I have some pirelli winter tires on my car and it drives awesome in the winter. Tires make all the difference....even high quality all seasons, can't touch proper snow tires. I think its a combination of the tires and weight of the car, but when I lock up my brakes (intentionally) I slide forward, but don't fish tail at all! The braking is very good with the snow tires too, but of course, since its not a 43 wheel drive, it sometimes takes a sec to get going fast in deep snow. Then again, yesterday I saw a Ford Expedition that slid off a cliff and did a few rollovers, so just goes to show SUV's aren't as resiliant as people think.