Disney maintenance crashed our car at Epcot

RWD = BWD (Best Wheel Drive)

Jeff:

I still maintain the change was a result of chasing status, and a very American phenomenon at that. And I don't think performance matters. No one had AWD in Ohio in the 70's, and they still don't in Iceland where they get a lot more snow. People just don't care about efficiency.

I think you hit the nail on the head here. Americans love their trucks and SUVs. and yes, I own a truck so I’m one of them.

we care about fuel efficiency and will rant about it. But ultimately not enough to make a vehicle change. If gas prices get high, I just cut back in other areas of my lifestyle. But I won’t be giving up my truck. I like it.

The subject of this topic was RWD. It slipped weird in water, briefly, before the computer figured things out, but beyond that, it didn't feel that different to me from FWD.

I would have guessed you drove a RWD back in the day before traction controls and computers. I have not driven a "new" RWD vehicle, but I would guess they are very different that the old ones like my Chevy Chevette and Ford Aerostar back in the day.

My first car was an '89 Ford Escort, which was FWD. The rest of my cars were also, other than the Model 3, which was RWD, the Model S and both Y's are AWD.

I've driven RWD drive vehicles back when they still had carburetors (so wayyyyy before traction control), and not too long ago lucked into a RWD Dodge Challenger at the rental kiosk. The difference in driving behavior is immense. You can get the rear wheels to cut loose if you try, but otherwise it handled better than most modern FWD vehicles I've driven.

I've been driving a RWD for almost 12 years now. I totally feel the difference in a FWD vehicle. It's literally the difference between being pushed and being pulled. I know that sounds weird, but it feels different.

(say different again)

I also know the 70's-style joy of taking said car in the snow with woefully underqualified tires.

All without a seatbelt.

When teaching our youngest to drive, we took the Chevy Cruze to a very large, snow covered, empty parking lot. Even in that little piece of crap car he could not get the back end to break loose. I just wanted him to know what it felt like.

You tried the parking brake/power slide, right? That's the only way I've been able to reliably get a FWD car to do that. At least on purpose.

Lord Gonchar:

I totally feel the difference in a FWD vehicle.

Absolutely. And no torque steer to deal with, either.

It is funny how some random message thread can bring back a long forgotten memory. Back in my high school days a buddy of mine missed a turn so he did the emergency brake u-turn. Scared the bajeezus out of me as I didn't know it was coming.

And no, I did not have him try that in the parking lot.

Jeff, I realize your idea of good gas mileage is 0 gal/mile… 8-) I’m not going to claim that 21-25 mpg in my behemoth is great, but it’s better than I expected for a vehicle of that size (my Taurus, which it replaced, got about 20 on the highway), and it’s better than most of the 4-cylinder fuvg-boxes I have rented (the Nissan aVers[e] got about 17).

I am also firmly in the RWD camp. I spun my FWD ‘95 Taurus on wet pavement, pirouetted across IR-71 and ended up inverted in a ditch. Once the front wheels broke loose, I became a passenger in what felt a bit like a Chance Twister. With RWD, a light tap on the brakes would have stopped that spin before it started. Also, the traction control in the Panther is fantastic, and I maintain that stability control, the Federal requirement that ultimately killed the Panther platform, is mostly pointless with a RWD vehicle which is already inherently stable.

—Dave Althoff, Jr

Shades:

When teaching our youngest to drive, we took the Chevy Cruze to a very large, snow covered, empty parking lot

I taught my kids this in a Honda Odyssey in the same setting. It required me pulling the handbrake at an opportune moment.

I suspect it’s hard to even find a hand brake these days.

”Turn in to the slide…”

I used to handbrake my Corolla around turns in the snow (FWD) and got pretty good at it. Except the time I hit a curb pretty hard and bent the rim.

AWD electric is like magic. You point the wheel where you wanna go, punch it, and it happens like it's on rails. Does not get old.

We got a plug in hybrid Chrysler Pacifica for our spring break road trip rental vehicle. I am curious to see how it does on mileage on our 10+ hour drive. I will say that it is eerily quiet when running on battery power.

Plugin Hybrids are best in a city environment because you can drive in stop and go traffic on the battery alone. On a highway it's primarily going to use the ICE engine and probably use the electric to aid with acceleration.

That’s what I am thinking based on just driving it a bit before we head out. Not using gas at a stop sign/light is pretty neat. Granted I accelerate like an old man (because I am an old man). .

See, I want one where the gas engine isn't even connected to the power train, and enough battery capacity to run for a few hundred miles. That way the engine barely even needs to be big enough to keep up with average load, just enough to keep enough of a charge to drive all day and give you a way to get through the charging deserts.

--Dave Althoff, Jr., who would love to have the non-existent hybrid Panther for his next car...

Growing up, my dad worked as a foreman at the local GM plant (Defiance, OH). Because of this he got deep discounts on Chevys, and his particular favorite was the El Camino.

We went through at least 3 variants of this vehicle growing up, the last one (which had to be around 1986) a lovely mint-green and white color.

We had the original cyber-truck.

And it was much better looking.

Speaking of...

A friend of mine bought a Cyber Truck and after finally seeing it up close this past weekend, gotta say it is pretty cool. He got the truck wrapped in a dark blue and it looks sharp! I originally didn't like the look of these but I shifted opinion a little after getting to experience one myself. Still not something I would buy but very neat nonetheless.

OhioStater:

And it was much better looking.

But what was its gas mileage? And did you stop at a BucEes to fill er up?