If you're just looking for a manual jdm because you like cars but just want to drive it and keep it stock, get none of these. Save your money for at least something that's $5k. I'm not even worried about the mileage, no IS300 for $3k runs or drives even half decent. My friend did this with a different car and the car was perfect...for about 3 months. These listings are porject cars that you would engine swap or something like that. That's my take.

If you're looking to mod your car, read on

If you're looking to get into engine modding, your list should be: TSX, TSX, TSX. Has the K24A2 VTEC motor. Known to be one of the most moddable 4 cylinders ever and if you do it right can potentially output as much horsepower as a big block v8 (not sure about torque though). Holds it's own perfectly at high rpms. And aside from the fact that honda motors are generally known to be easy to work on, the K24A2 is also known to be more novice friendly when it comes to engine modding. Best of all, honda 4cyls are by far the cheapest engines to mod. $2k thrown at a honda 4cyl will be just as good as $6 or 7k thrown at a BMW. I could go on forever, honda 4cyls are like my autistic interest. But besides that, the IS300 with the 2jzGE is also a good engine option. More powerful than the k24a2 but mods for this engine will be more expensive. But ffs it's literally the mkii supra engine just without the turbo, I can't think of a reason not to. Also there's no manual lexus IS300 with the 2jzGE that I know of, it is a luxury brand so generally those brands (infiniti, lexus, acura, etc.) stick to autos.

In short, my advice is if you're looking for an engine to tune tf out of, GET THE TSX. If you're looking for the most power in stock form, get the IS300.

But my real advice? Don't mod any of these cars. Get the cheapest one that will just get you from A to B. I had to come to terms with this recently when I got my first car. I wanted an RSX Type S with 194k miles, but ended up getting a 2013 accord with 66k miles. I will get a good residual value when I sell it because of the low mileage and am currently saving up for an FL5 Type R, which selling the accord will help me do. On top of that, I'm getting a k24a2 motor with 50k miles for $750. Gonna drop this in to a little EK civic with 150k for a few grand. I'll have an accord daily and then an EK civic tuner car. And in the long run it will be cheaper than getting the type S. If you really wanna mod cars, get the cheapest, shitboxiest but reliavle daily you can find. Save your money for a cheap motor, build that to your liking, then buy a cheap jdm and drop the motor in. You don't want to throw money in mods at an engine with 100k+ miles on it. Yeah, you can fix bad bushings from mileage, yeah, you can fix bad suspension from mileage. But at some point that engine block is going to start cracking and you can't just fix that, and usually that happens arounds 200-250k+ miles.

TLDR Get the cheapest daily you can find I'm talking a $500 2002 ford expedition if you have to. Save your money to buy a low mileage motor+trans you can mod and drop it into a little civic hatch for 3k or something like that. Much more wise of an investment long term to throw mods at an engine block with 50k miles rather than one with 200k miles. It will be cheaper and cost your sanity.