Not long ago, we went to the northernmost reaches of Italy, where we drove Maserati’s Ghibli and Quattroporte sedans up mountain roads in the snowy Alps and a Levante SUV (pictured above) on a specially created ice-driving course. The Italian automaker had set up the ice course at one of Italy’s major ski resorts and had built a display space in the chic downtown of another, all to show off the lineup of all-wheel-drive Maseratis. Let that phrase sink in for a minute: “the lineup of all-wheel-drive Maseratis.” If even Maserati feels the need to offer all-wheel-drive versions of three different models, it begs the question: Are there any automobile brands left with product lineups that get by with just two driven wheels?
Not many. Ferrari has AWD (GTC4 Lusso). So does Lamborghini (Aventador and Huracán). Alfa Romeo does, too (optional on the Giulia sedan and soon the Stelvio crossover). And Tesla (the dual-motor D variants) and Bugatti (Chiron). So does Bentley (Bentayga, Continental, and Flying Spur). And also Porsche (Cayenne, Macan, 911, and Panamera). By our reckoning, that leaves just Aston Martin, Lotus, McLaren, Rolls-Royce, and Smart, and a couple of those brands have crossover/SUV offerings in the works, which will further dwindle those ranks.
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“For the near-luxury segment and up, AWD is becoming a must, and it’s no longer limited to the Snow Belt.”
— Jay Joseph, Acura product planning
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Of course, the rise of SUVs and crossovers has both fueled and been fueled by the growing popularity of all-wheel drive. But the feature is permeating passenger-car lineups as well.
Among mainstream brands, it’s available on passenger cars from Buick (LaCrosse and Regal), Chrysler (300), Dodge (Charger and, just recently, Challenger), Ford (Focus RS, Fusion, Taurus SHO), Mini (Clubman), Nissan (GT-R), and Volkswagen (CC, Golf Alltrack, Golf R, Golf SportWagen). And it comes standard on every Subaru except the BRZ sports coupe.
For luxury-brand passenger cars, it’s almost universal. All-wheel drive is available on every Acura save the ILX; nearly every BMW other than the i3, M car models, and the outgoing Z4 roadster; all Lexus models except the CT and the ES, and every Mercedes sedan and coupe plus the new E-class convertible. At Audi, Cadillac, Genesis, Infiniti, Jaguar, Lincoln, and Volvo, it’s available on every model. “For the near-luxury segment and up, AWD is becoming a must, and it’s no longer limited to the Snow Belt,” said Jay Joseph, assistant vice president of product planning at Acura.
Maserati, in fact, is quite late to the party. It added all-wheel drive to the Quattroporte and the Ghibli in 2014; its first SUV, the Levante, launched with it in 2016. And yet the company says that already 70 percent of Maseratis sold in the United States have AWD, a figure that’s likely to climb as production of the Levante ramps up.
At a vehicle display in the Italian ski resort of Courmayeur, the message for the audience of moneyed winter-sports enthusiasts was clear: If you’re looking for all-wheel drive, you don’t have to buy an Audi or a Range Rover—you can get a Maserati.
Prior to Maserati, Jaguar was a notable AWD straggler. After the departure of the one-cycle-and-done X-type (an all-wheel-drive compact derived from the front-wheel-drive Ford Mondeo), Jaguar was left with an exclusively rear-drive lineup. When Ford sold Jaguar to Tata, the brand’s U.S. leadership persuaded the new Indian bosses to spend big on a crash program to re-engineer the existing XF and XJ sedans to add all-wheel drive, which arrived in 2013. The F-type sports car since has added it, too. And the compact XE sports sedan has offered AWD from launch.
How Did We Get Here?
When AMC stuffed Jeep four-wheel-drive hardware under its Concord (née Hornet) family of coupes, sedans, and wagons—plus its Spirit (née Gremlin) hatchback—it didn’t look like a defining moment in automotive history. It was more like the desperate attempt of a perennially cash-strapped automaker to grab whatever was at hand to wring a few more sales out of an aging lineup. But AMC’s Eagle models, as the four-wheel-drive variants were called, were instrumental in moving four-wheel drive from the exclusive province of trucks and sport-utility vehicles (which then were also trucks) into passenger cars.
Soon thereafter, Audi introduced its racing-bred Quattro all-wheel-drive system, and that cast the technology in a more sophisticated glow and added a performance element. Where Audi went, Mercedes-Benz and BMW inevitably followed—Mercedes rolling out its 4MATIC system on the E-class in 1987 and BMW with the all-wheel-drive 325iX in 1988.
At the opposite end of the market, fringe Japanese economy-car maker Subaru had quietly gained a toehold in America, largely due to its odd-looking but rugged four-wheel-drive DL/GL station wagon (pictured above), which it first imported for 1975. Soon it began expanding the feature to other models. Eventually, the company would realize that all-wheel drive was a defining element of its brand, and it dropped its front-drive offerings after 1995.
“AWD is the only feature that satiates a customer’s appetite for both safety and performance,” said Acura’s Joseph. Those dual driving forces are proving a powerful impetus. Market penetration of all-wheel drive has jumped by nine points in just the past four years. According to IHS Markit’s U.S. light-vehicle registrations, AWD was 31 percent of the U.S. market in 2012, jumping to 40 percent last year. It’s no wonder that Maserati, like virtually every other automaker, has rushed to serve customers’ desires. It seems we’re rapidly moving toward a time when four driven wheels will be found in a majority of new cars, be they Maseratis or just about any other brand.
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