AWD or RWD

[Tillz]

With most garages not allowing test drives, and with me not owning an Elgrand before, I'm wondering what people's views are on this please.

We'll mainly be using whichever Elgrand we purchase for family weekend / weeks away. We frequently go to Wales and the occasional festival.

I'm leaning towards AWD models, to help with the wet camps sites, but I'm wondering what the RWD versions are like in the wet / icy conditions? I appreciate an Elgrand is a large, heavy vehicle, but is the RWD version tail Happy in the wet / icy conditions?

Any feedback will be most welcome.

Thank you in advance.

 

[diable]

Its not an AWD its a switchable 4WD, 2WD - 4WD - 4WD with lockable diff.

 

[Tillz]

Its not an AWD its a switchable 4WD, 2WD - 4WD - 4WD with lockable diff.

Thank you for the correction.
Does every model have the 4WD and diff. Lock?
I'm seeing adverts for vehicles described as having 4WD, and others as being RWD.
I'm mainly trying to work out whether I need a 4WD model or not for the wet and icy weather.

 

[Lacabrera]

With most garages not allowing test drives, and with me not owning an Elgrand before, I'm wondering what people's views are on this please.

We'll mainly be using whichever Elgrand we purchase for family weekend / weeks away. We frequently go to Wales and the occasional festival.

I'm leaning towards AWD models, to help with the wet camps sites, but I'm wondering what the RWD versions are like in the wet / icy conditions? I appreciate an Elgrand is a large, heavy vehicle, but is the RWD version tail Happy in the wet / icy conditions?

Any feedback will be most welcome.

Thank you in advance.

If you plan on driving on any surface that's slippery go with 4wd. Theses are heavy and get stuck easily. Im surprised they aren't fitted with a LSD rear differential

 

[Sparkyrich]

Definitely 4wd if you’re going in the sloppy stuff. I can drift mine round a roundabout at the merest hint of moisture in 2wd. In “auto” she grips like poo to a blanket. Used “lock” a couple of times in the snow over winter to get out of trouble (winter tyres helped too).

 

[diable]

Thank you for the correction.
Does every model have the 4WD and diff. Lock?
I'm seeing adverts for vehicles described as having 4WD, and others as being RWD.
I'm mainly trying to work out whether I need a 4WD model or not for the wet and icy weather.

You may not need it but its a nice option to have, as I live in London I eagerly await the 3mm's of snow so that I can rescue stuck Chelsea Tractors that are stuck with 20" low profile summer tyres........

Joking apart, I went for the 4WD as I have/had a Subaru Legacy AWD and it does make a difference and it makes more of difference with all season tyres and a really major difference with winter or M+S tyres so it depends on where you live what the weather is like and how you are going to use the Elgrand and where you will be travelling to.

 

[David1972]

A good set of winter or all season tyres is more important than 2 or 4wd, along with some good old fashioned driving ability

 

[Mr_Clark1000]

Go for AWD if you can, it really does make a big difference. These things don't have traction control as standard so it will happily light up an inside rear when pulling away from gradient junctions. A quick press of the Auto 4WD button removes 99.9% of any liklihood of wheelslip in these scenarios

Well worth it

 

[RuskinStreet]

Mine is RWD, had it sideways twice on the day I bought it. I'm learning to treat the "undertaker" with a bit of right-footed respect on roundabouts and greasy roads from now on....

 

[Lize]

Mine is RWD, had it sideways twice on the day I bought it. I'm learning to treat the "undertaker" with a bit of right-footed respect on roundabouts and greasy roads from now on....

Check the date code on your tyres, most likely old Japanese ones and the cause.

I've never managed to get my 2WD Elgrand sideways nor had any problems on wet campsites including on grass with standing water nearly up to the rims and having to drive uphill during severe weather on the IOW.

 

[Tillz]

Thank you all for your replies.
Just paid a deposit on a 4WD model.

 

[RuskinStreet]

Check the date code on your tyres, most likely old Japanese ones and the cause.

I've never managed to get my 2WD Elgrand sideways nor had any problems on wet campsites including on grass with standing water nearly up to the rims and having to drive uphill during severe weather on the IOW.

I will check the tyres, my driving style probably doesn't help after driving a FWD X-Trail for the last three years, that can take a lot of throttle when circling a roundabout, The Elgrand has such little travel in the loud pedal that I was definitely overdoing it!

 

[Tillz]

I will check the tyres, my driving style probably doesn't help after driving a FWD X-Trail for the last three years, that can take a lot of throttle when circling a roundabout, The Elgrand has such little travel in the loud pedal that I was definitely overdoing it!

Points for "style" though.

 

[RuskinStreet]

Points for "style" though.

2nd one was a proper job, fishtailing like a Mackerel on heat. Haven't used so much opposite lock in a long, long time...

