I had a C class Merc, during the bad winter of 2010, the only way I could drive it was by having a trolley jack, heavy tool box and four boxes of floor tiles in the boot. Without the extra weight it was, as you say, beyond useless.
Me piss yellow coloured Fiat Panda never has any issues with its normal non-winter tyres. I managed to do 30 mph up a hill the other day, gave it the day off after that poor thing.