Canadian premium cars are doing away with 2WD options
I know that AWD is nice to have up here, but I wonder why manufacturers are eliminating the option for 2 wheel drive completely in the premium car segment, especially when they're sold in the states and it would take very little work to bring the 2WD models up with a few swapped parts for Canada (gauge clusters etc)? BMW seems to be the exception here and isn't doing it.
So far, the cars that have very recently (2014-2016) eliminated 2WD in favour of AWD only options:
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Mercedes-Benz: The C-class (all models except AMG) are now 4MATIC only. The CLA AMG 45 is 4MATIC only (but the base model is still FWD optional). The CLS models are all 4MATIC only, and so are the E-class and S-class!
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Audi: Almost every sedan is Quattro only in Canada except the base A3.
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Lexus: Every sedan (and the RC) except for the ES is AWD only.
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Acura: Of their sedans, all V6 TLXs, and the RLX are only offered with SH-AWD. No more FWD available. Only the ILX and 4-banger TLX come with FWD anymore. Basically if it's got a V6, it's SH-AWD (also applies to the SUVs but I was talking sedans for this post).
And the list goes on.
Posted Feb 25, 2016, 12:28 AM UTC