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Understeer is not complete loss of steering. Understeer is when the turning radius of the car is greater than it should be with a given steering wheel angle. The front tires are losing lateral grip in the turn, but there is a spectrum. At its worst, understeer sends the car straight toward the outside of the corner, as described by Equation112.
Oversteer is when the turning radius is tighter than the steering wheel input. The rear is sliding. Somewhat counterintuitively, oversteer spins the car to the inside of a corner.
In general, the drive wheels will determine whether the front or rear slides. FWD understeers, RWD oversteers. This can be complicated by engine placement, which definitely affects turning.
My FR ranger understeers going into corners, but with throttle will severely oversteer because of its poor longitudinal weight balance. My Golf would understeer terribly, which was a tire and possibly suspension issue. Only three times, at my worst behavior, did I ever get it to oversteer. My Passat, with better tires, has a very smooth and controllable understeer. That is the turning radius can be comfortably adjusted with throttle, which made poor weather simple to drive in.
So, I guess my point is absolutes are dangerous to use and all generalizations are false. Back to your regularly scheduled thread.
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