AWD vs 4WD: You've Been Wrong Your Whole Life

[00:04] comments, yes, you've been using these terms wrong your whole life. And I'm not even a little bit sorry to tell you that. All-wheel drive, four-wheel drive are not the same thing. They are not interchangeable. They are not basically

[00:18] the same deal like Lamborghini isn't a Porsche and Porsche is, well, kind of a Lamborghini. And if your uncle has been telling you otherwise at every family barbecue for the last 15 years, your uncle is totally wrong. And it's time

[00:31] video. Let's fix your brain. Like, subscribe so we can hit 2 million subs by the end of the year. And let's go. Okay, let's start with AWD, all-wheel drive. In its simplest possible terms, all-wheel drive sends power to all four

[00:45] of your wheels. Revolutionary concept, I know. You can stop typing, "Well, actually." right now. But, here's where it gets spicy because not all all-wheel drive is the same. There are three main flavors and you need to know the

[00:58] difference. Flavor one, part-time all-wheel drive or what I like to call some of the time all-wheel drive. This is what most of you actually have if you bought a crossover in the last 10 years. Under normal conditions, your car is

[01:10] rear-wheel drive pretending to be sophisticated. Clever little clutch pack only shuffles torque to the other axle when it detects slip. Your car is basically an introvert, functioning perfect well alone, but capable of

[01:25] teamwork under pressure. Your fancy Audi Q5 is like 90% front-wheel drive on the highway. I mean, just let that sink in. Then you have flavor two, full-time Subaru and certain Audis do this. A

[01:38] center differential constantly splits power between both axles all the time, no exceptions. This is why Subaru owners have a personality about their cars. It's not a stereotype, it's just the physics. Four-wheel all-wheel drive

[01:51] genuinely is more capable on sketchy surfaces, but it does have more of a confidence, buddy, which might leave less money for a vape. And then, there's flavor-free, the hybrid all-wheel drive. This one's clever. Toyota does it

[02:04] infamously. Front wheels get a gas engine, rear wheels get an electric motor. Two totally separate systems working together. No drive shaft connecting front to rear. The second gen Acura NSX and the Corvette E-Ray flip

[02:17] it. Big gas motors in the back, electric motors up front. It's engineering sorcery dressed up as a car, and I love it. So, when you see a 4MATIC on a Mercedes or xDrive on a BMW or e-four on a Toyota, that's all all-wheel drive.

[02:32] Different branding, same concept, wildly different price tags. All right, now we go to four-wheel drive. And this is where a certain type of person, you know the type, lifted truck, never been off a paved road, calls it a rig, gets very

[02:45] emotional. Real four-wheel drive is for body-on-frame trucks and SUVs. Your Ford F-150, your Jeep Wrangler, your Toyota Tacoma, your Land Rover De- fender. These are the vehicles built for actual off-road use, not I took the scenic

[02:59] route once off-road, but Moab level. Where is the road off-road? And here's the key difference. Four-wheel drive is manually engaged. You pick up a knob, flip a lever, or push a button, and you decide when four-wheel drive is active.

[03:12] And you've got three modes to choose from. Two high, just regular old rear-wheel drive for normal roads. Four high, four-wheel drive for high range, for slippery or loose surfaces at normal speeds. Then you have four low,

[03:25] four-wheel drive low range for serious crawling, steep terrain, and getting you absolutely knew you were getting into. The magic, and also the danger, of four-wheel drive is that 4H or 4L. The

[03:39] front and rear drive shafts are locked together. They rotate at exactly the same speed, always. No differentiating, no clever computers deciding what gets power, just brute mechanical [music] force going to all four corners

[03:52] simultaneously. And this is why, and I cannot stress this enough, you do not engage four-wheel drive on dry pavement. Not on regular streets, not because I said so, because physics said so. When your front and rear axles are forced to

[04:04] rotate at the same speed, but you're trying to turn, and your front and rear wheels are actually traveling different distances through a corner, something has to give. And that something is your transfer case, your tires, and

[04:16] eventually your wallet. This is called drivetrain binding, and will ruin your day in ways that are deeply expensive and completely avoidable. All-wheel drive handles all that automatically with differentials. Four-wheel drive

[04:28] Okay, now, real quick, you want to do this. I promise. Yes, you are, because there's over a hundred thousand dollars in cars and cash sitting right here. A turbocharged Supra or a high-revving GT350. Make sure you click the pinned

[04:41] comment and get your hundred free entries while they're still alive. Good skill. Okay, decision time. And I'm going to be honest with you even if it hurts. If you drive on roads, paved roads, snowy roads, rainy roads, that

