I was in the same situation not three weeks ago. I was weighing up an SS and the XR6T. And in the end, the XR was the go because of a number of factors, biggest of which being the spread of torque that the turbo serves up, the seamless ZF auto and the better interior. Even though the SS sounded good and went hard, the transmission just wasnt up to par compared to the falcon and as a ute which I intend to tow a trailer and load a tray up with, the IRS of the Expensive Daewoo just didnt stack up. Those things said though, and I have to admit, the SS still looks horn, and has the sound, the whole sleeper jet thing the XR6T carries with it is very very big drawcard for me. As for pricing, they were almost 5k apart in favour of the Expensive Daewoo including on roads when similarly specced. One thing I strongly suggest, is that you shop around and look hard for the right car, as XR6T utes are fairly thin on the ground at the moment especially if you want an auto or any options such as the lux or sports packs, the one I managed to snap up was the only one available at the time that was an auto and was covered under the friends of ford pricing scheme, that wasnt pre sold, I am extremely lucky that it just happened to have the tech and lux packs!! As for the unpredictability in wet or bad road conditions, I believe that it comes down to many factors, biggest of which is the driver behind the wheel, if you drive the thing carefully in poor conditions you will be just fine, whether live rear or IRS, poor judgement cant result in incidents. Good Luck and happy hunting!