Vehicle types apart, I see no one has commented yet on the fact that driver technique, plus vehicle familiarity, plays a big part when driving in snow. We still laugh at a story told us some years ago by a builder friend. He had just driven home in light snow in his lorry, when a distraught woman with a brand new Land-Rover Discovery (full-time 4X4), knocked at his door and pleaded with him to show her, "how to put it in four-wheel drive", as she was stuck!

Before we married, my wife had an Austin A35 van. With a few bags of cattle cake in the back, there weren't many hills round here she couldn't negotiate in the snow. Conversely, when I drove it, I couldn't get half as far!