i have been in multiple FWD cars and let me tell you the STi is no normal AWD car, and for your info handles nothing like a FWD.

 

I have no issues with rain. Especially in what I was driving the last few days. I could have driven through 36" of rain and not had an issue. But I would say the type of tires you have plays a serious part in how it handles in the rain. I don't know what we have o nthe vette but I can even get it to get squirley on a damp road. But AWD is nice till it breaks.

 

My car kicks ass in the rain... the nittos dead hook in the rear, and the skinnies just slice right through the water.

 

Makes me want to go out and trade the truck in for the Legacy GT ive had my eyes on.

 

So awd helps braking distance too? Which is the primary reason I slow down in the rain... that and the shit ton of idiots who find some way to spin thier car across 3 lanes.

 

i had the beauty of a 135 hp camry to drive, so traction loss is never an issue

 

Notice the part about fancy differentials? You know you have those, right? Read up on your car sometime, it might help. Without those diffs, an AWD car WILL understeer, just like an FF car.

 

Sure doesn't. I learned that lesson a long time ago. I was driving too fast in the rain, accelerating hard toward a light and generally enjoying the traction benefits of AWD when the light turned yellow. I hit the brakes hard to stop the car and the road was so slick that the tires locked, I reflexively started the pump-lift-pump-lift routine but it was just locking the tires every time I pumped and not slowing the car fast enough. After a second or two of this I slammed the pedal back to the floor and hoped the skid would slow me, but as I skidded right past the stop line at 35 I just slammed it into second and blasted through the red light hoping nobody was coming through. Scary stuff, and I've tried to avoid messing around in the rain since then. The one time I broke the rule after that it caused me and my car a load of trouble...

Stis and Evos have those fancy diffs from the factory. I know too well how much AWD is like FWD without them, it's been the biggest disappointment of owning an AWD DSM. I'd never have bought this car knowing what I know now.

I just wish freakin Mitsu would give us active yaw control in the states. They have some BS excuse about packaging problems with US emissions devices. I hate being deprived of the good stuff other countries get.