This is my first winter in my VX so this is the perspective from a total Newbie.

I pulled out of my garage (25 deg F) and drove around for hours in single digit temperatures / negative teens wind chill. Absolutely nothing seemed out of the ordinary in regards to running rich. My braking never changed at all. But....

My ABS has always been broken so I have no perspective on how that should act if it was working properly. Some people here believe that the ABS on the VX is so overly-sensitive that they feel braking is better off without it. Like I said, I have no ABS experience so I don't know how it should feel, but I'm riding on some pretty good mountain/snow-rated, all-terrain tires (General Grabber AT2.) On snow I have to really play around and brake excessively to make my VX slide. On ice, the rear end really wants to lock up and spin the VX - sometimes even during mild braking.

Could you be experiencing what others have described as "overly-aggressive ABS" which seems to keep the wheels from locking up and rolling to such a degree that the brakes seems "useless"? If you can find a safe area, you could test that by pulling the ABS fuse under the hood to see if things seem better without it. Just be super careful on ice - mine is really spooky!