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Good snow tires will make all the difference. A full set of 4 snow tires on a RWD sedan with modern traction control and you'll be as good in the snow as you need to be, given enough ground clearance.
I drove the upper peninsula of Michigan in a rear wheel drive car for a couple of winters, in addition to driving rear wheel drive European cars for 15 years in other parts of the upper Midwest. I prefer RWD over FWD in the snow. AWD is preferable, but not required. Good tires and weight distribution make more of a difference than anything.
Drive my G8 GT through the winter, set of Firestone winter forces on the car and put a spare wheel/tire in the trunk and I had 0 issues. Granted being 3950lbs with a near perfect 51/49 weight distribution helps tremendously, the car would often correct it self even when I was trying to goof off in parking lots and our cul de sac. Also being able to select 1st 2nd or 3rd gear to pull out in helps. This car makes 361hp and 385tq stock and it's not stock.
Awd is a good bandaid for those that are too worried about their latte or cell phone conversation to pay attention to driving, but completely not needed in 95% of winter climates.
Just for the record, "snow" tires are not what the OP wants, as they represent OLD technology. Instead, the OP should get a set of the newer technology, far superior WINTER tires.
I strongly recommend a set of 4 Michelin X-Ice tires, which are incredibly effective on ice, as well as on snow--unlike those old-technology snow tires. With those tires on my AWD Outback, I can drive--and even more importantly BRAKE--with greatly increased safety on both snow and ice.
The only thing that might keep me from going where I want to in the winter is the snow depth. My car has "only" 8.7 inches of ground clearance, so deep, unplowed snow can be a problem, even with AWD and very good winter tires.
They suck. But you can put some weight in the trunk and that helps
Learning how to drive helps most.
A real world solution (in most places) is to just park the car for the day
until the roads have been cleared. Ice will still be an issue.
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