The biggest difference with stopping is the transmission. Manual transmission I don't even use the brakes to stop. I downshift as I see a stop up ahead and coast to the stop. Obviously this doesn't work with panic stops, but with a manual, you have a positive clamped connection between the engine and transmission. With slushboxes, it is fluid and you don't get hardly any of the benefit of compression braking.
My priority list for winter driving is manual trans first, then snow tires, then true 4WD, then AWD, then the sensing automatic AWD.
I also greatly prefer no stability control. It has prevented me from doing what I need to do to weight transfer to get the car oriented how I want or get out of a slippery situation. Traction control I'm on the fence about. Sometimes I can't get out of my place because the traction control cuts power down to nothing and I stall the car. Anti-lock brakes have come a very long way. Use to hate them because they activated at every little thing. Now you don't notice them at all and I can actually threshold brake my car without the ABS activating getting the most from the brakes rather than my car just letting the brakes go because it thinks it's too slippery out.
Actually, before all that, the number 1 factor that determines how the car drives in the snow/ice is the driver's skill level. If all you are is a pedal masher and wheel spinner, you shouldn't be driving in snow, IMO rather than flooding the cars with bandaids to overcome the lack of skills.
The only thing I think I can agree with is that the number one factor in ice/snow is the driver. Sorry, but the rest doesn't make sense.
The transmission is not the biggest difference with stopping. Not even vaguely close. Tires are most important, followed by the braking system. The transmission itself is of minimal value. Yes, you can get some compression braking, but passenger cars/trucks don't have jake brakes, so the compression braking you get is mild at best. Not to mention that unless you know how to rev match really well, or ride the clutch hard (which is murder on it), you leave open the very real possibility of inducing wheel hop/chatter which leads to loss of traction and control. In fact, if you want compression braking, you're FAR better off with an automatic. They all have the ability to be "forced" into a gear, like a manual, and they'll do a much better job of making that gear change smooth, using their torque converter (or whatever system it uses).
Stability control is also far superior to any driver on the street in controlling the car in a slippery situation. You're not getting much weight transfer in slippery situations anyhow. Weight transfer is really more of a racing thing than street driving. Stability control can apply the brakes to an individual wheel, or possibly cut/apply power to an individual wheel. You can't do that from inside the car. You don't have to like stability control, but it's far superior than trying to do it yourself in a slippery situation. If you're trying to use weight transfer to "orient how you want", then that means you're sliding around in a slippery situation...not a good thing.
With ABS, if you're still "threshold braking", you're doing it wrong. Stomp on the pedal. ABS will do a far better job than you ever can, in any situation. Even the early adoptions of ABS were better than nothing, they've just gotten more and more sophisticated. If the brakes say it's slippery out, they're right. ABS does threshold braking, much better than you or I ever can dream of.
I respect that you like your old fashion stuff. I'm a car guy too, I love nothing more than driving and racing. But there's no way around it. Some of the technology in today's cars do a far better job than any human can.
