Does your personal preference in drivetrain actually influence your overall driving experience, or is your choice based merely on the, potentially dubious, marketing ploys engineered by highly competitive automobile manufacturers? Is your goal to reach the finish line first, or just to get to work in one piece? Unless you re Jason Statham in The Transporter, having to choose an E Type Jaguar For Sale isn t necessarily as clean cut as it appears at the outset.
For performance vehicle enthusiasts, a RWD setup continues to exert a certain mystique. As if a RWD is what all FWD and AWD engines aspire to be, and might one day become, if only they d grow up. The reality is a little different though. In recent years, the majority of road users have been shifting gears towards the humble FWD, and much hyped AWD instead. Consequently, the throngs of classic race car aficionados have been left scratching their heads, wondering, Why?
And while, to some, it may appear to be an overnight success, the FWD engine has actually been gaining steady recognition of its merits for around seventy years already. The auto manufacturer Mini first introduced the FWD to the world in the 1950s. Treated as little more than a novelty at the time, improvements in technology and rising fuel costs have made FWD vehicles a staple of modern highways.
You may have noticed that auto manufacturers typically have only one kind of drivetrain underpinning their full range of production vehicles. The reason being cost effectiveness. Development costs tend to skyrocket for every additional structure incorporated into a vehicle s design. Spending their time and development dollars on further optimizing their current setups, is considered wiser than possibly spreading their resources too thin over a wide variety of engine formats.
But with FWDs accounting for more than 50% of all cars bought, AWDs claiming around 30% of the market, and sales of RWDs only representing a miniscule 10%, is it any wonder a world renowned RWD manufacturer like BMW would be willing to shift gears to developing models with FWD transmissions? It would ve been foolish for them to do otherwise.
But even when money s no issue, overall efficiency still ranks highly amongst consumers when determining whether a particular vehicle best suits their needs. And the FWD wins on both counts. With its ease of development allowing manufacturers to pass the money saved on its development directly on to the consumer. Also, most FWDs consist of relatively lightweight constructions, making them a lot more fuel efficient than the other kinds of transmissions.
On the other hand, with all the additional components going into an AWD s construction, making it much less fuel efficient, and raising its overall price tag in the process, one might wonder how AWD vehicles have still managed to gain and maintain an advantage over RWD setups. The answer lies in technological development. Their performance enhancements, not to mention reductions in repayment premiums, have made owning an AWD more affordable and much more practical for everyone, from the stay at home mom to the busy construction site manager.
Ultimately, when choosing the most suitable drivetrain, it s your daily routine and weather conditions encountered that become the biggest determining factors. So long as you re willing to fork out for a set of snow tires in winter, choosing a FWD vehicle over an AWD one makes negligible difference in a long run. But when compared to a RWD, front wheel drives and all wheel drives still come up trumps for handling well under adverse weather conditions, like in snow or rain.
For performance vehicle enthusiasts, a RWD setup continues to exert a certain mystique. As if a RWD is what all FWD and AWD engines aspire to be, and might one day become, if only they d grow up. The reality is a little different though. In recent years, the majority of road users have been shifting gears towards the humble FWD, and much hyped AWD instead. Consequently, the throngs of classic race car aficionados have been left scratching their heads, wondering, Why?
And while, to some, it may appear to be an overnight success, the FWD engine has actually been gaining steady recognition of its merits for around seventy years already. The auto manufacturer Mini first introduced the FWD to the world in the 1950s. Treated as little more than a novelty at the time, improvements in technology and rising fuel costs have made FWD vehicles a staple of modern highways.
You may have noticed that auto manufacturers typically have only one kind of drivetrain underpinning their full range of production vehicles. The reason being cost effectiveness. Development costs tend to skyrocket for every additional structure incorporated into a vehicle s design. Spending their time and development dollars on further optimizing their current setups, is considered wiser than possibly spreading their resources too thin over a wide variety of engine formats.
But with FWDs accounting for more than 50% of all cars bought, AWDs claiming around 30% of the market, and sales of RWDs only representing a miniscule 10%, is it any wonder a world renowned RWD manufacturer like BMW would be willing to shift gears to developing models with FWD transmissions? It would ve been foolish for them to do otherwise.
But even when money s no issue, overall efficiency still ranks highly amongst consumers when determining whether a particular vehicle best suits their needs. And the FWD wins on both counts. With its ease of development allowing manufacturers to pass the money saved on its development directly on to the consumer. Also, most FWDs consist of relatively lightweight constructions, making them a lot more fuel efficient than the other kinds of transmissions.
On the other hand, with all the additional components going into an AWD s construction, making it much less fuel efficient, and raising its overall price tag in the process, one might wonder how AWD vehicles have still managed to gain and maintain an advantage over RWD setups. The answer lies in technological development. Their performance enhancements, not to mention reductions in repayment premiums, have made owning an AWD more affordable and much more practical for everyone, from the stay at home mom to the busy construction site manager.
Ultimately, when choosing the most suitable drivetrain, it s your daily routine and weather conditions encountered that become the biggest determining factors. So long as you re willing to fork out for a set of snow tires in winter, choosing a FWD vehicle over an AWD one makes negligible difference in a long run. But when compared to a RWD, front wheel drives and all wheel drives still come up trumps for handling well under adverse weather conditions, like in snow or rain.
About the Author:
Get an overview of the things to keep in mind when buying a car and more information about a stunning E Type Jaguar for sale at http://www.hilltopjags.com/e-types now.