>>>>>Winter tires and 4wheel drive go a long way.
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>>>>If you know what you're doing. But in coastal Virginia there are about four days of snow each winter, so nobody has winter tires. OTOH, 4wd will often get you the short way into the ditch, specially if you think 2mm of snow is negligible and step on it. Daughter would frequently drive on I64 there, at the regular 60kmh or thereabouts, and would frequently be passed by personal tanks with 4l engines. "See you later" was the self-fulfilling prophecy, those guys wouldn't get far.
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>>>Yep - in a lot of cases 4WD boosts confidence with no corresponding boost in skills. Another thing is when things go literally "sideways" 4WD can behave very differently from FWD or RWD. In many cases even a skilled driver can't reliably recover from a skid unless they've previously practiced with that particular vehicle.
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>>Exactly. In the beginning of my driving years, we had a couple of Škodas, with then rear engine rear drive. Which is fine economy-wise, the load is on the drive axle and when you accelerate the mass lags, because of inertia, putting more friction on the rear wheels - all fine and dandy. Except it behaves in curves in some unexpected ways, your butt goes out and your nose veers into the curve. But then your nose is lighter so it's easier to maneuver (if it still has enough friction). Tried it on mud, tried it on snow, found how it works.
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>>Then we switched to a Renault 4, the only car designed with a spade. Then a Trabant (yeah!). Both light and front drive and, oh boy, is it different. Actually, if your tires are ok, on snow it makes sense to step slightly on the pedal, as it's going to pull you out in the direction of your front wheels, and the rear will just be dragged. With the rear drive, stepping on the pedal is mostly pushing you, but with very little influence on what the front wheels will do and whether they'll skid or not, but with lots of chance that the rear wheels will slide and then wherever your mass takes you.
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>>Still, not a dent. Just one tiny scratch from a bit of ice on the side of a snow mound, and that was while maneuvering, not on the road, february 1976.
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>Have you ever tried a 4 wheel steering vehicle?

The air force had some tugs that jockeyed planes.
Those tugs steered with the rear wheels. You could spin then in a circle whose radius was not much longer than their length.
I got dizzy driving them.