Xdrive best selling AWD system
 

BMW sells most AWD premium cars

xDrive cars sold 320,900 units in '07


March 15, 2008 11:50 By Thami Masemola
Filed Under: General BMW
http://images.worldcarfans.com/artic...315.003.1M.jpgIn an interesting news twist, BMW announced that it has become the dominant force in Europe when it comes to all-wheel-drive in the premium segment. You’ll recall that another German premium automaker has a more famous AWD system than BMW’s xDrive, but it seems customers are falling more for xDrive than they are of this other system. BMW sold 320,900 vehicles fitted with xDrive, a number said to surpass the nearest competitor by some 4,500 units.

You can certainly put this into context though, because the other competitors don’t have a car like the X3 in their model lineups for instance, though on the other hand they do offer AWD in segments were BMW does not offer xDrive. BMW itself has often claimed that xDrive is the fastest reacting AWD system in the world, reacting in milliseconds to changes that necessitate the transfer of torque between the axles and wheels. It is the evolution of the BMW AWD system that’s been around over 20 years.

Yes, and one should remember that X-drive is a mandatory feature of the X3/X5, i.e., if the X3/X5 were available without X-drive, as many SUVs are, I suspect the story might be different.

Still, from what I've read the X-drive system is generally consider to be better than other manufacturers implementations, except for Honda, where even the Roundel magazine review of the X5 vs. the Honda gave the Honda system better marks than X-Drive.

In terms of sheer numbers, that is true, but I'm guessing that as a percentage of total sales, BMW does not sell as many four wheel drive cars. Also, the XDrive has its merits but in different contexts it doesn't perform as well as other four wheel drive systems. Unfortunately, there's no four wheel drive system that can do it all: heavy offroading, gas saving, low friction, etc. The Torsen is more capable than XDrive offroad, as evidenced by this video:

vid 1

But then in other situations, Torsen is limited:

vid 2

Which four wheel drive system is better depends on what you want out of the car. Hence, the reason why the X5 is called an "SAV."

Have to wonder - was the SH-AWD Honda/Acura system even considered in this count for 'premium segment' vehicles as the article described?