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The switch from rear to front wheel drive is one of the big engineering advancements in automobiles. Here are some reasons:
Traction: With the engine pushing down on the drive wheels, you get more grip in slippery conditions such as in snow
Handling: Front drive cars are prone to understeer while rear drive cars oversteer. Since most drivers' instinct when their car's tail comes around is to slam on the brakes, which makes it worse, front drive offers safer handling
Packaging: This is the big advantage. By having the drive wheels under the engine, you don't need a driveshaft taking up space in the passenger compartment. You can even turn the engine sideways to make the car shorter without reducing interior space.

Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations made these advantages very salient in the US. As a result the market share of front wheel drive rose from 11.9% in 1979 to 81.6% in 1989.

2 decades earlier, rear wheel drive was still king on American cars. There were however those who knew the advantages and wanted to bring them to Detroit.


Plans were for the Oldsmobile F-85, later renamed Cutlass, to drive its front wheels. This however was cancelled.


Ford was planning on selling this car, roughly the same size as the VW Beetle, as the Cardinal. But then Lee Iaccoca scrapped it and the design was used by Ford of Germany for the Taunus (not to be confused with Taurus)



In 1966, GM came out with the first two American front wheel drive cars since the 1930s Cord: The Oldsmobile Toronado and the Cadillac Eldorado. These were luxury coupes and as such, cars with front wheel drive remained a novelty for another decade.

So what if the Cardinal and Front Drive Cutlass had come out in the early 60s?
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