The differential assembly includes a rotatable differential case, a pair of side gears rotatably mounted within the differential case, and a set of spaced apart differential pinion mate gears rotatably supported by a pinion shaft and drivingly engaging said side gears to allow differential rotation therebetween. A sum of a number of teeth of any one of the side gears and a number of teeth of any one of the pinion mate gears is no greater than nineteen, a difference between the number of teeth of any one of the side gears and the number of teeth of any one of the pinion mate gears is no greater than three, and the number of teeth of any one of the side gears and the number of teeth of any one of the pinion mate gears each is no greater than eleven.