I'm curious as to what rear wheel drive and front wheel drive cars you've driven where the rear wheel drive was better. My experience is the opposite, front wheel drive has almost always been better than rear wheel drive. Cars I've driven ranked from worst to best in snowThe reality is that tires on the road only have a limited amount of traction to use. Rear wheel drive cars do best in slippery conditions because the front wheels are just having to deal with turning and braking. The rear wheels are just dealing with braking and acceleration.
Front wheel drive cars the front wheels have to deal with braking, turning, and acceleration. This can overload the front tires causing them to lose traction faster than they would in a rear wheel drive car.
So at the limits of traction, 4WD doesn't help with steering or directional control, in fact using 4WD will reduce the limits of traction for the front tires sooner than if not in 4WD.
But that is all at the limits of traction. Only in emergencies do we often deal
with the limits (or in wet or icy roads)
The way roads are de-iced in Minnesota, the dry ground is typically at where the front of the vehicle will typically stop. So in that case, with snow at the rear and dry ground at the front, Front wheel drive or 4WD will benefit greatly.
Driving on ice, 4wd will help you get going faster, but it won't stop you faster, and it won't turn you faster.
1970 Camaro,
1974 Ford van
Every 2 wheel drive pickup
76 Ford station wagon
96 Honda Civic fwd
10 golf tdi
62 vw bug
16 Ford fiesta st
74 Audi 100 (fwd)
06 Impreza automatic
80 Cherokee in 4h
22 bronco 4a
16 Impreza manual
96 Impreza manual
22 Bronco 4h
A couple of those are close and could move around a little and of course tires make a difference but in general rwd hasn't been as good in snow.
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