I have a sedan 6MT and just throw snows on in the winter. Never been stranded or stuck with it, even with 6" of snow and a LOT of hills. I bought some cheapy Winterforce tires from Tirerack and they've been great for the past 2 seasons.

My friend, OTOH, has an Taurus X and it's *** in the snow. AWD + weak all seasons = barely capable in snow.

 

I used to have a WRX not STi. I go snow boarding every year up the mountains. Loved the car I had some crappy cheap all season tires on it and it worked like a charm. I never drive slow not even on a mountain full of snow. But these cars are hard to work on dont have any extras like the G very basic But overall good car. I would keep the G and buy a cheap used subru for the snow months.