New 2015 Impreza base model.
We live in a hilly part of New England and I wanted something that made sense for our winter conditions...the OEM tires were immediately replaced with RT43s. She doesn't have to drive in the middle of storms as a student, so I didn't insist on dedicated snow tires. I drove this car recently in some snow and was very impressed, I think the narrower tires help it a lot compared to the wider ones on my FXT (and will look to go narrower with my next set of snows).
I also liked the idea that the Impreza didn't have an abundance of power, which I think could be dangerous for an inexperienced driver.
We looked for used Imprezas and were seeing crazy prices for cars with miles and issues...for example, a dealer had something like a 2012 with 70kmiles and body damage. Listed at $12k and they dropped it $1k when we pointed out that it needed body work...salesman was like, "Oh my, look at that!" Sure, they would have come down more, but the thing would have had to go into a body shop immediately. That was actually the best match we were able to test drive, drove about 30 miles to see a 2011 with only 30kmiles and it was sold by the time we got there. All this time, I'm thinking a brand new one is something like $19k....
I was very surprised when the DD let us know she preferred sedans, I thought a kid would be all over having a hatchback!
I wish the wife was in a Subaru, she has trouble with the hills around us at times in her FWD sedan and I usually get a call about every other winter season to come help her because she is stuck. At least she has RT43s now, which I picked...