Advice on first car, wanting manual

Hello everyone! Newbie here on both these forums and to cars in general. I'm looking to buy my first car and was hoping I could get some help from you guys.

After driving my friends' automatic cars for a while I decided that I want to learn manual. I'm on a low budget so looking at used cars. Since it's my first car I want something reliable with low maintenance costs, and low mileage. Also some good performance would be nice (that's one reason why people get manual, right? :cool:) but I don't need the fastest thing out there. My budget is $10k, but willing to stretch it out a little if need be.

One of my friends recommends the Honda Civic Si made after 2007, and he found a guy selling a 2009 model for $11.5k with 60k miles. He says that's a really good deal, but I still want to explore other options before handing over that much money! What do you guys think? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

My cousin got a 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX for about $9000 with 100,000 miles on it. I'm sure you could find one for a little bit more with fewer miles. He loves that car.

How reliable is a Subaru WRX with over 100k miles? That's about all I can find for my budget. I just don't want to deal with a lot of maintenance down the road (no pun intended).

I'm starting to look at the Mazda 3, it's not turbocharged but I like the looks and I can get a 2010 model with relatively low mileage for about $10k. Anyone have/had this car and can share some experience?

Civic's is a good car. Get the version of any car brand that's as sporty as you can stand to keep from getting bored with it.
I have two cars with manual boxes, and one with an auto.
I despise the way the auto works. It's always looking for a way to upshift (particularly going downhill in traffic). Which means I have to manually shift the damn thing anyway to trick it into the gear I want so I don't have to ride the brakes all the time.
The one place where it scores big tho is in heavy stop and go traffic.
While a manual transmission and clutch works just fine in heavy slow traffic, an automatic is just plain easier.
So consider the traffic in your area before you make a decision.

The Mazda 3 is the best handling car in its class and also has better power than most of its competitors.

Thanks for your responses. I ended up getting a 2008 Mazda 3 and I'm liking it a lot. Now slowly mastering manual!