New or nearly-new car purchase

[TM]

Kent-
Thanks for the advice, but my requirements are that it MUST be
a 2000MY or newer, it MUST be smaller and have better handling
than the C chassis Audis (200, S6, A6 2.7T) and it MUST have a
manual transmission.

That eliminates almost all of your suggestions. :-(

It looks like the 325xi isn't a bad choice in that price range,
the Lexus IS300 as well, Cadillac is probably not.

Taka