cheap manual, thinking Options

[96bluevert]

Lately I've been thinking about how much I would like a manual. I was contemplating buying a cheap ($500-$1000) older, reliable car to take out every once in a while so I can eventually get used to driving manual. I was looking at late 80's-early90's Honda Civics/Accords or Toyota Celica/Corrola/Camry, since Honda and Toyota are really my most trusted car companies when it comes to older and cheaper vehicles. Basically, I don't car about how the exterior would look, just so long as it ran well, had decent miles on it (<200k) and didn't need much extra repairs. I have thought about a swap, but that takes more time than I'd like..the celi IS my dd.

The whole reason I am looking into a cheaper car w/ manual so I can practice is b/c I figure eventually I am going to buy another car ( sometime after the celi) that is manual and I don't really want that to be my practice car since I plan on it being something nice.

opinions are appreciated..thnks

[96bluevert]

True, it might be cheaper to just get a manual to swap into the celica, but I'm not even sure I'm going to do an auto to manual swap w/ this car. So, I'd kind of rather get something else cheap that I can own for a while then sell it in year or two for like half what I bought it for. I'm looking at the Tercels and Paseo's right now..one for $600, but will keep searching.

thnks for the input.