Grip, Not Slip: Brands Known for All-Wheel Drive
Today has seen the first decent snowfall (about half a foot) in your author’s hometown so far this season. Hey, at least it gave me an excuse to bust out my snowblower, a needlessly overpowered machine with an engine displacement nearly that of a Kei car.
But it also got this writer thinking about all-wheel drive and the automotive brands which most readily spring to mind when someone utters the phrase. Of course, there’s a big difference between all-wheel drive and four-wheel drive, though that is a good topic for a future gallery post. Perhaps we’ll frame it as a main card bout: AWD vs 4WD - who ya got?
[Images: Subaru, Jeep, Audi, ClassicCarPhoto/Shutterstock.com]
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I’ll tell ya the name most people got these days when talking about all-wheel drive: Subaru. The brand which made its name in rallying literally used the feature as a chief talking point in its major marketing for years, even going so far as to put it in its key tagline for a spell.
At present, every vehicle sold by Subaru, save for the sporting FR-S which was developed in conjunction with Toyota, has power routed to all four wheels. Even the electric vehicles have AWD, though it can be (successfully) argued that AWD is even easier to install in an EV since a clever placement of electric motors usurps the need for bulky and difficult-to-package driveshafts or other extra gear.
Jeep is an interesting case study. After all, it seems the entire continent has been enamored with crossovers and SUVs for decades, so one would think a brand with a deep well of too-cool history selling nothing but that type of vehicle should be a license to print money right? Right? We’ll leave the bungling of Jeep at the hands of Clueless Carlos Tavares for some other time.
But suffice it to say the brand’s wares are stuffed to the gunwales with AWD capability. Sure, some of its products have true 4WD but there’s no shortage of today’s subject in its showrooms, either. With the ship beginning to be righted now the right people are at the helm, Jeep might just be on cusp of an upswing.
Our third entrant in this gallery might surprise some readers - but a quick poll of decidedly non-gearheads revealed that Audi has some name recognition in the all-wheel drive game. Thank (or blame) its incessant promotion of the Quattro (not technically capitalized according to Audi marketers) branding, to the point where the word appears umpteen times on vehicles like the new SQ5 crossover.
In fact, it even shows up under braking in the SQ5, illuminated as a reflection on the glass of that particular model’s liftgate. But best of all? Adding Audi to this gallery permits us an excuse to run a picture of the original Quattro in full race regalia, which is excellent.
