Background
Front engine/front wheel drive vehicles tend to understeer. Understeer, and its oversteer counterpart, describe steering characteristics compared to a perfectly balanced chassis but this terminology is frequently misunderstood.
Understeer occurs when the front of the vehicle tends to follow straight ahead momentum upon entering a curve while oversteer is when the tendency is for the rear to follow momentum instead. In this latter situation, the car begins to spin and racers often use this characteristic to “drift” around a curve. Many everyday drivers, however, prefer understeer because it feels more stable in a curve. Opinions about the merits of either vary widely.
