that's not the argument, Stevie & his boyfriend said that AWD are better performers than RWD, and I was showing them that they all have there +'s and -'s, Byron I totally agree with all you posted, their point was that an AWD is a better performer than a RWD, and I disagreed with them. any car can made to handle well, or like a pillow, depending on what the designers are looking for.
.... are you this sad that you can't compare 04 models. This is sad Stevie it's 04 not 99-00 so come better, no you piss off.
Tha Ghee wrote on 3/20/04:
any Engineer will tell you that it is impossible to have agile handling and AWD at the same time.I'm a mechanical engineer (BSME, most of a MSME). It is possible to have agile handling and AWD at the same time. My car, an all wheel drive Subaru WRX wagon, made the C&D 10 best list in 2002 and 2003. I know it is very agile. The all wheel drive WRX STi is Road & Track's reader's choice car for 2004 (MSRP under US$100,000.) That car beat out the rear wheel drive Porsche GT3, BMW 5-series, Mazda RX-8, and Nissan 350Z, among others. While you may not like them, those cars aren't exactly known as floaty boats in the handling department.
All wheel drive vehicles can have very agile handling if that is what they are designed for. A 6000lb Ford Excursion SUV is not. A Subaru Outback is not. My WRX and some quattro Audi's are. An A6 2.8q is tuned more for comfort, while the 2.7T and 4.2 version are more agile. Same thing with the A4 line - cars without a sport package are made more for comfort than agility. That does not make it impossible to create an all wheel drive version that is tuned for agility. Look at the S4 or A4 S-line.
Car & Driver says the all wheel drive VW Golf R32 is a ready-made autocrosser right from the factory. It's not as fast in a straight line as, say, a STi is, but its handling is superb. It has the same drivetrain as the 3.2 TT quattro (but a different transmission in the US). A quote from the May 2004 issue: "recovery in quick transitions is instantaneous, the car changes direction like a mongoose sorting through a box of cobras" That sounds pretty agile to me. All wheel drive, when tuned for that purpose, can allow the driver get back on the power earlier in a curve than either front or wheel wheel drive can. All wheel drive cars are a bit heavier than equivalent two wheel drive versions - so they are incrementally slower in a straight line. And there can be a bit more friction in the powertrain. But neither of those things necessarily prevents a car from having agile handling. Extra weight is a detriment, but we're not talking about a thousand pound difference (the R32 is ~300lb heavier than a GTI VR6).
You can make a rear wheel drive car handle very well. You can make an all wheel drive car handle very well. Audi, Porsche, Subaru, Mitsubishi, and others have proven it's possible. I firmly believe if a car (of any drivetrain layout) doesn't handle well, or isn't agile, it's a matter of the engineers and accountants saying "no" rather than "can't".