All-Wheel Drive (AWD) vs Four-Wheel Drive (4WD)

When shopping for a car, you often hear the terms “four-wheel drive” and “all-wheel drive” thrown around, frequently interchangeably. They actually refer to very different systems, which can produce radically different results. View more details after the cut…

4WD is normally used on large SUV Four-Wheel Drive (4x4) vehicles designed to use the extra traction of 4WD in off road situations. These vehicles are predominately truck based platforms with large wheels and off road tyres that combined with a manually selected and a locked 4WD driveline enables the vehicle to venture off-road and negotiate very difficult terrain.

4WD runs in complement with a two-wheel drive setup. When the 4WD mode is selected, the power from the drivetrain is split equally between the front and rear axles, ensuring the vehicle does not get stuck or spin out in thick mud, snow, uneven terrain, or when scaling a boulder like in most off-road jeep commercials. Split-axle power helps to reduce fishtailing and spinning out on slick pavement, saving you the need to call over someone for a push.

AWD is the newer technology, and while it also splits the power from the engine between the two axles, it has two main differentiators from 4WD:

With AWD, the system is always on. It isn't a feature or mode that you need to select. This means that when you hit unexpected poor road conditions (like a patch of ice or muddy roads), the system automatically kicks in to give you better traction and handling.

The power split between the two axles isn't always 50-50. There is usually a range of the amount of the split, but the AWD system is continually gaining feedback from the tires and sending the most power to the wheels which are receiving the most traction at the moment.