Teal98 hit the nail on the head.
I will buy a RWD vehicle and a 4wd beater truck for the winter.

 

I'm planning on buying a G8 and putting snows and cheap rims on it for winter... the GTO will still be my summer-only car.

Wife is keeping her Envoy when we get her Camaro... since her commute has fallen to less than a mile, it shouldn't be too miled up in a couple years...

 

Your dream car is Audi S4 convertible... comes in your choice of 6-speed manual or auto.

It's ridiculously priced, though.

 

Just one thing to report about your findings.

You said there was more snow while driving the comp G. If the roads are icy, more snow actually helps traction. But I live in Texas. I don't really care about that but for about 2 weeks a year.

 

It's the second day of single digit temps here, and today we have aprox 3" of snow on the ground.
I drove the FWD Park Ave Ultra to the store and back. And just before you get to my house there's a small hill.
I made it about 2/3 the way up before my front tires lost traction and the front end started sliding straight into the curb.
I have good All season tires...but;
When I had my IROC with the Blizzaks I made it up that hill in 6" of snow...so FWD and regular tires do not equal RWD with snow tires.
At least with RWD you can easily add a couple of hunred pounds of weight over the drive wheels...but not with FWD.

edit: Just wanted to add that I took the AWD Rendezvous out tonight just to test some of our discussion. I found a nearly 45* unplowed hill near my house and the Rendezvous just walked right up it, very minimal wiggle, virtually no slippage, and it only has the dealer installed Uniroyals...man, with some Goodyear Assurance tires it would be nearly unstoppable!
SUV's in snow ROCK!

 

Heh, ice flat out sucks no matter what you're driving. At that point I care more about the size/value of the vehicle as everything else is of less concern. It's so damn cold right now that even salt isn't doing a good job of melting things. We've gone from salt to gravel/sand

At least we have a warm streak above zero coming up!

If there's one thing I'm sure we can all agree on it's that other drivers are the most dangerous thing regardless of what wheels are driven.

 

Today is one of those "few terrible days" in the North East that it just plain sucks to be out on the road. Being a teacher, schools are closed so I didnt go anywhere but I'm hearing the roads are pitiful. I've seen 2 rwd cars and 1 2wd truck try to climb my hill(only way to leave to the main road) and not make it. They just slide back down and try to get another running start at it.
I brushed off the bonneville just to see... 3-4 inches on the road salted/plowed/ice. Slipped a little going up, trac control kicks on, and i keep right on up the hill.
If the 00-05 bonnevilles are as good as this one, that might be my next upgrade daily driver. I have 225/60/16s all around. I wouldnt run anything wider in the winter.

 

One of those days here as well, not so much on the highway but the side roads. The driveway has more than 3-4 inches on it though Probably 6 inches or so in the tracks and up to a couple feet once you leave that. The cars want to ride up on the snow.

The Tahoe, in 2 WD, goes up without a hitch. The Thunderbird takes some finesse. The FWD Pimpala is a royal bitch. Unlike the T-bird which just requires corrections the Pimpala requires constant lock to lock steering inputs. Once it decides to go one way, the only thing that stops it is locking the steering the opposite way and slamming the snow bank hard enough to keep it on the road.

Granted, the FWD Pimpala gets going a little easier than the T-bird but if you stop on your way up the drive you're screwed anyway and have to back all the way down to make another run.

I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a little bit of fun though

 

Had the GTO out today in the snow. Drives just fine with the snow tires. Only time you lose a little traction is when accelerating but it was the same with my old Altima. You just have to take it easy.

 

Today in Chicagoland, it just plain sucked, regardless of what you were driving.

 

Sucked here too, 6 inches or so and I just sold my snow blower last spring.
With less than 1/2 tread left on my Ultra's tires, I left her parked...the Rendezvous CXL-AWD got around great even with Uniroyals that aren't really designed for snow. But atleast it finally made it out of the single digits..

 

I have to say after living in Michigan for 25 years and driving 3 v8 Camaro's through the ice and snow... It sucks! I never helped myself much becuase I'd leave the stock tires on the car and never add any weight to the back. The tails swing out on any type of moderate acceleration. I'd get cut off on merging lanes by Foci or Neons. Forget downshifting, and forget abrupt lane changes between track from other vehicles. I almost found driving w/o the traction control easier because I could judge the amount of tire spin and traction loss. The TC used to "catch" the car ar odd times and because of that it would re-act the opposite way. Driving in traffic to work in snow and ice with a V8 Camaro isn't for the faint of heart or those with low driving confidence. I won't sit here and say it was my favorite way to drive but I'd lie if I said it wasn't fun at times.

Some of my most fun and best driving was a winter I drove my '99 6 speed SS with bald drag radials. (I didn't say it was smart) I actually perfected some drifting techniques. It was a quest every day there was snow or ice in the forecast.

FWD is much easier in the snow. I don't like the understeer sometimes when they slip and slide into a corners but they are great for pulling themselves out of snow drifts and banks.

AWD-4WD win hands down!

 

In Costa Mesa, it's presumably no longer an issue?

 

You'd be AMAZED at how much this helps! I've driven my '99 TA WS6 all year 'round for the last 8 years and have only gotten stuck once. I generally add about 100-150 pounds to the back and drive stock size tires (but not the stock Goodyears). I've driven through snowstorms in my car and been fine - but you're right, it's not the most comfortable option even if it isn't especially hard to do if you know what you're doing.

In fairness though, I have to say I did get into an first accident with my car last week. I hit a patch of ice in my subdivision and wound up plowing down two trees And even though the weather sucks right now......I MISS MY CAR!!!!

 

I've had similiar experiences in my parents fwd impala a few years back. I drove it all winter and absolutely hated it. I think next winter though i'm going to buy them a set of snows and see if it performs any different.