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I have been looking at the 2015 Subaru WRX, 2015 Toyota Corolla and 2015 Honda Civic.

I’m most partial to the WRX. But I need a reliable vehicle above all else that is safe and, hopefully, a manual. I have about 15k for a budget.

Any advice from a mechanical standpoint?

Clutch Commuter

There’s the fun choice and the smart choices, and unfortunately those two don’t overlap much, particularly given the somewhat dissimilar options you’ve suggested.

The Corolla, and to a lesser extent, Civic, are both solid choices from a reliability standpoint, and they should both return quite decent fuel economy. They’re great commuters. If you live anywhere in Canada that isn’t British Columbia, and, so, drive roads salted for six months of every year, get the vehicle you choose undercoated annually and they’ll live a very long life. Either will be way less prone to fluid leaks than your turbocharged Cruze.

The outlier choice WRX is like the party-hardy frat buddy that’s likely to get you into a bar fight or have you end up getting a drunken tattoo. Just kidding. Much more fun than the Civic and Corolla and considerably faster, it requires premium fuel, and under anything but a pastor’s foot, really likes drinking it. It’s a four-door sports car.

The WRX performs well in crash tests, so, between that and Subaru’s excellent all-wheel drive, there’s a tangible safety case to be made for it.

The WRX is not as bad for reliability as its reputation suggests if — and only if — it’s not modified from stock and providing it’s maintained properly. The trick is to find one in the used market that’s both of these things. Unfortunately, this may prove challenging, especially with your budget. If the ad mentions “Cobb tuner” or performance upgrades, avoid it as if it had bedbugs.

Consider instead the Impreza/Crosstrek twins, which are essentially the same car as the WRX, just without the zesty fun of turbo power. Both can be had in a manual shift, and the AWD system in them is functionally the same as that of the WRX. Same good crash test performance. They don’t require premium fuel. And they’re far less thirsty.

Your budget will buy an appreciably lower mileage, better condition, and/or newer Impreza/Crosstrek than it will a WRX.

Not on your radar, but a good all-rounder choice for someone that enjoys driving is the Mazda 3. 2014, and later models have proven to be quite reliable, and particularly in 2.0-litre form, get excellent mileage.

The best compromise between sporty fun and practical among the three choices you originally mentioned would be a Civic Si, if you can find one under budget in that age range.

If not, try to get a 2016+ Civic, as it’s a bigger, better car than the 2015. A 2016 non-Si model with the 1.5 turbo would be comparable or slightly better in performance to your Cruze; the base 2.0 non-turbo less so. (The ‘16+ Si uses the same engine as regular turbo Civics, just with a bit more boost for more output.)

Of note is that all of these vehicle choices except the Mazda use a CVT (continuously variable transmission) when not equipped with a manual gearbox. None entirely eliminate the lazy-feeling shift performance and engine drone common to CVTs, so test drive them under a range of conditions including highway speeds before committing to one or another, should you decide to go the two-pedal route.

Good luck!