I was on the road a bunch yesterday in Connecticut's morning snowstorm & the Renegade was a total beast in the snow. I drove through some unplowed parking lots (8 to 10 inches) just to see if I could get stuck & had no problems. I haven't had to shovel out my car at all this season because I can just back out over pretty much anything (I'm in an open parking lot) :thumbsup:
I only have two complaints: first, the shorter wheelbase exhibited the same problem my Kia Soul did in the snow - it did a side-to-side wobble, sort of like fishtailing but including the front. The Kia did it at about 40mph & the Renegade did it at about 45mph on really bad roads. Haven't had that problem in longer cars, so that's probably the main drawback to having a relatively short car. So I guess not so much of a complaint as just an awareness of performance under specific circumstances...it's very solid under 40 on crappy roads.
Second, I wasn't impressed with the stopping capabilities in the slush. In fact, it's one of the worst cars I've driven in terms of snow-stopping abilities. I slid halfway through an intersection at a low speed & nearly t-boned someone, despite attempting to stop way ahead of time & not driving fast, and ice not being on the road (plus brand-new tires!). I don't understand why snow-stopping performance is so bad. I'll have to play with the tiptronic manual shifting system to see if that helps out at all for slowing it down better. This is the second storm my Renegade has been in & stopping has been an issue in both of them. The closest thing it feels like is driving in the rain on bald tires & trying to stop, just kind of turns into air hockey. As it stands, the remedy is to start slowing down about double what I would normally in the snow, which is already about double of regular driving. The ABS just feels kind of useless, like it's making a half-hearted effort.
Hill performance is excellent. I live at the top of a steep hill & have to park at the bottom & hike home probably a third of the time when it's snowing because I can't get up the hill. Zero problems climbing hills, including when fully stopped - I was at at intersection on a hill and caught a red light and got a little worried I'd slide all the way back, but the Jeep didn't even flinch when the light turned green. It was really nice not just spinning out, sliding back, or doing the side-to-side bob trying to get some traction. Angled roads are great too - I was at a stop sign on a level road that curved up sharply onto a hill and didn't have any problem merging up on it from a complete stop.
Really, aside from the stopping issue, it's better than I bargained for for winter driving. It's nice having Jeep performance without having to have a thin Jeep body...I get good bad-weather performance, plus insulation! One thing I really like about it is the front-window defroster, which ACTUALLY WORKS! If my windshield & front side windows fog up, I can have them cleared in under a minute by hitting that button & cranking the heat, which has been a big issue in nearly every other car I've had (especially since it's hilly where I live, so the window fog can come on fast when you change elevations).
The 4WD lock button set to Snow works pretty well. One thing it does is locks down the electronic steering so that it's harder to over-correct, which actually helps out a lot when you're making a turn in slush, start sliding out too far, and react by cranking the wheel in...the ESC & TC systems work with the tightened steering pretty dang well to keep you moving without going all over the road.