I’m thinking on the same lines. That's why I was sending this catch all e-mail out to readers 15 times a day during January: First thing, I'm getting 15 e-mails a day from readers suddenly wanting to buy 4x4s because we've had a bit of snow. And, of course, any dealer with any 4x4s and any sense has put the prices of them up by £2,000. The best solution for ice and snow is a separate set of four wheels fitted with softer winter compound tyres that expel the hard packed snow and ice from the treads. That is more effective than four-wheel drive. Thread about these in The Backroom forum at www.honestjohn.co.uk A warning to be made is don't expect ESP to save you on ice. It actually makes things worse, so if you drive into a skid it will counter what you do and put you off the road. ESP best left OFF in ice and snow. In the hope this weather won't last, probably the best answer for most Brits is a set of 'autosocks' (www.autosock.co.uk) to temporarily put over the car's standard tyres in bad conditions. Currently LandRover is offering the Freelander II 2.2 diesel 'white' and 'black' manual editions at £19,500, which seems good value to me (you could pay that for a Focus). The Hyundai ix35 is pretty good at from £19,000 for the diesel 4WD. While I was very impressed by the 2010 Hyundai Santa Fe 2.2 diesel 194hp, automatic from about £22,800.