You would try to drive anything in the winter, but expect to either get another set of wheels with winters on them, or buy winters for the wheels the car will have already on it. Unfortunately in most cases, the wheels already on it will be somewhat big(er) so the winters will cost more.
I’m not sure how many miles the WRX had, but generally speaking it was a never car, so at least it wouldn’t have had many wear and tear maintenance issues associated with age.
I’m looking for something along the lines of a rx7, ae86, m3, s2000, 350z, etc etc etc.
Any generation Rx7 is out of the question on at least reliability standpoint.
AE86 - 20 year old vehicle is a project car, not a DD.
M3 new ones are out of price range older ones you really would drive through the winter? Reliability may generally be there, but using an older performance car as DD and putting miles on it year around will make you learn the prices of up keeping an older German performance car. You’re not going to Autozone for parts for this.
S2000 is almost plausible for the price range but fits in most criteria.
350z could be found.
Also consider Rsx, Celica, MrS, Civic Si, Miata, Is300.