This morning I was making a left turn onto a busy road in the rain. This turn is always a bit hazardous because the road I am turning onto has obstacles that limit my view of cross traffic and their view of me. Compounding that, they are coming downhill and around a turn.

When I pulled out this morning a car flew around the turn at a fast clip and I had to MOVE across the highway to get out of the way. When I accelerated there was a bit of wheel slip, but very little, and I got across the wet highway quickly and safely.

Afterwards I was thinking about what would have happened if I only had two wheels of available traction instead of four. My experience in FWD cars in situations like this is that the natural reaction of stepping down more on the gas just makes for more spin, less movement and a more hazardous situation.

I illustrate this situation because it is easy to assume that the safety benefits of AWD are only present with snow and ice.

The ability to use the available traction from four wheels can sometimes help to avoid hazardous situations even when it is warm out.

 

I absolutely agree, I live in So Cal and snow and ice is rare but the wet can be common and the RL is brilliant. Turn right from a stop, in the rain with your foot floored. No other car can do it.
Be careful though, every now and again you are not in an RL and you can't do the things that you can in the RL and live through it. You don't realize how good and safe the RL is until you get it something else - I don't feel as safe in the TL or any other FWD car.

 

On a side note, do you guys ever get distracted by the SH-AWD MID on the dashboard? Every so often when I pivot the RL around a corner, I tend to look at the MID to see SH-AWD in action (seeing the torque line move from different wheels is neat!), which has cause a fair share of “almost” accidents.

 

It is very difficult to observe the SHAWD on the MID as the steering wheel blocks it in turns....which is when SHAWD engages. Honda should have made this a heads up display so you can focus on the twisties.

 

is there a way to get small projector to project mid info on our windshield? the old maxima have that ability to project the speed of the car to the windshield.....

 

My 93 Bonneville SSE has a head up display and I have no idea why all cars don't have it, brilliant idea!