irenesbob

Good point. The weight of the drive shaft itself (torque tube in the case of old Buick's) moves some of the weight to the rear. The A3 (with its transverse drivetrain) would be interesting to compare to a comparable BMW model.

q5q7

zf 8hp gear box


4matic gear box


the 4matic is said to be fairly lightweight too. However it doesn't have a center diff. Both 4matic and quattro's front driveshaft is slightly to the right to clear the engine.

Mike_L

The problem with 4Matic is that its got a fixed ratio split. Thats pretty useless on ice if your rear tires are spinning and the fronts are only getting 30% of the power.

Quattro can vary the split if I remember right, and I definitely know XDrive can (my X5M had a screen that showed where the power was going). Thats a much better way to go IMO.

q5q7

Yup, 4matic is a electric controlled 4wd which is inferior to quattro.

in2dwww

4matic simply applies brakes to the slipping wheel. Just like they do with their lane keeping assist. It's fairly rudimentary. We'll find out which approach is more robust 30 years from now. I'm guessing the Audi will still be on the road because the older MB's are rusting away before we find out.

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w220...ust-spots.html
http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/sh...d.php?t=112830
http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w210...ust-onion.html

in2dwww

And... 4matics have a higher ride height and less floor pan space. There's no "sport" suspension option that lowers the car to the RWD sport height. This is the downside to running the front axles below the engine and in front of the fly wheel like MB does.