I had a subaru 98 outback w/ the 2.5liter MT with studded tires and it was unstoppable in any condition ...ice, snow, slush. It got around 21-24mpg. I traded it in for a 05 Legacy Gt MT turbo wagon for a little performance fun (has sti 2.5 turbo engine). Its great, but some give it a bad rap because the poor mpg performance. My experience is if you drive the subaru turbos (legacy gt, outback xt, forester xt, wrx) like a leadfoot and put the car in boost range all the time like >2800rpms they dont do so well and get about 18-19mpg. However when you drive conservative you will easily get 24-28mpg. Another thing is that you can get a ECU reflash device (Cobb accessport) to change boost/timing ect. to load diffferent maps to increase performance or increase ecomony by limiting boost. People have been reporting 28-29mpg with the ecomony maps. Portland has a large group of performance subaru shops that can do almost anything from ecu reflashs to custom turbo setups. I would check out a outback xt if buying new or look for 2000-2004 outback if buying used.
Jim