Friday, August 31, 2012

Why Should Luxury Cars be RWD?

You are already feeling rage, it is overflowing.  The most common criticism against companies like Lincoln and Audi are that their luxury offerings are almost entirely FWD based which makes them worse for some reason.  But nobody can ever give a legitimate reason why luxury cars are supposed to be RWD instead of being FWD and most of all ignore the fact that Lincolns and Audis tend to be AWD which is highly considered to be superior to RWD by the average consumer.  So why are Lincolns and Audis considered inferior to RWD luxury boats?

When the Cadillac XTS was released it was yelled at.  Even though it was drastically superior in design to the CTS that was designed with a straight edge it was "not deserving of being a Cadillac flagship" because "IT DRIVES THE FRONT WHEELS!  GRRRRAGE!"  WTF.  Because the XTS is going to compete in GT racing?  It's a boat designed for your grandparents and Deq.  It will barely exceed 20 miles per hour most of the time.  There is no reason for it to be RWD.  However having it be FWD based makes it 1000 times easier to make it AWD if GM chooses to.  Grandma and Grandpa see that it has AWD and thinks it will be good in the Winter.  Sale won, Grandpa doesn't buy a Lexus.  Same with the MKS and MKZ.  The Town Car was RWD.  The MKS can drive circles around it.  Was the Town Car superior because it wasn't FWD based?  No, the Town Car sucked.  Sorry Deq.  MKS Ecoboost will make Grandpa shit himself.  The MKZ is almost orgasm inducing in its design and makes every single Cadillac look like a total piece of crap but its supposedly inferior because the engine sits horizontally underhood.  Nope.  You are having so much rage right now because you just realized that the only reason that you think luxury cars should be RWD is because that's the way Lexus does it because that's the way that BMW and Mercedes do it.  You're a conformist and a drive wheel snob.

Let's look at the facts.  Big luxury boats don't need a lot of power; maybe mid 300s at the highest.  In a two ton vehicle that is completely managable through the front wheels and is especially managable through all four wheels.  They're big and their owners are not going to be ripping through canyon roads or going to the local track with them so they don't need to handle.  Good stability and predictability in bad weather are important things for the target ownership group so having power to the front wheels is desirable.  The first time the rear comes out on granny she's going to sell it.  So why exactly does a luxury car need RWD?  You only have one card that you can play and its hubris.  Mad?

Now to really make your rage overflow.  RWD is inferior.  Oh damn, you just exploded.  It adds weight, it makes a car unpredictable and hard to drive and saps power.  YOUR RAGE!  I'm sorry.  A vehicle below 300 horsepower is better with FWD.  Sorry again, I'm really not trying to kill you but at this point your blood pressure must be over 200.

Cadillac built the XTS because they know from the 90s that Grandpa prefers FWD.  Sorry.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Nah, this is the (pathetically lame) successor to the Deville. It's not a real Cadillac, but yeah...

Anonymous said...

"Cadillac built the XTS because they know from the 90s that Grandpa prefers FWD. Sorry."

Don't be sorry, i'm an honorary elder that loves FWD!

-Dequindre

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