[RGRAY]

It was explained to me that the xi is a rear wheel drive car and that it only changes as conditions require.

Also, the drive can change up to 100% rear to front, but it can only change up to 60/40 left to right.

Do you agree?

[gos]

no, xi is all-wheel-drive:

60/40 rear/front is the ideal front/back torque distribution
Can go up to 0/100 rear/front in some situations, not sure if it can go 100% rear

side-to-side torque is managed with the brakes automatically, when one side of the car is on a different surface

[espo]

Agree with gos:

The drive is normally split 60/40 rear/front. It can go 100% either way depending on conditions (from what I have read). It however, can't change left/right drive. That is the job of the differential and the DTC.

[E90Fleet]

There is a document posted somehere in the stickies that explains the whole XI system

[E90Fleet]

Here you go, all you ever wanted to know about Xdrive

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...ghlight=xdrive

[u2jrmw]

Nice to know the salesman at the BMW dealership is full of BS. I was also told that the car runns 100% RWD until it needs to move power to the front, and that this gave a much better experience than Quattro...

[dude007]

Originally Posted by u2jrmw

Nice to know the salesman at the BMW dealership is full of BS. I was also told that the car runns 100% RWD until it needs to move power to the front, and that this gave a much better experience than Quattro...

Your sales person is almost corect, it's allways RWD engaged and FWD is engaged when needed. However, I beleive under regular driving it keeps around 60/40 RWD/FWD.

[thunderbirdsarego]

xDrive is a continously variable system but defaults to a 60/40 rear/front power distribution.

The main BMW philosophy with xDrive seems to have been to add AWD whilst at the same time maintaining the driving dynamic of a RWD car.

I've driven both the 330i and 330xi (I now own the latter) and can say that the difference is very subtle in everyday driving. If you test drove the xi w/o being told you were in an AWD vehicle there is a good chance you would not be able to tell.

Unless you drive the i and xi back to back or under traction limited conditions the differences may be hard to detect.

I would strongly recommend you drive both and then consider seriously whether you need AWD or whether RWD+snows will suit your purposes. My 330xi does have high performance winter tires on it which will get me to most places I need to go (we have a 4x4 truck for logging roads etc.).

One advantage of xDrive in winter is that you can use a very high performance winter tire (I use the SottoZero's), be able to get most places even in nasty conditions yet still not take much of a performance hit.

[fakerlin]

Sounds good, these words make the wait even harder :-)