OK, having heard all the opinions on the lists about front vs. rear, here's
what I THINK I remember as observed.

1.  16V GTI.  Front's wear FASTER than rears, noticably faster.  FWD

2.  SyncroBeast.  Fronts wear a little faster.  (My recolection, cause she
was down for three years, and I forgot which end the tires came off.  But
I'm pretty sure that's right.)   AWD

I agree with the last poster I read.  My experience over the years with
both AWD, FWD, RWD (Beetle, 140 HP) has been just what the gentleman said.

DRIVEN WHEELS WEAR FASTER.

The only difference with SyncroBeast is that she's AWD.  So the fronts get
both Driven wear and turning wear.

There were enough people noting that the Syncro Fronts wear faster for me
to agree that that's the end with faster wear in that case.

Ch

'89 SyncroBeast Vanagon - Thank god for Brother-in-laws. SyncroBeast
together.  It's a long story, someday we'll recover and tell it.
'87 16V GTI
'80 850 Yamaha Special
'87 16V GTI w/ hale damage - parting out - body gone, parts remain
'89 16V GTI w/ toasted motor
'86 Scirocco (8 valve w/ auto) - SO's
toooo many parts to count, all hauled out to NJ!!
Man, no wonder we were 7,000 lbs over!!!

New Jursey   (our hearts remain in MinneSnowta)

In a perfect world without walls or fences........
  .....................why would we need Windows or Gates?