Car list and your opinions.

[Daymoe]

Well guys, I need to ask of your opinions. I'll be buying a car late next year to mid 2010, budget is around $20-$25K for my first car. Mainly small/medium sized cars if they're new. No bank loans or finance either.

So far I've come up with the new car list:

Ford Fiesta LX (2009 model)
Mazda 2 Maxx
Mazda 3 Neo
Mitsubishi Lancer ES
Honda Jazz VTi (2009 model)
Suzuki SX4 Sedan
Hyundai i30
Proton Persona

My family (except my sister, shame on her) can all drive manual, so I won't justify the extra few thousand of buying an auto, considering I can change gears perfectly fine by myself. The cars will be dailys, pretty much carting me to work/school and occasionaly family out somewhere.

Would like to gather peoples opinions on these cars, so far I've sat in the Mazda 3 Neo and the Mazda 2 Maxx, I liked them both, the Mazda 2 could fit me and Dad in the back comfortably with the seats all the way back, thats pretty cool considering we're both fat bastards.

I love the look of the new Fiesta, I sat in the old one and I didn't like the interior and the whole dash looked poor quality and the font on the speedo was ugly, small point but it left a bad taste in my mouth. The new one looks really nice and modern and comes stacked to the brim with extra features, so that is number one on the list.

Now for the used car list:

1999+ AU Fairlane Ghia
1998 Nissan R34 GT Skyline
2003 BA Fairlane Ghia
2007/8 Dodge Avenger (Cant justify buying this new)
1997 NL Fairlane Ghia

Leaning toward the AU Fairlane because its big and has leather seats, fits 5 people comfortably and has nice wood grain inserts while not being too old and is relitively cheap, but I'd be looking at a manual conversion on the Fairlanes if possible and not too expensive because driving auto is boring. I can pick up an NL Fairlane rather cheap, I've been searching away on Carsales and the like for a while now.

Looking for opinions, Mummy and Daddy aren't paying for this by the way, its from work.

Thanks in advance.