here's my take on the "what does it do with my driving style" after driving and experimenting the pathy for about a year and a half. while my terms or descriptions of what's happening might not be exactly accurate, this is what the truck FEELS like it's doing to me.


i in no way recommend/advise/condone/whatever any driving styles mentioned below. my take also ONLY applies to the v8 models, but might also be true for the v6s.


if you are a 'grandpa' driver that does nice and easy slow accelerations, takes turns slowly in dry weather and such, 2wd vs auto will make NO difference imo.



if you are very aggressive (like me) then here's what happens:
1 . if you're in 2wd and you stomp (slow rolling or stopped) it, traction control will kick in if you're slow enough and you'll have a loss of power for a sec.
2. if you're in auto and you stomp it, i feel that the ecu detects wot it goes ahead and engages the clutch pack to send power to the front BEFORE the rear even slips. i think they recognized that wot WILL make the rear slip so why not beat it to the punch.



when i want to do a 'off the line' test (on a non-public street of course!) i would put it in auto and traction off. this will allow the rear to slightly slip, and will engage the front. the rear will regain on it's own instead of cutting power/apply brakes.



in rain/wet/slick/non-snow/etc then auto is good for grandpa, and fun for me.
1. for grandpa whenever you're starting off or in a turn and it detects slip, it will cut the slipping tire(s) and engage the front and you'll be none the wiser.
2. for me i like to punch it around said corners or stop/starts with traction -off-. what happens in the corners is the rear will start to slip out and you'll start to power slid around the corner. the trick is not to let off the gas. right about when you have that "oh crap the rear end is sliding out too far" moment the front engages and pulls you right out. it really takes some getting used to.
3. if you have traction on and you do the above the rear will just barely slip out, but no hollywood sliding around corners style.



and btw i don't do this sort of thing when there's traffic around or on a public street. i only "play" when there's no one around. i'm not going to have fun while putting someone else on the road in danger. it's just my first car was a '82 mustang 5.0, so i like to have a fun when it's slick out

I agree completely with everything you said. I tend to drive my Pathfinder hard, like it was a slightly bigger Audi All-Road, leave the transfer case in Auto all the time and love it, especially in the rain

heh, yeah like an audi all-road. that's it.

i do love some 4x4 -traction drifting in the snow though.

when it's dry i rarely take it out of 2wd unless i'm leaving a store/gas station and i need to have a quick takeoff while turning, then i'll switch it for the launch, but then back to 2wd.


when it's wet the traction and 4w mode switches get -lots- of action

in snow/patchy snow it's always in at least auto, and i turn traction off sometimes

I'll be perfectly honest, i prefer to leave it in 2wd because it's more fun. Sure you CAN make it slide in auto, but in 2wd it's so much more easy to make the back end get out of shape.

doctahjones wrote:heh, yeah like an audi all-road. that's it.

i do love some 4x4 -traction drifting in the snow though.

when it's dry i rarely take it out of 2wd unless i'm leaving a store/gas station and i need to have a quick takeoff while turning, then i'll switch it for the launch, but then back to 2wd.


when it's wet the traction and 4w mode switches get -lots- of action

in snow/patchy snow it's always in at least auto, and i turn traction off sometimes

Oh, and with the 4x4 drifting, if you mean in 4hi, it does work on snow, but it's not nearly as fun as 2wd on snow. just my 2 cents.

yeah sorry, 4hi drifting....and i dunno about straight 2wd drifting in the snow. the butt end whips around a little too quickly for my taste in that high profile of a vehicle

doctahjones wrote:yeah sorry, 4hi drifting....and i dunno about straight 2wd drifting in the snow. the butt end whips around a little too quickly for my taste in that high profile of a vehicle

Hmm... I know SUV's are somewhat flip happy, however i've never experienced a sudden weight transfer in the pathfinder (while snow drifting), yet alone one with enough force to flip it while snow drifting.

well, it's just more of a precaution thing i guess.

like i said before i grew up on a mustang. that's how i learned how to control a fish tail. i got pretty good at it too. and if you spun out it wasn't a big deal, not like you'd flip or something. but that's a car, low center/etc.

there was one time in the pathy that i was at a large 4way stop intersection making a left and there was some water in the middle. it was during the summer and i could tell there was a bunch of algae and stuff in there so it was slick as hell. since no one was close i decided to have some fun. i -thought- i put it in auto but i was still in 2wd and i turned traction off. jesus h christ i thought i was gonna flip it over and die. i was (or felt) almost completely sideways and i could think about was 'please don't catch, please don't catch'. i kept it floored because i figured if the tires were spinning they wouldn't grab the concrete and i wouldn't flip. luckily i made it out. my underwear almost didn't though.

so while yeah you probably -won't- flip while 2w snow drifting, i'm not going to tempt fate and swing my butt way out there because it's -really- easy to do and that's alotta weight in the rear to try and control. or at least it's more weight than -i- want to try to control while i'm still making car payments

Point(s) Taken.