no worries about wheel spin and it feels much safer.

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But spinning in the rain is so much fun! And people look at you like >.>

Spinning from a roll in light rain is all great fun, but you can do it in a honda, or a saturn, or a toyota......


Try booking down the interstate doing 65 in the passing lane when people in the slow lane are doing 40 because the road is damn near flooded and everyone is hydroplaning.. That is why awd is awesome.

TSI_93 said:

Try booking down the interstate doing 65 in the passing lane when people in the slow lane are doing 40 because the road is damn near flooded and everyone is hydroplaning.. That is why awd is awesome.

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done it in fwd too. Snow too. I didn't know hydrplaning was dependent on drivetrain. I always thought it was from driving too fast on wet roads. Dang learn sumin new everday don't ya.

TSI_93 said:

Spinning from a roll in light rain is all great fun, but you can do it in a honda, or a saturn, or a toyota......


Try booking down the interstate doing 65 in the passing lane when people in the slow lane are doing 40 because the road is damn near flooded and everyone is hydroplaning.. That is why awd is awesome.

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It's also borderline reckless.

The biggest con of AWD cars is making an average driver overestimate their own abilities and that of the car's. The worst is all those chevy/ford drivers flying around doing 70 when its pouring/snowing. I can't tell you how many of them I've seen flipped or crunched into barrierin that same weather.

Joethefallen23 said:

It's also borderline reckless.

The biggest con of AWD cars is making an average driver overestimate their own abilities and that of the car's. The worst is all those chevy/ford drivers flying around doing 70 when its pouring/snowing. I can't tell you how many of them I've seen flipped or crunched into barrierin that same weather.

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I've noticed that too about Chevys and Fords; for whatever reason they can't stay on the road. I always figured they were texting while driving in inclement weather on the interstate.

Ps. I need to put these here for my daughter:

all i can say is what good is it when you make a lot of power and you can't put it to the ground . just look at the you tube video of the 7 second 1 gen eclipse againts a 7 second mustang .its one of my favorite videos and the awd advantage beats the mustang.

So to sum up everything that has been said already and taking into account the fact that all dsms fwd or awd break (20+ years old for crying out loud)

AWD --> Cons= None,
--> Pros = All of them.

Sell the fwd and get an awd, you will not regret it.

XLR8 said:

So to sum up everything that has been said already and taking into account the fact that all dsms fwd or awd break (20+ years old for crying out loud)

AWD --> Cons= None,
--> Pros = All of them.

Sell the fwd and get an awd, you will not regret it.

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Actually it's more person preference then anything. I think a test drive is in order to best determine what you want.

One thing I absolutely hate about my 2g AWD is the turning radius. U- Turns make me want to kill things.

That being said, I'm not sure if it's the same deal on a 1g, but my 2g refuses to be nimble in tight spaces. It's not the end of the world, since you just learn how to drive like you're driving a bus.

Its funny but with 4 wheels getting grip versus 2 or even 1 in a lot of cases with with 2wd cars you'd think that you won't hydro plane as bad in an awd... But whatever. I know the RX7 I just got rid of couldn't be driven in heavy rain faster than 25-30 mph because the rear wheels would constantly be loosing grip independatly of each other, or in some cases at the same time.

When you I loose grip in any of my awd cars they loose grip at 1 wheel. If I were loosing grip doing 65 in that kind of rain I would slow down. I don't so I won't.

smills1840 said:

One thing I absolutely hate about my 2g AWD is the turning radius. U- Turns make me want to kill things.

That being said, I'm not sure if it's the same deal on a 1g, but my 2g refuses to be nimble in tight spaces. It's not the end of the world, since you just learn how to drive like you're driving a bus.

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Evidently you have never driven a big vehicle! I either drive my awd swapped spyder or my quad cab short bed 2 wd Ram. The Ram is a pain in the butt to park especially in older parking lots with narrow rows. Ill take parking my spyder any day of the week.

TSI_93 said:

If I were loosing grip doing 65 in that kind of rain I would slow down. I don't so I won't.

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Which is the precise attitude I referenced in my previous post. AWD instills some sense of false security in drivers, especially with DSMs. Yes there's more traction, but an awd car can hydroplane none the less. We don't have the fancy S-AWC found on the Evo X. We have a mechanical system. 80% of us are all running open front and rear diffs.(At this rate, most of the rear lsds are running as open due to mileage.) You go through a big enough puddle, that car will go skipping. I'm not telling you how to drive your car, but if the rain is really as bad as you're saying it is, I'd take it a little more slowly. All it takes is one puddle around a bad bend.

