kreb wrote:
We just prefer our performance run through the rear wheels or all of them.
It wasn't
intended as a low blow: you've got big distances, lots of (comparatively) wide, straight roads and new, grid-pattern cities. It
makes sense to have cars that prioritized for comfort over handling.
Europe has a lot of narrow, twisty, challenging roads, and we seldom travel long distances. If FWD was so terrible for handling, don't you think that the bias would run the other way around?
Sure, there's an inherent disadvantage in terms of weight transfer with FWD for traction-limited acceleration, but that's seldom an issue on public roads unless you're dragging away from the lights.
Incidentally, Jere, RWD cars are understeering most of the time, too: the difference in feel is that RWD cars are designed so that they diagonally transfer weight onto the rear (driven) wheels (ie. they lean diagonally backward when cornering), whereas FWD cars are designed to pitch diagonally forward onto
their driven end. In extremis, a RWD far will lift its inside front wheel, a FWD car will lift its inside rear wheel. It's largely this that your inner ear is interpreting as a difference in feel, not understeer-oversteer.