Car salesmen seem to have a penchant for flooding you with terms like differential, torque, 4x4, fuel consumption, engine capacity and many other technical terms when you are buying a new car. Some of these terms are self explanatory, whilst others are not. These more complicated terms require that you know something of how a car works.
Let me clarify for you what is actually meant when some one tells you that a vehicle is a 4x4. Very basically, this means that the car is four wheel drive instead of two wheel drive. That does not really help you say? Let me explain a bit further.
A car can be propelled by one of three methods. Power can either be sent to the front wheels of the car which would then pull the car along, to the back two wheels which would then push the car along or to all four wheels. A car always steers with the front two wheels no matter where the drive is coming from. Cars that are pushed or pulled along by two wheels are called 2x4. Cars that receive power to all four wheels are 4x4's. The first number is an indication of how many wheels receive power, the second number is an indication of how many wheels the car has in total.
Off road driving is usually done in a 4x4 du to the distribution of power which allows the car to get itself out of mud and holes without needing to be towed out. Where a two wheel drive car would not be able to pull itself out, a 4x4 can power its way out. Since all four wheels get power sent to then, if one wheel gets stuck, the car can use the remaining three wheels to pull itself out of the situation.
Another advantage of having a 4x4 is that you are not relying on one pair of wheels to get traction. You have a wider area of tyre on the road with which to grip the surface. This means that you are able to pull away more easily on slippery surfaces as the extra set of wheels with power compensates for the lack of integrity of the surface you are driving on.
A term you may often hear used in conjunction with 4x4 is torque. This refers to the pulling power of a vehicle. A car is typically either high on horse power or high on torque. A car with a lot of horse power will have a higher top end (maximum speed) whilst a car with more torque will be able to pull heavier loads.
The car that suits you best will be very dependent on what type of driving you are intending on doing. For town driving, a smaller, 2x4 car may give better fuel consumption. If, however, you intend on doing off road driving or spend time on roads that are not well maintained, a 4x4 would definitely be a better option. It is entirely up to you what car you decide on buying as no one can say what you will do with it better than you can.
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