Did any of your "little FWD manual transmission cars" have snow tires? Makes allllllllll the difference.
Fun side story. When I was younger and dumber I had a nice little base-model pickup. 2WD. No air. No CD player. Crank windows, yadda yadda. After I started working for a living I one day decided I was RICH and ran out and traded it for a decked out 4WD, with air, CD player, power windows, yadda yadda. Branzy new 4WD truck was a factory package that came with a limited slip differential and fancy all-terrain tires. All-terrain tires aren't as good as real-snow tires, but are a heckuvalot better than all-seasons. (Aka no-seasons!) What blew my mind is that the truck went through snow really, really well in 2WD. I rarely shifted into 4WD except in the really deep stuff.
Moral of this little side story is that I should have just thrown a good set of tires on my little 2WD crap-box and saved myself thousands.
I now drive a little FWD manual transmission hatchback and have a set of snows mounted on cheap steel wheels. They go on in late November and come off sometime in early April. Set me back about $600 and was the best money I ever spent. My car was available with AWD and would have been at least a $2-3000 mark up.. plus lost fuel economy for the life of the car.
I live in a place that got something like 100-inches of snowfall this year. We call it "Hoth" nowadays.
Just to beat the drum one.. more.. time... SNOW TIRES!
Okay, I'm done. Best of luck. Happy shopping.