If a person needs a sedan now and that person intends to keep the car, then I believe he should look no further than a 09 Fusion. Man, $18985 for an I4 SEL (manual) with automatic climate control, ESC, an array of air bags, sporty handling plus outstanding reliability... it's a hard to beat deal. For this kind of money you can't even buy a Honda Fit Sport.
But hey, 2010 Fusion comes with a 6-sp stick..hehehe. Gosh, if the V6 sport AWD can be ordered with a stick it would become a very credible poor man's A4.