I know nothing about cars, and I hear this often without any explanation.
In: Technology
Two main features:
The first is that a front engine, front wheel drive vehicle had the majority of the weight centred over the front axle – this means the front wheels will have the most traction.
With a rear wheel drive vehicle the rear (drive) wheels have much less weight centred over them and less grip.
The second is that the front wheels both providing drive and steering allows the driver to pull the car in any direction – whichever way the driver has the wheels pointed, even with poor traction the car will travel in that direction.
With a rear wheel drive car the drive wheels don’t steer, so will always push the car forwards. This is normally fine, as the front wheels will have traction and steer the car, however in snow and lower grip situations, if the front wheels don’t have great traction the car will massively understeer as the drive wheels push forward, and the front wheels just slide rather than steering the car.
Rear wheel drive can have performance benefits in good conditions however, as when the steering wheels do have traction they will steer properly, and will avoid having issues with the torque of the engine and power distribution interfering with the grip and steering.
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