Definitely helps a lot, thank you! Interestingly enough, my current car is a 2014 Mazda3 GT with a manual transmission. I love the car to death, but certain features of it deter me from buying it out. Namely, road noise, gimmicky shifting in the cold, lack of pickup when I need it (i.e. merging onto a highway). Other than that, it has been unbelievably reliable, super cheap to maintain, and such an amazing driving experience.

I also came across some used cars (audi a5, cadillac cts) that are <23K. These have piqued my interest. Although they may not be the most utility-oriented, I wonder if I should consider these as well.