mmarshall

True. I might still be driving a Subaru (or something else with AWD) if it wasn't for the fact that I was able to take an early retirement, and don't have to screw around with daily commuting anymore.

Htony

Left out Quattro? Else where I mentioned which system performs best at least from our experience between Quattro, 4Matic, Xdrive.

RA051724

I guess thats why most car magazines call Subaru's AWD the best; I guess Subaru must be bribing them, eh?

Htony

I wonder if Och ever looked at the uniqueness of Subaru AWD design? What symmetrical system means?

oldcajun

Correct! Subaru gave millions to the US Olympic Committee to be able to make this claim.

Och

iTrader: (3)

There is nothing wrong with Subaru's AWD system - its robust, tried, dependable and inexpensive. It's just not on the same level as modern (and much more expensive) AWD systems with torque vectoring. That said, in 99% of cases the Subaru system will be just as good. Torque vectoring systems only make a big difference in high speed cornering and certain unusual low traction situations.

Johnhav430

haha many people seem to get confused with symmetrical and asymmetrical. I can think of this guy who asked me wth I thought was going on with his cable internet, he's paying some massive amount monthly and it's slow as molasses. Asked him to do a speedtest and he got around 280/10. Then he said his phone calls all sound like **** as well. The only thing I can say is we often need to understand what it is we're measuring. If a Toyota Highlander or Honda CR-V has AWD, and cannot pull itself up a ramp, what difference does it make how modern the system is...

geko29

In my lifetime, I've only ever met one person who daily drove a car with summer performance tires (C5 Corvette) that swapped it for a winter beater (Olds Cutlass Ciera) on a seasonal basis. Literally every single other person swaps between tires. This includes myself as well as 2 of my 7 employees, and even my parents--though they use summer touring tires, not max performance ones.

And the suggestion that an AWD car will handle fine on snow/ice with summer tires is quite possibly the dumbest thing I've ever read on this board. When temperatures drop and snow and ice covers the road, it's as if you had replaced your tires with teflon-coated cue *****, and then greased them. They have so little traction in winter conditions that I literally can't park my car on my driveway with the summers on--it slides right into the street. Even tried parking "parallel" on the apron and it still slid sideways, stopping when the sidewall got stuck in the curb gutter. That's the tradeoff for the obscene levels of grip they provide on warm roads.

97-SC300

iTrader: (17)

Toys4RJill

That is how it is usually done.

Wouldn't call it the best. Definitely a good system. I think all AWD systems from Subaru are not all the same.

RA051724

They do use the same drive on all their vehicles, but perhaps the dynamics of each car makes a difference, which is why they may be different?
I know that the Forester is rated #1 (in Canada for sure, not sure about other places) for snow AWD.
I also know that many folks drive their high performance WRX and STI with summer tires, in the snow and do very well. With all that power, I should think they would be deathtraps with summer tires, but NOT.

RA051724

Aw man! I shall stop relying on magazines forthwith!! Back to square one...

mmarshall

I have to disagree with that view. Although, yes, it is true that the Olympic Committee can sometimes be bought off (witness the scandals in the city-selection process), the Outback's drivetrain proves itself in snow.....it doesn't have to be pawned off with money or proffers. Believe me....I owned one long enough to know, and a number of my colleagues still own them.

Mike728

It's called a "Sponsor", so totally legal. I don't know how you're not understanding how it works.

Toys4RJill

McDonald's was once the official food of the Olympic Village. It is pretty amazing that world's best athletes would get as much free McDonald's as they want during the games as their official source of nutrition.