A used Subaru impreza might be a good option for you. Yes FWD is better than RWD but some good snow tires can make a RWD car pretty good in the winter. I owned a Cadillac CTS that I had Yokohama iG20 winter tires on and never got stuck. Heck I drove it through storms where the highways were closed. A FWD with the same tires would have been even better so I guess the point I'm trying to make is to get some winter tires as well.
As per diesels being less reliable is complete nonsense. My service trucks are at 290,000km and 365,000km with nothing done but maintenance. My apprentices 2001 Jetta TDI is at 320,000km with a head gasket and one injector done. My last service truck, which was sold at 430,000km, is still running fine and is over 500,000km. Every 911 tower in the Rocky Mountains in Canada, every large building, everything needing power in logging, mining, construction, and oilfield use diesel engines. If they weren't reliable why would they use them? My customers average 50,000 hours out of their equipment with nothing but waterpumps, oil coolers, seals, and maintenance items. If you think that the regular truck sees around 50kmph average over it's lifetime then that's 2.5 million km on its life.
Gas and Diesel also emit different carcinogens but they both do. Most people think diesels are worse because of the black smoke, carbon, you sometime see in the exhaust when the engine is working. While they are worse the newer ones are not much worse for you than a gas. Not enough to be concerned about in my mind.
An improperly maintained diesel can suck to start in the winter but if your injectors and compression are good, which also affect gas cars starting in the winter, and preheat are working fine they start just fine. I've started diesel engines with any sort of coolant heater and no ether at -45 celcius and colder and those were in days where gas trucks wouldn't even start.
For the most part diesels are easier to work on than gas because there is no spark to be concerned with. They need air, compression, and fuel to run. Yes you need to change the fuel filter when you do an oil change and they usually take more oil per service but that's really the only higher cost involved with maintenance. Everything else like the sensors, timing belts/chains, harness, injectors can all go just like a gas car. One thing a diesel really needs is to be worked though. For someone doing nothing but highway driving with no towing a diesel is a horrible option because over time you will have issues because of carbon build up.
I find too many people are used to the old crap diesels that were put out decades ago and assume they all are like that junk.