Rezal

I've been looking at Subies as a potential beater. Friend of mine had a Justy with 180K miles and little problems. Would love to get a WRX but then, it wouldn't be a beater!

Looking at the response above, what I might do is get winter tires and see how it works out. If the winter gets bad to the point that there salt on the road most of the time, then I'll get a Subie or Civic. I might even get...gasp...a Subie stationwagon and take advantage of the practicality. I've seen a few for sale in the area on Autotrader for $1500-$2000.

STLPCA

FWIW, I've driven my daily driver C2 on Dunlop Winter Sports through St. Louis winters (probably comparable to yours) w/o any problems. However, my car is definitely not a clear weather garage queen. It's a "working" Porsche which I get to enjoy every day.

There are a bunch of old posts - search "winter tires." Here are a few:
Winter tires and wheels
C4S as a winter car?
Winter tire question.

YellowC4S

Regarding the Nokian's.
GOOD NEWS!!! The Hakka 2 is now available in the US and it does come in 225/45/17. New shoes for my A4 Quattro this winter.

STLPCA

Kevin
Nokian's Hakkapeliitta 2, apart from a mouthful to say, is a T rated snow tire. Like all true snow tires, its tread depth/pattern & compound designed to stay soft in frigid temps, is not well suited for spirited driving on dry roads or locations where winter temps may spike to 50-60F. If its as good or better than its predecessor, I'm sure it'll be a great tire on snow & ice.

On my old (now my son's) FWD Volvo 850T I'm much happier overall w/Pirelli 210s (H rated winter tires) than the Blizzak snows they replaced since 95% of our winter driving is on dry (or well plowed) roads.

sy308

There is also the issue of some idiot skidding around and hitting the pcar. In that case you would wish you had the beater for sure. Good luck.