After waking up to some light snow this weekend, I decided to try out the E's real-time 4WD system.

Compared to other full-time all-wheel-drive vehicles that work on an alternating 40%-60% power-ratio front-to-back, the Honda's rear wheels kick in only when sensing slippage up front. The advantage to this setup is fuel economy during the summer season/winter dry periods. Unfortunately, during slippier weather, when the front wheel slippage is sensed by the system, the reaction time to drive the rear wheels is a bit too long.

In other words, driving into an icy corner still feels like a front-wheel drive until the rear wheels kick in which is about a second too late. This initiates the ass-end kicking out and only if you stomp on the accelerator pedal.
Similar response can be had for straight-line acceleration on wet snow where the front wheels start to wander a tad until the rear diffy locks up.

Anybody else test there E in the white stuff?

I suspect that the RT4WD system wasn't really built to be used at speed, but more for not getting stuck...

There's an entrance ramp from glebe road south onto route 50 east here in arlington that has a very gravelly transition towards the bottom of a short hill. I always gun it a bit at the bottom of the entrance, as the top of the hill of route 50 is "blind" and cars come over the rise, in the right lane, like bats outta hell.

I think I feel the slip, then the kick of the RT4WD come in, but the steering always feels a bit out of control right then - is that the kind of behavior you are describing?

-brendan

I had a '93 Plymouth Colt Wagon (Eagle Summit/Mistsu Explo LRV) with an AWD sytem like my E. It's a viscous coupling that takes just that second between front and awd. And it's only there under power, so you have to keep your foot into it to get the benefit, not a comfy feeling when you're headed for the ditch knowing you need to put your foot down, not off.

Having said that, I've also got a full size truck with mechanical 4wd and it sure works but boy it's clunky and tough on gas to boot.

thirstE

I took delivery of my element on feb 21 of this year and had lots of opportunities to test out the 4wd, and i must say it did a fantastic job and I rarely felt that the system was too slow in kicking in. This winter however, it seems much slower in kicking in or my wheels don't bite the snow and ice they way they used to. Could just be the tires.

Actually Harshfellow, it is your tires. After driving a full year on your stock all-seasons, it's probably best to check the tread wear and think about investing in snow tires or SUV tires with a slightly agressive tread pattern. I cannot stress to all of you what a difference aftermarket tires make on the E. The stock OEM Goodyear Wranglers are both noisy and lousy in the rain. My wife had them on her old '98 Odyssey and I remember the first winter rushing out to buy snow tires.

My Bridgestone Dueler H/T 684II tires come OEM on the Saturn Vue only because of the wider stance that I tried to achieve. In order not to affect speedometer accuracy, I opted for the 235/65 R15 series tire which is the maximum allowable for our narrow stock rim width.

Brendan, I can't really say that the steering wheel feels a little light when the rear wheels kick in because there is quite a bit of torque steer on these cars. All I know is that coming from my GMC Safari AWD to the E, I was a bit disappointed with the traction in snowy weather.

THe Freelander has a viscous coupling all-wheel drive system. Does anyone know if that's similar to Honda's RT4WD system?

I agree with the tires. I'm still searching for good replacement tires but these Wrangler HPs that come on the Element are less than adequate.