Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Mazda Miata

See below:

https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/qa/what-cars-to-learn-to-drive-stick/#post-83284

https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/qa/first-manual-standard-transmission-car/#post-17510

https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/qa/looking-for-a-multipurpose-car/#post-52733

https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/qa/best-starter-car-to-practice-manual-transmission/#post-39984

Almost any standard transmission vehicle is going to give you far fewer headaches than an automatic.  About half the questions on this forum are about lousy automatics.

Well, there are a lot of good options if u want the most reliable RWD with a manual buy a Miata or a 350z that was not abused or modified. If you want the best manual FWD manuals, look into Honda Civics, Toyota Corollas, older Nissan Sentras (although we thankfully still get a 2021 Sentra with a manual here in Canada), and Mazda 3's. If you want the best AWD manual nothing beats a Subaru Impreza or Forester (which is not easy to find nowadays).