Its all about Weight Distribution

Yes, so the most important of all features in a car and also the most over looked one. Nobody even cares to bother about weight distribution. But for me this is the most important, deciding factor while buying a car.

Have you ever noticed how the handling(and ride) of the car improves when there are passengers sitting in the rear seat? The car behaves so well on road. Okay now what if we have the same effect but irrespective of passengers sitting at the back? This calls for near 50-50 weight distribution. It means there is equal distribution of weight on all four wheels.

Generally cars have more weight on their front wheels because most of the cars are front engine front wheel drive layout(FF layout). Therefore when you are driving with some passengers sitting in the rear seat, the weight distribution improves(now there is some weight on rear wheels also), hence the car handles better.

For example the Audi A4 has an FF layout whereas Merc C class has FR layout(front engine rear wheel drive). So in reviews of these cars one often mentions that C class has better handling compared to the A6. Yes this is because of weight distribution. But this is not the reason I hate Audi. Now passengers in the rear seat improves handling, but its hard to find passengers always. So to compensate you keep 2 sand bags. But this is an awful and pathetic idea :"( Audi has done the same in Audi TT; front aluminium, rear steel. Simply put Audi TT sucks.

So it is not only important to have near 50-50 weight distribution, but also how it is achieved(without use of sand bags). Finally, how does one check if the car has good weight distribution? There is one simple check I can think of. Divide the wheelbase by the overall car length. This ratio lies between 0 and 1. If this value is closer to 1 then it has better weight distribution. Lets compare C class and A4 again...

Mercedes C class: Wheelbase- 2760 mm, Overall Length- 4582 mm, Ratio= 0.6024
Audi A4: Wheelbase- 2615 mm, Overall Length- 4520 mm, Ratio= 0.5785

Note that this a rough conclusion. To be more precise we need to calculate the front overhang, which is difficult to measure. The C class has better weight distribution due to other factors also. Some components like differential, drive train also contribute to this.