Need advice on buying a new car for northeast.

[dreadnought]

Hello ladies and gents. I just joined this forum recently and I am currently in the market for a new car. I have had some trouble with determining with car to by because of my particular situation. I currently live in South Florida and still own my first car (Infiniti g37 sedan); I had bikes previously. I recently got into a law school which is in the northeast and will be moving up there soon. I have a few friends who live in the area and told me my car would suck because of the weather, etc.
The cars I'm looking at are all over the place. I want to get one in stick because i never learned how(only owning motorcycles). The cars i had it narrowed down to were the Subaru STI, Mini JCW/S, and the american muscle coupe(s) (Camaro SS, Challenger r/t__srt8, Mustang gt). My reasoning behind these choices is that all these companies give incentives for college students/post grads. With this in mind these are my questions.
I would like to purchase a car that I do not feel the need to upgrade from again, at least for a while with the intent on keeping it through post grade and a few years after. Which car do you guys think would be able to survive this long with regular maintenance? which one would be best for the area?
My last question is if I can find any of these cars used at a good price is there any way to predetermine if the car with driven harshly by the previous owner? Since from my understanding manual transmissions wear out quicker depending on the driver. Thank you in advance for the assistance.

do not want to spend more than $35,000.

[fredjacksonsan]

My vote: Subaru. Since you are from Florida you will have enough trouble driving in snow and ice, and AWD will help. Subies are reliable and pretty much universally loved by their owners.

In cars, generally it's not the manual transmission that wears, but the clutch. Haven ridden motorcycles you are ahead of the learning curve for manual transmission in cars, compared to someone that has only driven automatic trans.

Not sure what you mean by "won't need to upgrade" but that suggests to me a performance vehicle. Again Subaru will fit the bill; although not as high performance as some of the vehicles you mentioned, you have the advantage of being able to drive in any weather.

[bob4020]

Hi ya´all I´m finally going to do it. I´m going to go out and buy a brand new 2013 Camaro ZL1 for only $20,000.