Normal cars and station wagons with 4
wheel drive:
These cars normally has permanent 4 wheel drive
or it will automatically
engage the other two wheels as soon as the two driving wheels
start to spin.
These cars where build for snow conditions in
Canada and Europe. These are not off-road vehicles. They normally
have low profile tyres and a low ground clearance. This can be
anything from a Subaru Forester to an Audi TT Quatro. I doubt
that anybody will take the TT off-road. You will get much better
road holding performance from these cars than with a normal two
wheel drive car. That is what the 4x4 is for.
Station wagons like the Subaru Forester and Mitsubishi
Outlander might be good for some gravel road. They will even take
you further in deep sand than a normal car but that is about it.
Their ground clearance is not sufficient for major 4x4 work. Another
problem is the low profile tyres. They will easily be damaged
if you hit a rock and it will not have the desired effect when
you deflate it in order to drive in sand.
You can use these type of vehicles if you travel
on gravel road every now and then or if your drive-way is full
of mud and sand.