What 4-Wheel Drive Doesn't Help With

A four-wheel drive vehicle can be a tremendous advantage in certain situations. There are other situations, however, where they can be a liability.

The situations where they are liabilities are generally those where the driver of the vehicle doesn't understand what the vehicle is actually capable of doing and what kind of abilities that four-wheel drive offers.
One of the most important things to remember about four-wheel drive vehicles is that the four-wheel drive system does not help you stop. If you underestimate your stopping distance, having four-wheel-drive engaged is not going to do anything to slow your vehicle down faster or to stop you from slamming into another vehicle or into a fixed object. It's important to keep in mind that many four-wheel-drive vehicles are considerably larger than the average passenger car and, thus, they actually have much longer stopping distances than do smaller vehicles.
A four-wheel drive vehicle also does nothing as far as keeping you on the road if you his ice. Four-wheel-drive gives you better traction in situations where the road is slippery but there are limitations. If the entire road is covered in ice and if every one of the four wheels on your vehicle is incapable of getting good traction, you're going to slide whether or not you have the four-wheel-drive engaged. In conditions where it is rainy or muddy, however, four-wheel-drive can do a lot to keep you on the road.
Having a four-wheel drive vehicle doesn't make you a tow truck. Remember that your vehicle may be damaged if you pull somebody out of the ditch improperly or that you may end up causing an accident because you don't have the right emergency lighting to warn other drivers that you are pulling someone out of the ditch. Generally speaking, using your own vehicle to rescue another vehicle from a position where it is stuck should only be done as an absolute last resort.
If you're involved in a wreck and it was because somebody was negligent in how they handled their vehicle, contact a car accident attorney in Dallas. The accident attorney may be able to help you by putting together a lawsuit that could win you compensation in a court of law or from a settlement offered by the other driver, if they believe that they are going to lose your case and don't want to pay court fees in addition to the jury award.