That's funny.
Just commented the other day on some tires to the neighborhood website for those wanting good winter tires and we had 10" over here too.
My last car was a 2 wd sports coupe, low to the ground and short wheelbase. I ran it for years all season here in CO with the best A/S tires I could find (yeah really, not even winter specific) and it did superb considering. Conti DWS Extreme Contact were a nice match on that car and under $280 each - lol
Replaced it with an AWD Golf Sportwagen (love it) and the OEM tires just don't dig in. Tires really are a huge factor !! I'm not anxious to burn up those tires just yet (I'm too cheap) but when needed, I'll go custom wheels to snaz it up a bit.