Disc Or Drum Brakes.

[Hopkirk]

I have only ever owned 'bread and butter' cars, not swanky stuff.

They have all had disc brakes at the front and drums at the back.

Why?

[douglas9401]

Because disc brakes are more efficient and the front brakes on the car do most of the work in slowing down.

[tonyav]

Probably because the manufacturer deemed that the car had'nt got the performance to justify discs all round. Or they are old cars.

[Hopkirk]

Art drums cheaper to make then?

[BRIGHT SPARK]

Discs are more efficient than drums.Some cars use the rear drum as a speed reducer and a handbrake...a disc at the rear complicates the handbrake part, thus increases production costs.

[Hopkirk]

Ah, that would be it, Sparky.

[bhg481]

The real advantage of discs over drums is that they are much more resistant to fade under heavy or prolonged braking, hence more suitable for high-performance cars. Discs cool better and ventilated discs better still. They also dry out more quickly after a soaking.

[gingejbee]

Of course, lots of modern inexpensive cars with modest performance have discs all-round.

[bhg481]

Interestingly, Gingejbee, what you call modest performance now was well into the boy-racer category a couple of decades ago. On top of that, people drive much harder than they used to do and, because of traffic density, use their brakes more frequenly, so better cooling is required.
I happened to come across a collection of old Aston Martins at a National Trust property a couple of years ago. One of the owners was saying that the current boy-racers expect to give him a race. They forget, he said, that the suspension and brakes on these cars are upto 50 years old so they don't stop or corner like the current bread-and-butter cars.

[Hopkirk]

It wasn't so much of the advantage of discs that I was wondering, but why the manufacturers chose to put drums on the back so often.

[TWR]

You can change the back to Disk Hop, it does not cost that much.

[beso]

Drum brakes are self boosting. The leading edge of the shoe is pushed onto the drum and the friction forces drive it harder. Hence it takes less force to operate the brake.

This is what makes them more suitable as a handbrake.

In fact some cars with rear wheel discs have a small separate drum brake built into the centre of the disk just for the hand brake.

[mikey4444]

Douglas has it right here. Unless its a high-performance car, discs are really not needed on the rear. Also its easier to get a handbrake to work on drums.

[Dodger666]

I wouldn't class my Hyundai i10 as a high performance car but it has disc brakes on all four wheels.

[TWR]

The advantage of rear Brake Disks Mikey, the Pads are quicker to change than the Linings.