06 Impreza Sedan snow tires

I'm running exactly that size of winters (and have been for 5 winters now) on my 2003 OBS. Same stock tires as your car. No issues. This car handles amazing in winter conditions. Just this weekend, we got lots of ice pellets and dropped temps turned streets to shear ice. I went up this one hill before I realized how icy it was, and the car went up without even spinning. Lots of evidence of other cars not making it!!

Go for it. You might need to be a little careful when picking the wheels tho. I heard something about the Subaru offset being a little different from the norm.

I've never gone for the narrow winter wheel thing. The theory is that on a narrow wheel you have more weight per square inch for better bite and better traction on soft snow and slush. My theory is that you spend more time on dry roads than snowy or icy roads, so a little more rubber on the road gives you better traction, handling and braking. For the winter I go with Blizzaks, same size as my summer tires. It's debatable as to whether ice tires are as good as studded, or better, but I can't stand that noise on dry pavement, and the Blizzaks have a great ride.

So, the bottom line is how much time do you plan on driving in snow and ice? And also, just about any AWD car will go well in poor conditions. The problem is stopping.