A few years back we got caught out in Grasmere when the snow fell heavily for the UK. Had to drive out through Ambleside, past Kendal then the M6 in a full on blizzard. Going up the hill from Windermere heading south I drove past abandoned cars including a wide range of 4x4s. I even watched a fancy 4x4, land cruiser I think, being driven by a major prat over revving it and just spinning out on a slight incline covered in snow.
My conclusion is that in the UK in most places you can get by with anything if you can drive a car properly. We got home that evening by driving sensibly. I was driving an astra estate, the one with an Isuzu diesel engine. It slid around only on a section of the Kendal bypass. I took 3 hours of constant driving to get home, one hour in slow moving traffic/traffic jam due to Muppets driving stupidly. One guy in a Mazda mx5 was revving his engines more and more in response to his spinning wheels. I always thought you went into a higher gear and kept to lower revs to get through snow or ice patch. He only got on with the help of 4 lads pushing him to keep him straight and going forward. He'd have wiped out into the newsagents in Ambleside without them.
Since then I've always thought winter tyres on any car with a good, sensible driver can get you a lot further in snow than a Muppet / idiot in any 4x4! If we're ever going to get over this "everything stops for snow" effect common in the UK it'll take drivers learning to drive in snow or other bad conditions and enforced winter tyres. We should make winter/low grip driving a skill tested in driving lessons. At least make it part of the theory test. I understand some countries make new drivers learn to drive over an extended timescale, over a year IIRC. This is allows them to gain experience in all seasons. Think it was northern European country like Finland that gets real winters. Explains how the Finns make great racing drivers, especially in rallying.