[brucepick]

I've been driving pesky rear-drive cars in New England winters for about 15 years now. My recipe for success is snow tires on all four wheels. You need traction for your non-drive wheels because they help you control the car. With rear drive I put extra weight in the rear for traction but I think you can probably skip that part with a front drive car.

My Volvos with 4 snows generally pass everything else on the road, seriously. With regular tires they are lousy snow cars, the difference is night and day.

I dunno why people don't talk enough about snow tires. If you're gonna drive in real snow, that's what you need. If you're going to have glare ice you need studded snows. Worth the cost. It's also worthwhile to get a second set of rims/wheels so you don't have to swap tires on and off teh wheels when the seasons change.