Magazines written by supposed experts should be read with a large supply of salt handy. It must have been at least 35 years ago I read a page in an automotive magazine where someone was asking what worked best in snow and ice, a rear wheel drive car or a front wheel drive car. As one who has driven both I cannot imagine anyone who has experience with both saying anything other than PICK THE FRONT WHEEL DRIVE FOR THOSE CONDITIONS. The so-called expert trying to answer the question didn’t actually answer it, he went through a lot of gyrations written as if he were writing a thesis for an engineering degree and never came to any kind of conclusion. It reminded me of a saying I used to hear, “Ask him for the time of day and he will tell you how to build a watch.”
What the reader had wanted was a real world answer and what he got was gobbledygook that left him more confused than before.
Pick the front-wheel drive!
Yes. The first-generation Saab 900 [with 5-speed manual gear-box] is still the best non-four-wheel-drive vehicle I have ever driven in the snow, and most front wheel drive vehicles do much better in snow than similar rear-drive cars.
The original VW Beetle is “the exception that proves the rule”, though, in my opinion. I have no great love for VW bugs, but I have found that they handle exceptionally well in snowy, icy conditions (IF you can get their windows to defrost). The rear weight bias and super-short drive train seem to help greatly with traction and “feel” in snow and ice.