Four wheel drive

friends,

what is meant by four wheel drive, how do we check up whether a particular car is four wheel drive or not? which all cars in price bracket of <5 lakhs and <10 lakhs fall in that category?

is SX4 four wheel drive, what about Punto or Swift or Jazz.

Most cars have the drive from the engine going to either the front wheels or the rear wheels but for 4 wheel drive vehicles the power from the engines goes to all 4 wheels. Some cars have the option of switching between 2 wheel drive and 4 wheel drive while some are all time 4 wheel drive like the fortuner. Previously it was mostly available on SUVs but now its available even in cars like audi and skoda. 

AFAIK there is no car in the sub 10 lac category with 4 wheel drive especially the cars that you are mentioned about are not 4 wheel drive.

Some more info on 4 wheel drive here. Also try searching the forums for this. There should be some threads on this.

SX4 is not offered in 4WD variant here. Cheapest car offered with 4WD is the Mahindra Thar(previously MM540 family) and then the bolero. Most SUVs in India have an option for the same. Skoda superb, Audis offer 4WD in sedans also, alongwith SUVs. 

well four wheel drive means all the four wheels in the car are powered by the engine. The two wheels at the either side will be directly powered by the engine and the other two will be powered by transfer box connected to the engine.

SX4 is not offered with the 4WD , but the XUV 500 has the option for the 4WD.

Dear All, 

4 Wheel drive as the name explains is transfer of power to all the four wheels of an automobile. This is done for 2 purposes.

1. Additional traction for road-cars (All Wheel Drive) e.g - Audi Quattro

2. Off the road driving - In this feature, the SUVs have a selectable hi- low range in the transfercase which increases the torque at lower rpms so that these vehicles can climb or negotiate tough terrain at lower speeds.

Please let me know if you want any further information.

Hi santhanam i think Maruthi Gypsy comes with 4WD option in India.

The gypsys these days (new) dont come with 4 wheel drive. They are the standard 2 wheel drive ones

Dear Sridhar, 

Since its inception, the Gypsy has always been a 4 wheel drive. Even the model available today (made to order )is a 4 Wheel drive. There is no 2 Wheel drive variant in Gypsy.

Thanks Sabareeesh I stand corrected. Maybe I mixed it with something else while posting.

EDIT - Also I guess some gypsys had an option to switch between 2 and 4 wheel drive but these days thats not available

All four wheel drives including the gypsy have a transfer case selector to switch between two wheel drive and four wheel drive, along with a low ratio option in 4WD.