 

[RuskinStreet]

Check the date code on your tyres, most likely old Japanese ones and the cause.

I've never managed to get my 2WD Elgrand sideways nor had any problems on wet campsites including on grass with standing water nearly up to the rims and having to drive uphill during severe weather on the IOW.

Looks like they are 7 years old Japanese Continentals (DOTXXXXX2014 - Elgrand was imported in 2018), seem in excellent nick though but appreciate that seeing isn't always believing

 

[Loco]

I have 2wd and did get stuck in a side road on ice early this year. Had a spade and managed to get out but 4wd would have been a great help

 

[RuskinStreet]

I have 2wd and did get stuck in a side road on ice early this year. Had a spade and managed to get out but 4wd would have been a great help

Top tip I learned years ago, stick some cardboard under the driven wheels to give them some purchase. Works with mud, snow etc.
Don't EVER MAKE THE MISTAKE I made some time ago when parking up on a snowy night, I had the bright idea of pouring boiling water around the tyres to give me a good grip on clean tarmac. Overnight it froze and stuck my tyres to the ground... slaps own face for obvious stupidity

 

[Lpgc]

In snow I drove past many fwd and rwd vehicles stuck on hills in my 4wd Elgrand. It wasn't as though they were all stuck behind cars in front without enough space to overtake, they were individually stuck and abandoning their vehicles. Not much with 2wd was going up that hill except those with limited slip diffs or those that featured braking of spinning wheel as a kind of electronic lsd. Traction control that limits engine power when the wheels spin doesn't cut it in snow.

Post where I wrote about that trip https://forum.elgrandoc.uk/threads/what-have-you-done-to-your-Elgrand-today.28/page-653#post-326672
On the same thread might also want to read my post just a couple of posts above that post.

I don't think tyres could make so much difference as 4wd on an Elgrand unless we were talking making a 2wd monster truck Elgrand and fitting tractor tyres lol. And yes I've seen the videos of a 2wd car fitted with snow tyres outperforming a 4wd car with summer tyres... but they were not the same model of car (2wd/4wd same model) in the test videos and they were not Elgrands. I am pretty certain that on that hill on that day my 4wd Elgrand with summer tyres would be much more capable of going up than a 2wd Elgrand with any type of winter/snow tyres fitted. And I could always fit winter/snow tyres on my 4wd Elgrand but you're not going to fit 4wd to a 2wd Elgrand.

I wouldn't advise Elgrand 4wd (auto) setting for sporty driving, better to have a predictable bit of a slide than to have 4wd cutting in unpredictably upsetting the balance of the car on a corner.... As people have said above it isn't full time 4wd or all wheel drive, the auto setting will see front wheel drive engage when rear wheels are spinning, we can't drive around constantly in locked mode because that would cause strain on the drivetrain, upset the handling and wear tyres out.

Any powerful automatic car has a bit of an advantage in snow in terms of driving wheels traction over a manual car anyway, not for handling but for slow speed traction... because by continued spinning of wheels when you're stuck or nearly stuck the tyres throw snow backwards and the friction melts snow beneath them, so if you're not sliding backwards you will eventually go forwards. The advantage is because the autobox will go up through the gears (with traction control turned off) causing faster wheel spin and more friction... but doing that is very heavy on tyres (you'll get little grooves in the tyres where little road protrusions were) and hard work for the engine cooling system.

 

[Ian H]

I wouldn't advise Elgrand 4wd (auto) setting for sporty driving, better to have a predictable bit of a slide than to have 4wd cutting in unpredictably upsetting the balance of the car on a corner.... As people have said above it isn't full time 4wd or all wheel drive, the auto setting will see front wheel drive engage when rear wheels are spinning, we can't drive around constantly in locked mode because that would cause strain on the drivetrain, upset the handling and wear tyres out.

The Elgrand uses a Haldex type system, (like Audi quattro, Subaru, Range Rover Evoque, Freelander, Discovery sport and many other sports cars/4x4s) so the front/rear balance is variable, with some drive going to the front under almost all conditions. It therefore does not engage/disengage, more increase/decrease. It also means when Auto is selected it is in fact full time four wheel drive.

 

[Lpgc]

The Elgrand uses a Haldex type system, (like Audi quattro, Subaru, Range Rover Evoque, Freelander, Discovery sport and many other sports cars/4x4s) so the front/rear balance is variable, with some drive going to the front under almost all conditions. It therefore does not engage/disengage, more increase/decrease. It also means when Auto is selected it is in fact full time four wheel drive.

Didn't know that mate, though I have seen values in live data that might point to proportion of torque to front wheels and wondered why those values if it just engages / disengages. If that's the case though, when it does decide to increase torque to front wheels the system doesn't seem as progressive as an Audi or Subaru's... and the front wheel skip during manoeuvring isn't great.