All of our 8s do well in the snow with good snow tires. One brick is in northern Massachusetts, one in northern Connecticut, and one in Ithaca, New York.

My wife doesn't complain about our 855R in the snow - that is saying a lot.

BTW - none of us use any mode other than sport. I think that tracs works pretty good in the R.

I've driven loaner XCs and one S70 with AWD, a turbo FWD goes much better.

Please note - Your traction may vary.
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96 855R, 95 855,854, 90 744 Ti - 340,000 Volvo miles put on 7 bricks

Check this first:

http://www.brickboard.com/AWD/index.htm?id=722162

Spend some time on the XC forum and you'll see what you're likely to experience. For what it's worth, here in Memphis we only get snow for about a week in February but I found that my 740 Turbo wagon did remarkably well with just three 10lb bags of cat litter in the back and a light throttle foot. My 850 is useless with it's 16" wheels and summer tires but I hear they can do quite well with proper snow tires on narrow rims.
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Erwin in Memphis, '88 745t 190,000 miles, '95 855t 92,000 miles