It's interesting how in our gradpa's era, FWD came along and saved the car mfgs. tons of money as they could start using a transaxle design. The campaign to "sell" buyers on FWD was extremely successful. Now we even have 300 HP, 8 cyl. cars with FWD (caddy, new Chevy). Anyone notice the same pattern with AWD? How many vehicles are now available with AWD, a feature that is of little use to most? The sad part is once again the push to propel by the front wheels. Even the 2k6 STi is being tuned in that fashion. Last year, it had a 65/35 RWD bias, with 50/50 available by dialing it in. For 2k6, the engineers pushed the bias 9% in the direction of the front.

Funny, Nissan seems to have missed the whole market for AWD products and continues with FWD!

 

Nissan makes the Infiniti line up with Intelligent AWD.
They didn't miss the market, they target it through their higher end division.

 

I'm not understanding your point here. You say in one sentence that AWD is of little use to most, but then you say Nissan missed the market for AWD products. Are you saying that is good or bad???

Also, I've owned two AWD cars (Audi A4 Quattro, Talon TSi) and I found them very useful actually in adverse weather.

 

I'm a little confused by the original post also.

And for the record, if Nissan "missed" the AWD market then so did Honda and Toyota. Exc. SUVs/Minivans, Toyota/Lexus has 2 AWD sedans (IS250, GS300...both just recently introduced), Honda/Acura has 1 (RL) and Nissan/Infiniti has 2 (G35X, M35X).

 

404: thread failure

 

Yes, and yes. AWD is of use in only 2 situations--when trying to get unstuck (a car is a car, a Subaru can get stuck. Ask my friend Lisa.), and when applying power in slippery conditions. Other than that, it's a means of generating more friction and consuming more fuel. If you live in Arizona, you too may like to drive a CR-V. But you'd be a moron to get a 4WD version. Ditto for the A4/A6.

The latter part of your question, well, the marketing campaign has been very successful in convincing car buyers that AWD is da bomb. So Nissan failed in not making one of the Sentra/Altima/Maxima in AWD versions, much missed money.

There is such a desire to remove any possiblity of oversteer from cars that even the 2k6 STi went 9% more power to the front wheels over 2k5. There are really only 2 car makes under 50k that seem to go for performance only--Porsche and BMW. No fake duals, no V6's...

 

they changed that for the sti because people began to have issues launching, and taking high speed turns. the back of that car would slide out like its nothing

 

AWD is also good for launching at 5k rpm....= ]

 

^ no kidding watch those best motoring favorites tear it up around the track (nissan skyline gtr, EVO's, STI's) nice for performance ! a certain target market for sure

 

Nissan didn't miss the market for AWD drive products, its just the fact that AWD adds thousands on top of manufacturing and development costs. They still wanted to remain competitive in the market and at the same time maintain a healthy profit margin. Additionally, seeing how Nissan was in pretty deep financial trouble a couple years ago, it wouldn't have made much sense to try to cut their profit margins just to feed into the AWD market.

Cars with price tags >$30k usually carry a larger profit margin and therefore can introduce more features into the vehicle. The WRX's are able to offer the AWD performance for under $25k, but if you think about it, the interiors aren't as nice as those found in a family sedan of comparable price. Having to diversify a company's markets requires dumping money into research and development and manufacturing; these are costs that the company must seriously weigh into consideration before making business decisions.

 

Why would you even want AWD on a nissan??? The more crap they add the worse the interior will be. Instead of seats we'll have lawn chairs. Instead of seat belts it will be rope.

I'm fine with FWD, the only time for that is was bad was when I had Kelly tires on it. Trying to stop in rain would of been better if I had a hole in the floor and using my feet as my brakes.

 

I guess you don't know Infiniti and Nissan are the same company. Infinity has plenty AWDs.

 

my thoughts exactly, but you'd be surprised as to how many people doesn't know one company's relation to the other. just the other day, a chevy loyalist swears that the Cobalt SS is entirely different from an Ion Redline.

 

even the 87-91 ford tempos were aviable with an awd option, although it didnt use a center diff and relied on the wet ground to compensate for the difference in wheel speed. but no awd max, that would nice to have, id buy one in a second as long as i could get it in stick, g35x auto only, whats up with that. the second an awd 6mt comes out its mine.

 

Most people won't actually need AWD, but for my family, we have to drive 20 km. to get into town on hilly/windy highways and back roads. In the winter they can be pretty treacherous, especially since they aren't always plowed very quickly and often its too cold for the road salt to take effect.

AWD really doesn't help out with handling though, but through marketing I think many consumers are convinced it does. The only time I like driving my Mom's Subaru in the winter is when there is 12+ inches of snow on the ground and I'm worried about my Maxima getting stuck and the underbody dragging. Otherwise, I find that the Max handles much better in slippery conditions and I think its a great winter car (especially cause I've got TCS and LSD). We still always have at least one AWD/4X4 vehicle in my family.

As for RWD, I love driving them but I would not want one out here in the winter. FWD's handle great in the snow as they don't get stuck as easily and they are less prone to the tail sliding out on ice causing you to lose control. That's why FWD cars are much more popular up here.

 

Wha? Nissan and Infiniti are the same company?? Next thing you know you'll be telling me Chevy and Pontiac are related. FWD 4 Ever!!

 

AWD cars, ROCK!!!!

 

Yes, full time 4WD is not really needed, hence ATTESA-ETS as found on the GT-R. RWD in normal mode, but 4WD when needed; the G35X has this system.

Honda = Acura
Toyota = Lexus
Nissan = Infinity
Toyota = Scion

I would also like to point out that most people don't even know a Lexus is a Toyota and is made in Japan. Infinity is the luxury division of Nissan. Besides the 350Z, all the RWD cars are marketed under Infinity, and so will the new GT-R. It seems that Nissan thinks it could be a problem if the GT-R was marketed as a Nissan along with the 350Z. I guess that they want to have the 350Z as the Nissan top sports car in the USA. Also, it could be that with the rumored $90,000 price tag, I guess they could also think that no one would buy a $90K Nissan no mater how good it is; look at the MSRP of the 1996 300ZXTT and you will see that people just don't want to buy a Japanese "brand" name for over the mid 30K level. I guess that is why Nissan Toyota and Honda have "brands" that they market upper-level cars under; brands that are not thought of by most buyers as " = Japanese".

There are many connections in the auto world; look at things like who owns how much of who.

 

The one thing I like about driving my Moms outback in the snow/ice is that it is light and you have a good ammount of control, but at the same time it can float aswell. I still prefer driving the Durango. Heck even in 2wd it gets around farther than most in 4wd. Plus I just throw some tow straps in the back when it starts getting icey out and make $20-50+ a pop just pulling people out of ditches and up hills.

 

Yeah, we used to have a 98 Durango when they first came out. Nice SUV, especially since its truck based but it sucked learning how to parallel park in that beast!

 

bah, once you can do it in a <2000 Surburban you can do just about anything
I used the Durango on my license drive test, oh so long ago

 

Thats only too true, how many snobby moronic old ladies would be caught dead driving Toyotas! And integra drivers get really mad when you call their cars a honda. i was like, you want JDM, throw a H on your trunk and have fun!