[04:53] one gravel road to your cabin, you want all-wheel drive. Full stop. It's automatic. It's seamless. You don't have to think about it, and it handles the actually throws at you. Your daily commute is not Moab, so stop pretending

[05:07] it is. Here's a real scenario that made me laugh out loud. An all-wheel drive in front-wheel drive mode in light snow is still less likely to lose control than a four-wheel drive pickup in rear drive two high. Because the crossover's

[05:20] lower, lighter, and more balanced. Your massive lifted F-250 in two high mode in a light snowfall is not the fortress or safety that you think it is. It is a large rear-heavy sled, so be humble. Now, if you go off-road, real off-road,

[05:34] intentional off-road, the kind where there is genuine mud and rocks and terrain that would make a civil engineer cry, you want four-wheel drive. The manual control matters. I mean, four low specifically is a tool that all-wheel

[05:46] drive simply cannot replicate. Crawling down a steep descent at 1.5 miles per with maximum torque multiplication, that four low does something all wheel drive just doesn't do. The Jeep Wrangler exists for this exact reason. And here's

[05:59] a simple table in your head. Close your eyes. All wheel drive, snow, rain, confidence on a Tuesday. Four wheel drive, trails, mud, rock crawling, actually using your truck the way commercials imply you use your truck.

[06:12] didn't ask for because that's why you're here. And like subscribe so we can hit two mil by the end of the year. Hot take number one. Most four wheel drive truck owners do not need four wheel drive. Yep, I said it. If you live in a suburb,

[06:25] drive to an office, and go off-road once every three years when you go camping, which means parking at a campsite accessible by a two-lane paved road, you do not need a transfer case. You need a good tire and some honesty about your

[06:37] life. Your four wheel drive has been in two high for 47,000 miles, and it knows. drive is not a substitute for winter tires. This one gets people so defensive, and I love it. Every winter millions of all wheel drive crossover

[06:52] owners feel invincible and drive like it, and then they just don't stop because all wheel drive helps you go. It doesn't help for braking. Your tires stop your car, not your drivetrain. A front wheel drive with proper winter

[07:05] out survive an all wheel drive car on all seasons every single time. Essentially, a front wheel drive with winter beats an all wheel drive on all [music] Get your winters, people. They're not

[07:19] optional, just an excuse. Okay, hot take number three. The marketing around all wheel drive is genuinely absurd. Mercedes calls it 4MATIC. BMW calls it xDrive. Subaru calls it symmetrical all wheel drive like it's a personality

[07:32] trait. Lamborghini calls it a Haldex based all wheel drive. Honda calls it like they're differentiating it from fake-time all wheel drive. Huh. They're all moving torque between two axles. The badges cost more than the engineering

[07:46] difference. And hot take number four, hybrid all-wheel drive is the most underrated system on the market. The Toyota hybrid setup, gas motor up front, electric motor in the rear, is mechanically brilliant. No drive shaft

[07:58] at all, lower weight, and send torque to the rear in slippery conditions, better fuel economy than a traditional all-wheel drive system. It's not glamorous and it doesn't make a good Instagram caption, but it is genuinely

[08:10] clever. The fact that Toyota doesn't brag about it more is insane to me. wrap up. All-wheel drive and four-wheel drive are both tools. Neither one make you a better driver, neither one makes your car invincible. The most important

[08:24] asset in navigating snow, a dirt road, or simply staying safe on your commute is a cool head and smooth hands behind the wheel. No technology compensates for overconfidence. The people who end up in ditches and snowstorms almost always

[08:36] have all-wheel drive. You know why? Because they thought they didn't need to slow down. Physics doesn't care about your badge. Know what your car has, know what it's for, use it correctly, [music] and for the love of everything, don't

[08:49] because it feels more secure. It doesn't. It's destroying your transfer case. Stop it. Now, if you learned something today, hit the like button. If you knew this all already, well, hit the like button three times. Just smash it.

[09:02] And clearly, you have excellent taste in YouTube channels. Drop in the comments, four-wheel drive? Do you like Haldex or do you like whatever Porsche's cooking up. I want to know. And if you have all-wheel drive or four-wheel drive,

[09:15] what do you drive? And uh what do you use it for? I know so many F-150 drivers out in Florida that defend their purchase, but uh yeah, four-wheel drive ain't doing you much on a flat state like that. Also, subscribe if you're

[09:27] new, and remember to go to win this ideal car because we are giving away two different cars. Yes, either this Shelby GT350 or the Mark V Supra plus $100,000 GT350 or the Mark V Supra plus $100,000 cash, 100 free entries down below. Okay,

[09:41] guys, I'm Brad Danger. This is Ideal and promise me one thing, keep living the ideal lifestyle. >> [music]