Apparently a pro of AWD is that you can drive like an idiot and get it away with it most of the time.

I can't stand FWD personally. I will never purchase another FWD car again. AWD is SOOOO much better in the snow and where I live that is a pretty important factor. Not to mention there is no better feeling than a good launch in an AWD car. Yes a FWD can launch well, but it is much harder and typically requires at the very least an LSD and a very good set of tires or slicks.

I could care less about gas mileage as my DSM is simply a weekend warrior but again that is just my .02

Consider this though. Do a search and look for threads talking about an AWD to FWD. There is a reason that the vast majority of people convert to AWD and not the other way around. Or even better yet, go look for a FWD Evo, let me know if you find one

-Sigh- I am not driving a typical beat to shit no maint dsm with wires poking out of the tires, no breaks, an open diff, and driving at unsafe speeds.

I usually do 80-85 on dry interstate, 20 mph is a big difference. RX7 was too light, and had too little weight over the drive wheels to get a pittance of grip in rain.

My DSM does loose some grip in the rain, but it doesnt loose nearly as much grip as either of the fwd dsms I had, and it doesn't actually snow much here so I can't so how good or bad it is on snow aside from the one time I stuck a set of wheels with snow tires on it and drove around in 3" of snow. Only time it has ever snowed that much in my decade of driving in Alabama.

As for Launching. I have pulled off 1.70 60ft with my 3000gt wheels that have High performance all seasons on them. Not really much of a drag tire, great in the rain though.

MJcanada said:

It has its limits in the corners as well, due to added weight and having the rear pushing the front it suffers from understeer. More than a fwd.

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I believe you have that backward, sir.

AWD>FWD in everything besides gas mileage and slightly added maintenance.




You don't see people converting their GSX's to GST's......

AWD is king. Thats what makes a dsm better than other little cars, the awd turbo option.

AWD is better for pulling boats up slippery boat ramps.

Overall traction in rain and snow is directly related to weight vs. surface area. Skinny tires are better in rain and snow. Tire width and tread the same, your AWDs do better in the rain at high speed because the increased weight of transfer case, driveshaft, and rear diff and axles all help to push your tires down into the puddles. Of course, an extra tire or two maintaining forward movement (when on the gas) helps too.
To me, FWD feels more tossable and nimble for daily driving, but in certain conditions nothing beats AWD. This means when you finally do lose traction you crash at a much higher speed than the FWD ! I see more 4wd trucks in the ditch during snowstorms than cars due to false confidence in available traction, Pick your poison.

Outside of performance and such which has the BIG plus in performance with a turbo setup, one thing that all AWD users MUST remember is that thing that drives the rear axle: the viscous coupler.

When both sets of axles - front and back - are turning at the same amount of RPM, the coupler isn't working. But, you get one tire that is a different pressure along with a slight difference in diameter, that one tire is going to rotate a bit different, which will cause the viscous material in the couple to engage making you're working both axles instead of the rear axle just rolling along ... and this raises hell with the rear end differiental. This is basically why I won't buy a Suby AWD for the same reason, for (I've heard) that when a SUBY AWD shows up on the used car lot, a good chance that thing has major rear end problems due to owners not rotating their tires, checking air pressure and similar on a regular basis.

Winter driving with AWD sucks as well, for if the front end breaks loose on slippery surfaces, the rear end suddenly engages and will "push" the rear part of the car to catch up with the front to allow the coupler to release and run free again. This little push can throw the car a bit out of control- and on icey surfaces it's murder for the driver.

Thus, keep tire rotation on a tight schedule and keep your air pressures the same on all four corners....and no towing an AWD on its wheels or you'll bust up that coupler - put it on a flatbed hauler.

Think I'll stay with FWD ...

-DSM

jjw205 said:

I believe you have that backward, sir.

AWD>FWD in everything besides gas mileage and slightly added maintenance.




You don't see people converting their GSX's to GST's......

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This sums up the whole thread

This sums up the whole thread

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Yep, nobody wins nor loses - just a matter of taste on how you want your steak cooked.

I can't believe no one ever MENTIONS this one... SMOG!!!
You don't have to worry about drop car to smog. Even the one's on the ground I will have to raise my gst up. And once every two years is still to much for me.

alumascoupe said:

I see more 4wd trucks in the ditch during snowstorms than cars due to false confidence in available traction

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I think you're my new favorite person.

I put 4 studded winters on th Gen1 AWD I built for my kid and it's amazing! I't a blast to drive, ice roads, through a foot of snow. I'm envious!

awd is better for launching and handling most all 10 sec dsm cars are awd