While I find that my 2003 ION3 is reasonably sure footed in the snow, there is one winter condition that this car is unable to handle -- internally fogged-up or iced-up windows.
Last night, the car was used at 6:00pm for a 30 minute outbound trip in -11 degree C temperature. The interior heating seemed OK and the windows were clear. At 9:30pm in -16 degree C temperature and after leaving the car for three hours, all windows were iced up on the inside, except for a small oval in the middle of the windshield. There was no snow or ice on the outside.
After about 20 minutes there was enough heated air to begin the window cleaning work. Problems:
1/ Rotating the air director control to full windshield position (defrost), very little air came out of the instrument panel side vents that are permanently aimed at the side windows to clear these windows in the vicinity of the mirrors. The volume of air was very small, even with the fan on full. I had complained to Saturn in the past about the fact these side vents seem to eject air only when the air director is in the defrost position, and was told in a return phone call by 'Brian' that the side vents act as a release for air only when too much air was pushed into the heating system (No, honestly!). 2/ The rear-window heater was kept on and barely cleared the interior ice after 30 minutes. I had to adjust the air to the Vent position, and the instrument panel centre nozzles were directed to the back of the car to clear the rear window. The outer IP nozzles were pointed at the side windows to help there. 3/ The windshield defroster outlets are biased to the passenger side, clearing that side of the windshield better that the driver's side. The design flaw here is that the light sensor is on the driver's side: it should be on the passenger side.