Thinking of getting an accord...

I currently drive a 1996 Ford taurus LX with the 3.0l dohc engine with slightly less than 60k on the odo. In the past 5k or so, my car has started to drink oil (800-900ish miles per quart) and have loud tapping noises at idle. I have the ford's esp, and the dealer keeps telling me everything is normal. Even if I do end up getting a new engine, etc, I'm sick of dealing with ford and would prefer not having to worry of waht will break down next. I'm thinking of just selling this car, and getting a different one.

Knowing that accords last forever (I hope), I have begun to consider one seriously. I was thinking more along the lines of a 2002 or earlier year (but some body style) sedan with a manual trans. I've never driven a manual trans before, but these auto slush boxes drive me nuts. I commute to college, so I do about 30 miles a day, so a good gas milage wont hurt either. I was wondering is there anything I should be looking out for?

Pretty much the only options I really must have are:

vtec, manual trans, 4 wheen disc brakes, abs, moon roof, power locks, power windows, and power mirrors.
I prefer the dark blue, but I've noticed all teh colors are nice and are very glossy.

I've seen a few accords with steering wheel audio controls, I was curious if any of those would hook up to an aftermarket deck. Also, I was wondering how good is the 6 disc changer which comes with some of the EX-L models (that's all I see on the used lots with a stick). I currently have an mtx 5 channel amp, image dynamics idq 10" sub which I would liek to take out of my taurus and put into any new car I would get. Is the quality on the in dash 6 disc changer good enough to run high low converters, etc to feed signal to this amp (I kept the stock hu in my car because no one makes a kit, just curiuos if I can live without buying an aftermarket hu).


Sorry for keeping this long. Thanks in advance for any tips, suggestions, or opinions.

-Sunil