It's always amused me that people think that they 'need' 4X4 because they live on a country lane!

Like you say, most people who have to deal with snow and ice on a regular basis are less fearful of it than those who don't.

I understood that 4x4 is something rarely used in snowy parts of the world, but winter tyres are. Certainly most of the 4 wheel drive cars in Alpine resorts in winter are English registered, not Swiss, French or Austrian.

There are a lot of 4 wheel drives here in Austria! To be fair, a fair proportion of them are Suzuki Jimnys owned by farmers, but there are certainly a good number of other 4x4s. Ones that I've noticed in particular are Octavias, and recently Dacia Dusters.On the other side of the coin, quite a few RWDs mainly Mercs & BMWs. But in general you're right, most people seem to opt for FWD. I manage perfectly well in my FWD Saab 9-5 auto. And of course winter tyres are mandatory.

It has to be said as well, that most of the roads in, and leading to, ski resorts are cleared pretty quickly. If they're not cleared, the resort loses revenue because people can't get there. Simples!

Edited by Mike H on 08/11/2012 at 13:13

I understood that 4x4 is something rarely used in snowy parts of the world, but winter tyres are. Certainly most of the 4 wheel drive cars in Alpine resorts in winter are English registered, not Swiss, French or Austrian.

All well and good, until you hit that nicely compacted icy hill at a ski resort car park. At the time, I was driving a Skoda Octavia 4x4, which had no problems at all. The 2WD merchants were all stranded in the car park at the bottom.

I lived in CZ for a few years. While it is true that most people used 2WD vehicles with snow chains, having driven both over there I can state with confidence that there is no substitute for having all four wheels driven when there's a load of snow and ice on the floor.