So, we've had a decent amount of snow for a November over the past week. As a result, I've now driven the FoST through several inches of snow over the course of about ~300 miles or so. I'd like to report that it did very well; much better than I expected! To be honest, the Traction Control light only came on maybe 3-4 times throughout all of my driving this past week and most of those times, it was my fault ha! To be clear, when the T/C light came on, my progress was not impeded in the least, as the car was still accelerating without an issue, it just slowed a bit of wheel spin. Once the T/C came on while I was accelerating up a steep incline in 1st gear & I got a bit of torque steer as well; I just upshifted, laid off the throttle and all was well. Other than that, the only times T/C has come on was when I was just a bit too aggressive on the throttle from a stop, and even then, it was only momentary and not really a big deal. I didn't really care for the slight amount of torque steer it got a couple times from a stop (which was mostly my fault), but overall, for a torquey FWD car, it really impressed me.
Once rolling, the car is very stable and sure footed. Same thing is to be said at freeway speeds- very stable and confidence inspiring. Honestly, as speeds increase, it felt and handled almost identically to a few of the AWD vehicles I've owned in the past. I would even go as far as to say it was better than at least 1 of the AWD cars I've owned, as it felt significantly more planted than my old G37x on all-seasons did.
I also went into a couple of snowy parking lots to test out handling prowess. Understeer is very minimal for these conditions (as in I couldn't hardly induce it!), almost no slip to speak of! I'm very impressed with these tires, as the car just went everywhere I pointed it without issue- no real understeer or oversteer to speak of. Granted, I wasn't playing high speed rally driver, but testing sharp cornering at speed gave me a lot more confidence in this car's abilities with snow tires.
Braking was also very good; but that's to be expected for most cars shod with snow tires.
In the dry, the car [on snow tires] isn't that bad either. Granted, they won't come close to cornering like the OEM summer tire setup, but the ride remained fairly sporty. I lost a small amount of steering responsiveness, but nothing major. The car also has slightly more roll to it (taller tire sidewalls are likely a big contributor) and the ride is ever so slightly squishier. Overall though, it was more than worth the trade-off for the winter traction!
When I purchased the FoST, one of my concerns was it's ability to get up my driveway in the snow as there's a slight incline and a steep initial curb that I need to clear to get up it. My concerns are now completely alleviated! Not only has the FoST climbed up my unshoveled driveway several times now, it climbed up it without the T/C light coming on even once!
Overall, the car has done extremely well; much better than I thought it would. Here's a quick pic of my driveway with just a bit of snow on it:
^^^The FoST got up it without so much as even a hint of wheel-spin. I truly had nothing to worry about there.
Either way, cliff notes:
-FWD with snow tires and modern traction/stability control works very well.
-AWD is truly not needed for my normal commute. To those that drive to the mountains a lot in the winter- YMMV.