Sooner rather than later (meaningless term but you get my point) I need to replace my maxima. Unfortunately Nissan doesn't sell a manual maxima anymore. So what else? Let's look at Mazda 6. Oh wait, they don't either (unless I want the 4 cylinder). It certainly is getting hard to get a manual transmission and, worse for me, the higher performance packages of various cars (e.g. G35/7x, Buick Lacrosse, etc.) with AWD especially don't exist in a manual variant.
If you want something with decent power and AWD and manual your options are seriously curtailed.
wouldnt you just get an altima?
the new maxima's are pretty huge and are made to compete with the avalon now from toyota or things like the taurus which are larger cars.
if your maxima is well more than 3 years old or so you probably have one of the older ones in which case the altima is the new maxima.
they are actually based on the same platform, just the new larger maxima has a larger version of it.
EDIT:
apparently you cant get the altima even in manual for 2010 models yet. and if you get a 2009 its only the i-4 that can have manual. I guess you should just get an accord... they still offer it on the i-4, and that engine has 190 hp so its not god awful. too bad honda isn't putting manuals on v6 sedans like they did the last generation, not enough demand so its only on the coupe.
i think for the most part manual is more or less dead in this country if you live anywhere near a city. I grew up in los angeles, and almost no one i knew even had a manual and it was hard enough to buy some cars in the manual version. i drive an automatic and my experience with manual has been all of maybe 2 hours in my friends old ford escort. I mean it was not that hard, but why bother? I mean for commuting I could care less and even with most say recreational driving most automatics are supposed to be very good unless you really are some track day guy which probably less than 1% of people are. I do want to someday buy a manual track toy type thing as a 2nd car, but really that what it boils down to now is that i wouldn't care enough unless it was a 2nd car for "fun" and in stop and go traffic i'd imagine it would be horrible. companies wont even build manuals unless you order the car in some areas now because teh demand is just so low and they end up rotting on the lots especially for nicer cars. plus a lot of the new autos are better even the normal torque converter ones. i know car and drivers's 370z automatic test was actually faster to 60 and the auto got better gas milage. and with DSG starting to appear on even normal cars (like say the fiesta when it comes out) theres basicall no penalty for it anymore.
on top of that you cannot build a hybrid (i hate the hybrids out now but im sure they will be more and more common place soon) that can run on battery power alone (such as the new fusion , camry, prius, but not the honda ones) with a manual.