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Your Next Of Kin In Auto Parts!

Mirror, mirror, on the wall who is the fairest of them all; All Wheel Drive (AWD), Rear Wheel Drive (RWD) or Front Wheel Drive (FWD)?

It really depends on your driving style, experience, and if you're looking for performance. A FWD car is generally considered safer because it is much harder to have oversteer since the rear wheels won't swing the back end out and start spinning if they break traction. And if you experience oversteer, you can just give it some gas and the car will straighten out because the front end will just pull the rest of the car until the back end follows. This creates a safer driving experience, especially for newer drivers.

FWD cars also are easier to do a handbrake turn in. If the car is a manual transmission car, you can stay in gear while pulling the handbrake and not stall because the rear wheels will be locked, but the front (driven) wheels will still be free to move. If you simply pull the handbrake on a RWD car without dipping the clutch, you'll stall out and look like a buffoon. However, FWD has its downsides, which is where you can really see RWD make a difference, especially in a performance setting. Because the front wheels of a FWD car are receiving power and doing the steering, and there is so much weight up front with the engine and drivetrain, it is much easier to experience understeer. This can create problems in a track day because you’d have to slow down a lot more than the other guy to go through the corner and not continue straight (this applies to AWD cars as well, but an AWD car can accelerate out of a turn faster than other drivetrains so it makes up for it).

However, since the steering and driven wheels are separate in a RWD car, each component can do its job to the fullest extent without having to do anything else, giving a more responsive ride. This also translates to less understeer in corners generally. If you’re a proper hooligan, you can take your RWD car out for some drifting fun. So there isn't a clear “better” drivetrain, it really comes down to what you want and need the car to do. Both have their pros and cons in both daily and performance driving.

WHY DO VEHICLE PART REPLACEMENTS BY MECHANICS LAST ONLY A FEW YEARS BUT THE SAME JOB DONE BY THE FACTORY LASTS FOR DECADES? WHAT DO FACTORY TECHNICIANS KNOW AND DO THAT MECHANICS DON'T?

As someone who has worked in the industry of automotive part manufacturing for many years, I will let you in on a little-known fact. When it comes to automotive parts, there are 3 grades. The first known as OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) are the parts that go on new vehicles on assemble lines. They have the strictest quality standard. Unless you have some inside source, you will never get your hands on these parts.

The next level of parts is referred to as OES (Original Equipment Service). These are the parts that go to dealerships that you can buy there. Their quality standard is generally not as high as OEM, but they are typically made on the same machinery that made the OEM parts.

The third level of parts are referred to as aftermarket parts. These have one goal in mind and that is lowest possible cost. These are the parts you would buy from your local auto parts store and will be the parts most often used by non-dealer repair shops. These parts are typically not made on the same machinery as OE parts and quite often made by a complete different manufacturer. In some cases, parts that fail the quality standard of OE parts will be re-packaged and sold as aftermarket parts.

Another factor to take into consideration is how cars are assembled by the manufacturer. There are very expensive machines and tools used that a service center will never have access to. You can be sure that once a bolt is removed from a car, it will never be re-assembled to the same strict quality done by the original manufacturer. The combination of this and lower quality parts is why a repair job will rarely last as long as the original.