VEHICLE CONTROL DEVICE AND FOUR-WHEEL DRIVE VEHICLE

A vehicle control device mounted on a four-wheel drive vehicle including a driving force transmission system includes an electronic control unit. The electronic control unit calculates a command torque based on vehicle information. The electronic control unit estimates a temperature of a heat generating location in the driving force transmission system based on the command torque. The electronic control unit estimates the temperature of the heat generating location based on an estimated value of a driving force input to an input rotating member, when it is not possible for the driving force corresponding to the command torque to be transmitted to auxiliary drive wheels due to a magnitude of the driving force generated by a drive source or occurrence of a wheel slip.