When I was young (20-25 years ago) I saw many old Mazda, Toyota cars without ESP running very well on snowy road in USA and Canada. I really don't understand why I keep seeing this situation in Taiwan.
Actually in snowy or very bad rainy condition, FWD is better and safer than RWD.
My first car is 1988 Mazda MX-6. In my experiences Mazda is among one of the best fun cars from Japan (that's the reason why Mazda cars won many times in western car magazines). However they are not as reliable as Toyota, Nissan and Honda so I don't really like them. Many western car reviewers said Mazda was reliable. Yes. they are but just not so reliable like Toyota, Nissan and Honda...
1988 MX-6 GT 145hp 190ft-lbs 0-60 in 7.5 sec It also has 4-wheel steering system. Do you think it is like R32 Skyline...
My wife's car is M35X(AWD). I don't think it is any better or easier to drive than Toyota Corolla in snowy road except that M35X has less chance to get stuck in snow because it can send power to front tires if rear tires are slipping. In USA and Canada, we usually only see powerful RWD cars can have this kind of situation in rainy day...
In snowy road big powerful RWD performance car with performance tires = dead meat!!!
In USA we drive at 30-50 km/h around houses, drive at 60-90 km/h around city local and drive at 100-130 km/h on the highway everyday including sunny day and rainy day. I didn't see any trouble on Mazda and Toyota. I'm born in Taiwan and live there for at least 30 years. The condition of some roads in USA is worse than in Taiwan...