cmdr_anomic - my experiences with my Mustang are my experiences with my Mustang, I'm not trying to embellish, and I know I haven't driven the best snow handling cars in recent years - so I may just have graduated from crap to vomit - it's still a substantial improvement in my book.
To be honest, when I put snow tires on my Z4 - I put Pirelli PZeroNero M&Ss on it. It helped traction on snow to a degree - but the problem with that car was the huge 18" wheels - they were wide in front and even wider in back and wide, low profile, large diameter tires will plow snow - not cut it. The Scion had 17" wheels and the lowest profile tires I've ever seen on a stock, no options car. They were slippery as heck in rain and I would routinely lose traction from a start going up a hill on hot, wet pavement. Going down any sort of gradient, hill, driveway at any sort of speed on snow? Hope to heck you don't have to brake before it flattens out or you'll be skating.
If you wanted the best snow handling Mustang you'd go with the narrowest wheels and a smaller diameter one at that. The only problem is brake size - iirc the 17" wheels are the smallest that will accomodate the GT's brake rotors.
So to answer your question - the Mustang GT with 17" wheels and the stock all season tires still DOES NOT handle like a rear wheel drive p/u. A good friend has a 7 year old Toyota Tundra rear wheel drive with no options whatsoever - basic bare bones thing with a V6 engine and 300 pounds of sand bags in the bed. It handles really well in snow. The Mustang comes close if I keep it under control and don't accelerate much. All said and done, my friend is incredibly impressed with the Mustang in snow - mainly because neither of us expected it to be any good at all. We both know it's not the equal as a pickup truck that doesn't have any fancy traction control.
My advice, for whatever it's worth, is to keep the zx2.
On the other hand, maybe Zipp doesn't appreciate this as he's in the frozen wastelands of the north - you have your comfort levels with needing to get around when heck freezes over. If you're in Virginia and get less than 10 snow falls a year - how much accumulation do you get in each storm? How long does it take for it to clear? We only got more than 6" falls, maybe 3 times this year. A day later and the roads are fine. We got far more than 10 snowfalls, though they were mostly less than 6". And most importantly - are you ever planning on putting summer/high performance tires on? I am, but they'll go on a set of 18" wheels.
This winter was the worst I can remember for snow in the Chicagoland region - it would snow, melt away two days later and then snow as much again. Repeatedly. In my opinion it's still not worth it to keep a beater around. Zipp and others are gonna use harsh language with me on that, but he doesn't have to find a place to park my beater or pay the $500 liability insurance and $78/year license plate fee. :tomato It's a point I've argued with my friend for years - why pay at least $1,000 a year for something that's only going to be decidedly necessary at least 10 times a year? My friend also bought a $1,000 generator because he had his power go out once in four years. That's personal risk tolerances I suppose, and something you'll have to decide for yourself.
