What is the advantage of a rear engine car?

General Discussion
16

Seems to me that the best-designed rear-engine car was the old-style Volkswagen Beetle, with its air-cooled “pancake” 4-cylinder engine just behind the rear wheels. I’ve heard a number of people say how well a VW Bug could plow right through a snow-covered street while front-engine RWD cars would have a lot of difficulty getting traction. Apparently GM couldn’t make the Chevy Corvair to be as reliable as a Bug, and that’s probably one of the reasons why the Corvair was discontinuead after 1969. My own personal experience driving a rear-engine vehicle was when I’d drive my dad’s 1974 VW Westfalia pop-top camper bus; it’s what I learned how to drive a stick shift on, too, at age 15. And speaking of rear engines, Motorcoach busses (i.e. Greyhound) and bus-based motorhomes have had rear-mounted engines for decades.