German Car Zone

bmws 4wd is good for the road, but thats about it. MBs 4matic is more of a threat.

Then you havent read all positive reviews the next X-drive has gotten.
Too bad you dont know swedish you should have read the wintertest in swedish carmags were they tested different cars with AWD. The new X-drive got som very positive grades.

BTW 50% of all bimmers in Sweden is using X-drive.

Yes, and that's the point of 4WD in cars like MB, Audi, BMW, Lexus ...

Do you imagine serious off-roading in A6 sedan? Or even in a Q7. I don't ...
Or ploughing in a half meter of snow. I don't think so.

So - it matters what 4WD system can do on a normal road in any condition (dry, snowy, wet, or muddy).

That's also why Audi has shifted to 40:60 rear biased quattro.

Only certain audi's have that rear bias.

Audi's can go up ski ramps, mercedes,bmw and lexus couldnt manage, and the A6 can go up sand dunes, which the locals could only do in jeeps.

For now.

In the next generation all the Audi quattros will get the new rear biased quattro. Audi know other car makers are getting closer & closer with 4WD systems, so they had to react.

Sure they can. But what's the point of doing that? Would you climb up ski ramps in your car? I don't think so ... Would you ride upon sand dunes in A6 or A8 (with almost no ground clearence)? I dont' think so ... All that ski ramps or sand dunes are just marketing blurbs ...

Nowdays Audi's quattro, BMW's great engines & performance, MB's luxury, high tech & great comfortable ride are endangered like never before. Margins are getting very thin. And with cars very alike in performance & tech, other elements will become more important: e.g. design, customer services, brand image, etc.

In one of the latest winter tests i have read the E91 330xd was faster around an ice course than the Evo 9 and the latest Subaru STi. So there is nothing crappy about the X-drive anymore.

In anonter more useability oriented test the X-drive system proved to be more efficient than both Audis torison system and Subarus viscous system in real world winter use. (No Mercedes in that test, only a SUV in another class).

That sounds very impressive, and Tine keeps saying in the new X5, there will be a new version of X drive which will be much better than the current version, so things can only get better!

It's a shame that BMW don't sell X drive in the UK!

How can BMW not offer X drive cars in the UK, the loose many sales there...

I'm sorry but that commercial was a load of BS. It only went up there after
- they scraped off all the ice and snow
- gave it studded tires
- attached it to a cable for stability

I'm sorry, My grandmother can go up a ski ramp after that, and she has a bad hip

Sorry Rik but the act was real and the only reason the cable was there was safety precautions. It didn't help the car in any way.

With all the conversations about BMW and xDrive lately i get the feeling that BMW is trying to compensate for it's limited history in AWD technology by spreading false information.

Xdrive is conditional AWD meaning the car is RWD until the ESP and traction control sense a slip and then the torque is also transfered to FW.
Quattro is permanent AWD in which 40% of the torque goes to FW and 60% to rear ALL THE TIME.

If you knew about AWD you would know that true off road vehicles like Hummer , Land Rover and Land Cruiser use a system like quattro while light off road vehicles like SUVs use systems like xDrive.

The reason the latest version of quattro (Torsen C based) is asymetrical is that with 40/60 distribution, power understeer is reduced to minimum.