I agree, a normal 2 wheel drive with winter tyres (even cheap ones) is very sure footed.
I ran our old 2007 Active on them all year long and it was great all winter and the 2 minutes of summer!
I went for the later 4x4 TA because it killed a lot of birds with one stone for me.
I live and commute in Central London, it's easy to park and maneuver compered to most other 4x4's, also you sit a bit higher up so get a better view of the road than a normal Panda.
But it's also out in the sticks every weekend as I compete on an off road motorcycle.
Getting in and out of farms with muddy fields and farm tracks with it dragging a small trailer is fun and it really comes into it's own.
I'm often the first away home as most vans, cars and heavier 4x4's bog down and have to wait for the tractor.
It's not a Chelsea tractor, so I don't get spat at and cursed like I did in my Discovery and it's not seen as anything too threatening or flash, but looks kind of Tonka-ish, it just fits and looks right everywhere it goes.
It handles all the street calming much better than our other two fwd Pandas, and there's a feckin' lot of those humps and bumps around here and some are massive, infact there's only two roads within three miles that haven't speed humps!
If I didn't really need the 4x4 system so often, a Trekking would certainly have been a good choice.
It's better on fuel and road tax than a lot of normal cars and nearly all other 4x4's and it's emissions are low.
My tax is up at the end of the month and for a laugh I thought I'd spread the payments monthly for £2.63!
The only slight drawbacks are first gear is very short on it and second not low enough to pull away in without flogging the clutch, so it can be a bit weary in heavy traffic (but it's not as slow as the Climbing), but you adjust.
It's not as refined as my lads Panda Pop or SHMBO's Panda Lounge on the motorways, it's not bad, just the others are a little better at it, but that's no problem as we have the others for those trips.