Lease a new car, best way to deal with it IMO. Otherwise once you finish paying the car off you now own a rusty car. You will also have to get snow tires for Nov-April. You will desperately want that car if you don't have one.

Closest commercial airport from St. J is 1.5 hours away in good weather and expensive. Closest airport with a direct flight to the west coast is 3ish hours (Boston or Montreal). Be prepared to give up most types of food, concerts/shows, sunshine, and pleasant weather. First year we moved to St. J it snowed 12ft over the winter starting in late Nov/December and it never melted until late March/April. Three weeks of below zero in January that year too. Most things close early. There's a farmer's market and some half decent local type things going on but that's about it. It is miserable if you are a single adult with no family. Not the worst place in the world overall and a good place to be a kid because of the awesome high school, but multiple people who visited us from other places said the town has an evil aura. I disagree but I also totally see what they mean. You'll figure it out.

Good luck.