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New Mercedes A45 AMG has 105 years of 4WD on its side

With the new Mercedes A45 AMG on the horizon – complete with 4WD – Mercedes chart the history of all wheel drive on their vehicles. We tend to think of 4WD road cars as a modern innovation, and certainly very few 4WD road cars hit the road in a mainstream way much before the 1980s (the Jensen FF was hardly mainstream before someone points out that was in the 1960s). But the history of 4WD goes back, certainly in the case of Mercedes, a surprising 105 years when Daimler built the Dernburg-Wagen, a 4WD vehicle that not only got all-wheel drive but all wheel steering too.

Porsche unveils Carrera 4 and 4S Coupe and Convertible (2008)

By Ben Whitworth First Official Pictures 26 June 2008 11:54 Following on from the new 911 driven earlier this month, Porsche has expanded the line-up with the new all-wheel drive Carrera 4 and 4S, both in coupe and convertible form. And like the standard rear-drive Carrera, the 4 and 4S hides it’s new tech under its same-again styling – badging aside, only the 44mm wider rear haunches and that reflective band between the rear lights distinguish the two and four-wheel variants. Well, there’s an all-new four-wheel drive system, for starters.

Toyota Corolla (2014)

The 2014 Toyota Corolla is the company's eleventh generation of the world's best-selling model, with almost 40 million sold since the first appeared in 1966. In line with the attempt to inject some interest into Toyota's model range (witness the new Avalon for example), this new Corolla is based around the mantra ‘Iconic Dynamism', whatever that might mean. The result is a car that certainly appears more interesting than its forebears on the evidence of these pictures.