New car question

We bought a new car for the wife this week .... Honda cv-r .... Heres my question about the car .... This is the first car we've had thats awd .... We hav an 4wd blazer and you can lock it in or out of 2wd or 4wd .... The honda is in 2wd till a wheel slipp's and than it kicks in awd .... So when I asked the sales man whats the difference he says its the same thing ( just a different name ) I would think if it really is 4 wd honda would be sayin its just that .... So Im guessn its better than 2wd and not as good as 4wd ? Any opinions

I think the difference is twofold. with four wheel drive, you have to manually put it there, and on most vehicles there is an unlock feature that requires you drive backword for thirty feet or something to completely unlock the hubs. With all wheel drive, it is done via software and is availabe all the time.

The Expedition that my wife used to have was 'automatic 4wd' you described. But you could also put it in 4wd or 4wd low range.

She never put it in 4wd or low range, and she never got stuck.

I would get it out on a snowy, icy, slick hill and nail it. For an instant you could feel the tires start to slip than the 4wd would engage.

For her it was fine, nice, simple easy. For me I like to be able to have it in 4wd before I need it.

There may also be some difference in the differentials that make it a true all wheel drive rather than a 2 wheel drive that most 4 wheel drives actually are.

Couple differences. I'll try to explain.

First off, AWD is not 4WD. Yes, its close. But with one major distinction. An AWD has only 1 range...you lose the 4-Lo gear for more torque to the wheels. So, it can be 4wd, but its only 4-Hi.....there is no manual setting for 4-Lo.


Next, AWD is automatic. You get 100% power to your drive axle. Once a sensor indicates loss of traction in the drive axle, the transfer automatically reverts some of that power to your non-drive axle....giving you 4WD for a brief moment. The vehicle will (or should) remain in 4WD until sensors indicate both axles turning at the same speed, indicating full traction on the drive axle. At that moment, the transfer will automatically switch back into 2WD and you will be back to 100% power to your primary drive axle.




So, in short. Its automatic 4WD. You have no 4-Lo to manually select for higher torque, lower speed applications. It will come on and go off without the need to touch anything. You may not even realize when its doing it, unless you have an indicator of some sort showing 4WD mode.

Also, AWD is typically on smaller vehicles, and does not perform as well off-road. Its made more for daily driving on normal driving surfaces. Where as 4WD is designed to take that bitch anywhere you want.

Now your just getting technical!

Lets try to keep it simple here.....



But I know what your talking about. A 4WD vehicle where power is only applied to one wheel on each axle. And the other two wheels are along for the ride.....

Nah, the power is applied evenly to both tires on any drive axle through the diff when the tires have equal traction, if a tire loses traction (left or right) then that tire will spin with all the power.
So technically a 4 wd drive is only a 2 wheel drive when 1 front and 1 back tire spins.....

unless you have diff locks......

isnt that just the essay version of my cliff notes answer.

And when do you REALLY need that extra traction?????

EDIT; unless you have A TRAC

When your trying like hell to get off the property before that chicks husband sees your tail lights running thru the field!!!!




Knowing damn well he has a collection of guns with scopes on em!!!

with the honda awd engages when there is wheel spin on the primary drive axel ( front) but its still not 50/50 its more likely 80/20 front/rear) for the most part it main advantages is snowy roads extra wet roads not a serious 4wd but enough for most uses ( I also think it may disengage above a certain speed - 40kmhr comes to mind)

the Yukon Xl we have has 2wd hi 4wd auto 4wd hi and 4wd lo I can shift between 2wdhi and 4wd auto at any reasonable speed - 4wdhi - and 4wdlo I follow the instructions in the manual ( I forget exactly)

I want a UniMog

just dumped $2500 in the past year into heavymetalmomma's bravada with smart trac awd, into the awd system. got rid of the truck before it cost me more.
awd transfer cases, brains, actuators are not cheap, and, are fragile. i was told by several mechanics that even uneven tire pressure stresses the transfer case, potentially leading to failure.

got her a fwd crossover.

The way I read the motor trend artical is some manufacures ave a better power splitting method of transfering to the slipping wheels ..... Suburu looks like a true 50 /50 split which looks like the best of both worlds ..... Our honda may just do 10 % to the rear and be much less effective ..... It was a 1200 up grade from a 2 wd and cost us 1 mile per gallon ..... The two dealers I looked at didnt stock any 2wd models .....

I think of AWD as a vehicle that has three differentials. One for the rear axles, one for the front axles and one between the front and rear axles. AWD is always engaged. A lot of other things especially tire diameters come into play with AWD.

AWD and most 4WD are actually still 2WD. only difference is one wheel is on the front axle and the other on the rear.

It's the differentials that cause this by transfering power to the wheel that doesn't slip fore or aft.