Just a quick "ditto" of others' comments that 4 winter tires are hands down the best choice no matter which or how many wheels are driven.
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Originally Posted by Fat Charlie
Correlation is not causation. Most 4/AWD rigs are just plain too heavy for "stopping distance" to be anything more than a sick joke even before the extra drivetrain gets counted. And speaking of dodgeball victims, they invariably have automatics. It's a trifecta of excess weight, lack of gear control and sloppy power input.
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First you knock AWD, then you sing its virtues? I'm confused.
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My Subaru was the bomb. Yes, the drivetrain (and the turbo... ) held down my gas mileage. But with a manual transmission, control of the driven (count 'em, 4!) wheels was unsurpassed.
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Depending on which Subie you had you may have had 3, or possibly even 2, driven wheels. Center diff might always send torque front and rear but front and rear diffs are not all LSDs. My STi on the other hand... w00t! That car was so much fun in the snow it was probably illegal.
My winter tire cautionary tale occurred in a different Subaru, with winter tires (my first-ever set) and 3-wheel drive.
We were coming back from the airport on a wet winter day. Everyone was barreling along in spite of the conditions, as usual. Crossing an overpass I thought I felt the car slip a bit, as if the bridge surface had frozen over. I looked up the road and sure enough cars were spinning every which way on the next overpass, bouncing off the guardrails and one another. I did not feel safe making a panic stop due to the traffic volume, so I picked my way through the ongoing carnage. Got out the other side unscathed, looked at my wife, and said "that's it - winter tires from now on".
I have a 4WD Tacoma now. The 4WD is nice on snow-covered roads but nowhere near as effective overall as my AWD Subies. It's designed for ultimate offroad traction, and the differences are noticeable. Snow-covered woodland trails, on the other hand, are the Taco's happy domain.