With the right tyres and the right driver any car can be good in the snow and ice, unfortunately in the UK our driving tests only teach you the very basics of
how to drive according to our rules of the road NOT
how to drive a car! The average person has little knowledge of what to do when the car does something unexpected. We really should have a skid pan test, motorway ,country lane and night driving added to the test.
What makes matters even worse we drive on summer tyres all year round and complain when the car wont grip in the winter!? Summer tyres do not function properly below 7*C, the compound never heats up enough the get maximum grip combined with tread patterns which were never designed to deal with snow let alone ice.
Winter tyres are not just for snow, they are for use whenever the temperature goes below 7*C as they are made from a rubber compound that heats up much faster and reaches maximum grip levels at much lower temperatures than summer tyres combined with tread patterns specifically designed to cope with snow and much more siping (the tiny wiggly cuts in the tread blocks) which enables the tread to open up more and the thousands of edges the grip onto low friction surfaces like ice. Though winter tyres are incredibly inefficient and will heat up to the point of damaging the tyre if used much above about 10*C for too long.
All weather tyres are........................ well.............. useless at everything! They are a compromise; half decent in the summer and half decent in the winter but not good at either and inefficient all the time.
Remember: "A good workman never blames his tools"