As others mentioned, the manual transmission is much better than the CVT (especially in the case of Nissan), but realize that the Nissan quality is not even close to Toyota or Honda. Even if you pay more for Toyota or Honda, you will win in a long run. 

A much better vehicle with a manual.  I  still would not trust it to last as long as a Toyota or Honda. 

I'd pass. It is one of Nissan's cheaper offerings, and even their premium offerings are poor quality. No thanks.

I personally would feel more comfortable buying a Toyota Yaris/Vitz, Honda Fit, Toyota CHR, Honda HRV, Mazda2, in terms of reliability. 

With that said, I have always been intrigued with the Versa. I ask myself, if I were to buy a brand new car, would this car be worth it, for at least 5 years. It usually is the cheapest or one of the cheapest brand new cars one can get. 

Pros:

- Manual transmission. It’s hard to mess this one up.  AFAIK, it is decent.

- The 1.6L Engine is 20 years old, meaning it is tried and tested. If they didn’t figure everything out bu now in a 20 year old engine, they are doing something really wrong.

- The Nissan V platform, of which the versa is based, is 10 years old. They should have worked out the kinks by now.

Cons:

- The CVT transmission. It is on its 3rd generation CVT. It is brand new, so we don’t know if it will last. And they have a bad reputation when it comes to the CVT.

anyway, like I said, I am intrigued by the Versa. I can’t really recommend it, because I am not as familiar with them as other makes. Usually I don’t even entertain the idea of a Nissan product. Like I said, this was is intriguing.  

If you like the way it drives, sure why not? They are better than the CVT-equipped models.