l live in a place with a lot of snow!!!! and crazy driveways...etc... and l really love mini coopers l just dont know how it would handle in the snow?

They are great in the snow. You will still need winter tires and chains or at least All Season tires for the rough stuff.

A few months ago there was a company on foxtell who was making 4WD mini's. It did awesomly in the snow. The standard mini did ok too but the 4WD one was fantastic.
l do not personally know anything about driving in snow because l am from Australia and have never even seen it.

l have a friend that had one and hated it in all kinds of bad weather. It was too light when driving through puddles, and tended to hydroplane in heavy rains. And because of the low ground clearance, be careful with snow. If your roads are not well maintained, you could find yourself stuck. Other than those issues, he absolutely loved the car. He did miss his AWD Subaru, though, in bad weather.

They handle just like most FWD cars.

They are also light, so they do not get stuck that easy. But they still slip a lot.

MIN l does thier winter testing in Finland. They will do just fine. l have alot of clients who take thier MIN l is to all areas of the country with snow. One thing most of them recommend are these: http://spikes-spiders.com/

Also make sure you get a MIN l with DSC, it will help a bunch.