Quote:
Originally Posted by The Dad Fisherman
I'm not a car expert by any means but if I'm not mistaken........AWD the wheels spin in unison where in 4WD they spin independently.
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I'm not a car expert either, but I believe these days, AWD is superior to 4WD. The way I understand it, AWD automatically adjusts power to each individual wheel depending on the conditions. 4WD simply puts 25% of the power to each wheel and doesn't adjust it at all, so if your rear left wheel is stuck, your only pushing 75% of the power to your other three wheels where as with AWD, 100% of the power would then be pushed to the remaining wheels to get you out! I think 4WD is generally perferred though, because the gearing is usually lower and the systems are just more rugged.
These days though, I think most 4WD cars have the option to add the "slip control" which essentially turns it into a AWD system, but you disengage that to turn it into straight 4WD for offroad situations.