It was an event of firsts for the Kiwi world production car rally champion and his co-driver John Kennard.
They made their debut at the Swedish round, in a different race category to last year, driving a new Skoda Fabia S2000 rally car in Paddon's first snow-bound rally.
"It's been three days of flat-out rallying on snow and ice-covered roads. Fourth is not a bad result, all things considered, and gives us good points on the board to start our season, said Paddon (24), who now lives in Montgat, Spain near the ASM Motorsport team, which runs his rally car.
He started Friday's nine stages third among the SWRC contenders but after going off in special stage three and losing nearly eight minutes stuck in a snow bank, followed later in the day by a puncture, he finished the day sixth.
Paddon made steady progress during day two to improve his placing among the SWRC contenders to fourth.
He had found it difficult "to feel at one with the car" on snow but felt gains had been made by the rally's conclusion.
"Today's six stages went smoothly without any dramas and between each stage we continued to try new things with the car set-up to continue the learning process. We have still been struggling to find what exactly works with the car on this surface but we have learnt a lot about both the car and the rally this weekend."
"I am now very determined that once we get back to our favoured surface of gravel for our next event in Portugal, that we will have a different and more competitive package which will involve a lot of hard work and homework over the next five weeks. "
Looking at Paddon's stage times against his other SWRC competitors, such as Swede PG Andersson, in a Proton, who won the SWRC category in Sweden, and current SWRC points leader Irishman Craig Breen, who finished second, Paddon was very close to the leaders, his media manager Kate Gordon-Smith said.
Jari-Matti Latvala won the WRC section for Ford, ahead of Citroen driver Mikko Hirvonen.
Hirvonen's team-mate, eight times world champion Sebastien Loeb, finished sixth, after an excursion that saw him stuck in snow bank for two minutes on the first full day of the event.
