2000-06 Nissan Maxima SE Manual, or 2006-07 Honda Accord V6 EX Sedan Manual? And why?

I love our 1990 Nissan Maxima SE Manual, but to my wife it's just an old car. Before she trades it in on a Camry when I'm at work, help me pick something that will keep us both happy. It needs to hold our family of 5 comfortably enough to avoid fratricide in the rear seat on rare occasions when our minivan is indisposed. I don't want to pay more than ~$7000.

I'm looking at:
-- 2000-06 Nissan Maxima SE Manual Transmission
-- 2006-07 Honda Accord V6 EX (or EX-L) Sedan Manual Transmission

In a nutshell, the Maxima is sportier but more crude, while the Accord is more refined but not as sporting. Also the Accord is a bit more reliable, though the Maxima is okay. For the 2004-06 Maxima, most of the problems are apparently with the automatic transmission, which I would not consider.

The Maxima is faulted for a cheap interior. For 2004-06, it's also a little distractingly bright. Do you get used to it? Do you pull the bright silver plastic dashboard panels off and spray-paint them flat black? It's also faulted for unruly torque steer. But is that so bad in real life vs. Magazine reviews? In real life, I'm not flooring it 24x7.

The Accord is universally admired as a family sedan, but not necessarily as a sports sedan. The V6 Manual has very fast acceleration, but what about tossing it around corners? Does it wallow around like a drunken sailor while the Maxima is still on rails?

I doubt if the Maxima handles much better than the Accord - it was hardly the "four door sports car" that Nissan marketed it as. It was more of a semi luxury sedan that was somewhat sporty. It's still a mid size FWD car. I had an 05 Accord EX-L - it's a very good handling car.

Personally I'd favor the Accord, but you are looking at used cars - well used in this case, and you won't find many with a manual, so I'd probably just get the first one I find that is in good condition - and get it checked by a mechanic.

Most of the V-6 manual Accords were 2 doors. 4 doors are rare -- out of 40 V-6 manual Accords listed on line within 500 miles of my home in NE OK, only 4 of them were 4 door versions. By comparison, there were over a thousand of I-4 manuals and most of them were 4 doors.

On the Maxima side, they are all 4 doors but there were only 14 listed and the newest was a 2006 with over 100k miles on it.

Either way you're looking at something that is over 8 years old and with over 100k miles on it. Buy based upon condition AFTER it's inspected by a qualified mechanic.

If your wife drives the car and wants a Camry then that is what she should get! Your two choices are great as well but the Mazda 6 would be a fun car as they are more readily available with a manual. They haven't made a Camry with a manual in 4 or 5 years and they were rare as it was. If you can find an Accord EX-L sedan with a stick shift it will be great -even if its a 4 cylinder or if the car is an automatic.