I'm in Montreal and we had that snow covering all black ice under it so I couldn't get up my garage ramp and onto the street for 2 days without tons of effort and people pushing my car. This is with winter tires (all-seasons are illegal in winter). I got up the ramp after a couple of days when some of that ice went away and then got stuck while driving into a parking lot. Again, all due to pure black ice under the snow.
Due to my building's likely illegally steep ramp and lack of proper salting and snow removal, I had to swap my winter tires to the best ones available...Studded Nokian Hakkapeliitta 8. With them, I had no issues on my ramp or on the road over unplowed snow. I also tested them on deeper snow over black ice and it took a minute, but I got through it without picking up speed ahead of time. I figured if these don't work, nothing will except a new AWD car.
Honestly, I love the car but I would say that with mediocre (not cheap @ $1200) winter tires it's not drivable uphill on icey roads unless you have lots of momentum. I even had 90lb of de-icer stuff in my trunk so I suspect the main issue is I had not-so-great 255mm wide tires (kumho i'zen) and too much power/not enough grip.
I went with the best tires in the world according to any reviews/ratings (better than blizzaks/ice3) and I also went with the stock width of 235mm hoping it would help avoid the snowboard effect and although they might scratch dry pavement I figured it would be better than spending hours shoveling and being late for work every time it snows. I wish I had bought really good snow tires years ago as I had the same issues with my FWD Maxima too, and these only cost like 15-20% more than garbage winter tires.
Moral of the store, if you live in the north east and you don't only drive on flat roads during winter, get yourself some really good unstudded winter tires or studded ones if they're allowed in your area...or buy the AWD 2015 Genesis.
