How well does the V70 XC handle snowy roads?

I'm considering getting a new V70 XC especially for winter excursions
into the Catskills and Berkshires.

Would any owners please comment on their experiences with the car on
snowy, hilly roads? Does it handle hills well?

 

I'm not an owner of a XC, but I know as much as the choice of car is
secondary when you want to climb snowy roads and hills - the major issue to
pay attention to is Tire Choice.....

 

All I can say is that mine handles superbly on gravel roads, which is a
lot like snow, only less so. I did learn on snow, so I know the
difference.
We don't get real snow where I live now ... but if I was driving on
thick snow I'd look at getting tyres with spikes, and on steep hills
with thick snow I'd put on chains.

Gods know what that would do to the abs and traction control computers -
I certainly don't. Considering Sweden, though ...

One of the best snow-mobiles I've been in was my father's VW1200 beetle,
with a bag of sand or cement in the front luggage compartment and snow
chains on the tyres: we left everybody else at the bottom of some very
steep hills in the Harz mountains in Germany. Only the heater was
useless in those, utterly useless.

-P.

 

The tires and chains make all the difference in the world. Last winter
we had record snow in my region and I had no trouble getting around in
my RWD 240 Turbo. Studded tires all around and chains in the back, I
went by countless 4WD vehicles in ditches and ran right up a the big
long hill to my friend's place past several abandoned trucks and plowed
a path through the 14" of snow in the parking lot with the belly pan.

 

I have a '01 V70 XC with original equipment Pirelli Scorpion tires and
had no trouble at all this, one of the worst winters in 100 years. If
the snow is so deep that the bottom is riding on the snow, handling does
get marginal, but due to the higher clearance of the XC, that is not a
problem unless you are the first vehicle on a road with fresh deep snow.