The budget stated doesn't give much room to work with.
Believe this european car fan: A cheap used VW/Audi/Mercedes/BMW will end up being very expensive. I've put 400,000+ km on two different VW diesels but one of them was bought 3 years old off-lease and the other was bought new, so I knew (and could control) what engine oil was used for most/all of the car's life, what coolant was used, ensured that prescribed maintenance tasks were done properly and on time, etc. These cars can last a long time when treated properly but can have a lot of expensive problems if neglected or if maintenance is done improperly. On any well-used VW TDI the big question is when was the timing belt last replaced, and did they replace ALL of the rollers and the tensioner and the water pump and the "stretch bolts" on the engine mounts, and did the person who did it know how to properly set the belt tension (it's tempting to turn the tension adjuster the wrong way ... which will cause the belt tensioner to fail prematurely ... which will result in a timing belt failure ... which grenades the engine). Only way to know this ... is to price in having this job done the moment you take delivery of the car.
Anything Honda and Toyota is almost certain to be overpriced for what it is. (edit: someone mentioned the Echo/Yaris ... that might work)
What you really want is a "depreciation-mobile": A car that is not from a premium brand, and which doesn't have a good reputation, and yet actually isn't really that bad of a car.
It might be hard to find some of these with a manual transmission ... but if you do find one, it will probably be cheap, because they're harder to sell.
Chevy Cobalt. Maybe even a Cruze. Someone posted a link to a 2012-ish manual-transmission Cruze a few days ago for not a whole lot more than your budget.
Ford Focus. Probably before the current generation. Look for rusty rocker panels. These cars are tin cans. My brother-in-law had one for a long time, at last check it was a field car at my niece's farm because there was no way it would pass inspection. (actually I'm not sure if they still have it, they might have scrapped it by now)
Mazda 3 in that price range i.e. age range will probably be a rust bucket.
Anything Hyundai, Kia, Mitsubishi. Out of the bunch ... Mitsubishi Lancer, IF you can find one. They are actually decently built for what they are ... but they're unpopular, therefore sell cheaply - but there are not many out there because so few were sold.
Beggars can't be choosers.