I say Less Hating on Front Wheel Drives

[JRoberts]

My experience with front wheel drive is positive. I rallied a Saab 96 back in the day and there were places I was more than glad to have fwd. We owned a second generation VW Jetta that was on of the best handling cars I have ever owned. Later another fwd VW. Of course the awd Subaru Legacy is also a great handling car. I have owned several British sports cars and none handled as well as the fwd cars that I have owned. They were fun, but did not handle as well as any of my fwd cars. My Studebaker is obviously a rwd machine. I have turned it into a pretty fair handling car (over size front and rear sway bars, lowered a couple of inches and a few other things) but it will never handle as well as the Saab's and VW's I have owned. Now with all that said I know there are a lot of rwd cars that handle better than anything I have owned, but I really do get tired of hearing how bad fwd cars are. I just don't believe they are inherently bad. .

[AndyB]

There's good FWD and there's bad FWD, same as RWD or any other layout. A good FWD is nicer than a bad RWD, but a good RWD just can't be beaten. I desperately miss the way my Miata could be steered with either the wheel or the throttle if you were at the limit of traction.... I do not at all miss the way that it had such little power that the limit required slick surfaces to get to at reasonable speeds.

I wish MR cars would become popular and affordable again. Probably the best handling anything I've ever driven was an old MR2... not fastest, not grippiest, just absolutely telepathic, and laughably easy to control. But I may be weird like that, if I'm going to drive over the limit and crash into a tree, I want to lose the tail and go off the road backwards, instead of simply plowing straight off. Understeer is the worst feeling ever.

[RockJustRock]

Maybe the U.S. could wake up and see Asia and Europe building more, not less FWD and COMPETE rather than surrendering and feeding the SUV abomination.