AWD Torquesteer?

I've never driven an AWD vehicle but am considering the 2010 Legacy. Today I wondered if torquesteer is an issue?

As long as the wheels are straight and the road is not crowned, yes, no torque steer whatsoever- as soon as the suspension deflects more on one side than the other, or the road surface is angled differently from side-to-side, even the subie pulls a bit.

Not much, though.

Dave

There are many things that cause torque steer on cars that have power delivered to the steering wheels. A few have been mentioned. Scrub radius is also a big one. Basically the measurement between the center of the tire's contact patch and the point where the steering axis of that wheel hits the ground. Any car that has power going to the front wheels will have torque steer to some extent. However, engineers have worked on the suspension geometry of newer cars to quell it, and I think it is not anything to worry about. You definitely will not have to fight the wheel as it tries to pull you into the next lane. The subaru does send some power to the rear, which lessens torque steer, and under harder acceleration a higher percentage of that power goes to the rear, so there is kind of a limit to how much power the front sees. I think that torque steer should not be a concern for the 2010 legacy. The best thing to do is to drive it and see what you think. I think that once you drive it, you'll want one. They're really nice. I thought it was an ugly car in the pictures they released about 6 months ago. Now that I've seen it in person I really like it.

Bill

The issue of torquesteer just occured to me as I was researching the=20 Legacy. I've driven some FWD cars which were Hell to control and other=20 like my 99 Grand Prix which has less torquesteer than any other FWD car=20 I ever drove. A neighbors' Dodge Omni is the worst I ever drove. I personally found the previous Legacy generations uninteresting but saw=20 the 2010 review in my local paper and its appearance alone piqued my=20 interest. The AWD would be a boon here in Canada too.

In almost all conditions, you will experience no or almost no torquesteer.

Dave

I've never seen torquesteer in the years I've driven a Subie. However, you will sometimes see it following the crown of the road a bit too much. But that's not torquesteer, that happens to all cars.

Yousuf Khan