So which one is it? Sucks in the snow, or just below par in one specific area? And how many cars (without chains or spikes) can accelerate well on ice from a stop? Um, none?
Continuing with the winter driving thread jack (sorry, OP!)...
Like most others above (except folks on this one street in Brooklyn), my 5 has been exceptionally good in the winter, with the same gearing and weight distribution. I'm using a set of Yokohama Ice Guard tires that I bought for my speed3 in 2008. We got pretty well hammered this winter in Chicago and the 5 has been entirely unfazed by the ice and snow. Unlike the "one specific area" above, our entire alley goes unplowed for the whole winter, and that was with the 79" of snow and subzero temps. Not fun by any means, and if I weren't so neighborly, I could have made quite a bit of money charging people to help get their cars out. Literally dozens of cars stuck on a regular basis in our alley and street, mainly due to all-season tires and unintelligent drivers. We were not in that category. Granted, I actually did have to use my head while driving, so as to avoid problem situations - the car does not have a lot of ground clearance - but other than that, the 5 with snow tires performed exceptionally well. I literally "plowed" the alley more than once with the front of the 5! It drove shockingly well, in fact, clawing its way through this nasty winter very dependably.
An easy recipe for not getting stuck:
1) Put trans in 2nd gear (yes, you can do this in an auto)
2) Disable traction control
3) Don't floor the gas
Quite simple, really. Of course, once the car is out of the deep snow or whatever the problem area is, and it is safe to get up to normal speed, pop it back into drive and turn the TC back on. My wife learned that method quickly and she too was stuck exactly zero times. The weight distribution is fine; the weight of the engine is above the front wheels. In contrast, I had a more difficult time this season with my rwd pickup with all terrain tires and an open diff. I had to put quite a bit of weight in the bed to get it a little better in the snow. But of course, I had to think about how to drive.
The kind of car is rarely the problem. I see AWD vehicles in trouble in the winter, and I see "performance" cars doing fine. The problem can be narrowed down to the tires and/or the driver.
Starting in 2nd is an old trick that works because it is just simple physics at work, not some computer doing the working (and thinking) for the driver. Meter out the torque to the drive wheels at a reduced pace (via gearing) so the wheels don't overcome the reduced friction of a slippery surface.
No traction is no traction regardless of "the car's foundation." Ice is slippery. Tires can spin on ice if they don't have spikes or chains. I could spin the tires on my old AWD WRX all day if it had slicks and was on a sheet of ice. Again, the real problem here that too many drivers are lulled into believing (or have some sense of entitlement) that their car can perform exactly the same in all conditions. Regardless of all the hi-tech gadgets, electro-nannies, and coddle-me engineering in today's vehicles, the same thought process as a driver applies today as it did 50 years ago: use your brain, and adjust your driving to the conditions.
And get snow tires.
