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Comment by itsoktocry | Hacker News Reader

>vehicle really really shouldn’t leave the suburban pavement

This is also nonsense.

I'm an avid fisherman and (former) hunter. I grew up in Northern Ontario.

I had an Subaru Forrester and took it everywhere. Yes, there's a big difference between AWD and 4WD. Yes, you can get in trouble without a locking diff. Yes, ground clearance will be an issue.

But the idea that these vehicles can't leave the pavement is simply not true. They are surprisingly capable. And as someone who now owns a half ton pickup for the same usage, their small stature on the trail is an advantage.

>we see this misleading trash across the entire board.

Where are all of these misleading ads? Maybe I'm out of the loop, but where are these cars being advertised as "off-road"?

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Subarus are probably the most capable awd vehicles. Imagine a cr-v or even worse the bronco “sport” which is pretty terrible compare to the non-“sport” version.

>Subarus are probably the most capable awd vehicles

They are.

I guess I take offense to the "don't leave the pavement" bit. 90% of trails around the world are not technical in any way. Why discourage some adventure? I think some people would be surprised by how capable their vehicle is, even 2WD.

Maybe that's it? Most people are over or under confident, and reality is in the middle (as it often is).

As the owner of both a Subaru and a Bronco Sport Badlands I feel compelled to defend the latter! They both have very capable AWD systems.

If anyone wants a deep-dive on how the different types of 4WD and AWD systems actually work and their different pros and cons, this video from Alex on Autos is worth your 20 minutes- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD4dNv-jBOY

Should you take either vehicle on roads where the NPS says not to? Of course not! But there's a wide range of conditions between "gravel road" and "rock crawling in Moab", and a properly-equipped AWD vehicle will handle most of them. Know your vehicle, know your skill level, know the conditions you're going into, bring appropriate supplies in case you run into trouble, travel with a group and/or have a reliable way to call for help, etc.

I should clarify. Ford advertises the non-sport version capabilities pretty heavily and then lists the sport side by side with it when capability-wise they are very different vehicles.

There's certainly a big gap between suburban pavement and serious rock-hoppng that many vehicles and drivers can navigate up to some point even without AWD. Certainly many reasonably-maintained gravel roads are not an issue.

That said, SUV and truck manufacturers do tend to picture their vehicles in wilderness settings and the like so there is a certain go anywhere/do anything implication even if it's not explicitly stated.

You can drive a Ford Fiesta down a dirt road if it isn't all torn up (and probably if it is torn up, as long as there's not anything that exceeds the clearance), a gravel road that sees something resembling annual maintenance should be passable in nearly any vehicle.

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