but it's a FWD car... they all understeer in corners.. handbrake sort of solves the problem but not really.. ESC will actually make the car take the corner and prevent understeer..
You might be able to get ESP w/o traction control.. I know some Audis have this thing.. if you press the ESP button once.. the traction control disengages but the ESP itself is still on.. you need to hold the button to disengage the ESP..
All FWD cars understeer at the limit, but with ESP/ESC/DSC/etc. they understeer and bog down in pretty normal winter driving circumstances. When there's snow on the road and I know the corner and there's no traffic near me I find that the best way to turn with a FWD car is to get to the point where it understeers noticeably, let off the gas momentarily to get the fronts to just turn (add a touch of handbrake if needed) and get the car to rotate then accelerate out while countersteering (fast, efficient and fun). Stability control kills that by taking over the car just when you need to be in control the most.
I can live with stability control in non-winter situations (since I don't slide the car around on bare roads), but in the winter I need to have the car react predictably and not bog down on me at the slightest provocation.