Up until not long ago, you could get away with this test: "Do I, as the driver, have to stop, think, and make some choice to command the car to change some setting that governs whether or not I get across this patch of terrain?" The 'stop' step is important; certain classical 4WD shifts require the vehicle to be stationary. The automatic-ness of the AWD systems -- no pesky second shifter -- was the differentiator.
Now that we have knobs for different "driving modes," the the ability to slam it into whatever position whenever we want while an ECU figures out how to keep a gearbox from exploding, it's genuinely hard. Still, the presentation of a setting like "lock/unlock" and "two/four" and "high/low" is the standard I still go by (right or wrong).
Now that we have knobs for different "driving modes," the the ability to slam it into whatever position whenever we want while an ECU figures out how to keep a gearbox from exploding, it's genuinely hard. Still, the presentation of a setting like "lock/unlock" and "two/four" and "high/low" is the standard I still go by (right or wrong).