Many modern cars -- including mine -- can't use snow chains, at least not robust ones. There isn't enough room, and you would damage the car if you tried. You can fit an auto sock or some of those kevlar "chains" (looks a bit like car chain made of paracord augmented with some metal cramps).

Winter tires have become A LOT better the last decaces. So has snow plowing, salting and sanding equipment and routines. Clearly less use for snow chains than say, 30 years ago.

As long as I stay away from off-road vehicle territory (badly plowed dirt roads etc), a good set of winter tires suffices about 95-99% of the time.

Still, there are two set of conditions where I miss the option of adding some really heavy duty steel to my wheels:

1) When I want my front wheel drive to scoop and dig my way through as much snow or slush as my clearance permits.

2) Pure, solid ice, especially when that ice is wet.

I have a pair of the kevlar chains, which should provide some scooping and digging in loose snow and slush, but not nearly as good as heavy duty chains. I'm also not to convinced about how the (not too big) steel clamps will dig into hard ice. I've been looking for a nice oportunity to test the kevlar things, but that hasn't happened yet.

I also considered auto socks, which basically applies the same principles of creating friction as my winter tires, but more hard core. So they should do a similar job as my existing tires, only better. I choose the kevlar thing because a) they're cheaper, b) they apply a *different* principle than my tires (steel clamp acting as a nail, driven into the ice, or some scooping/digging).