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Let me preface this by saying I have the heart and soul of a GM man. General Motors is very much a part of my family, as it is a large number of people in this town.
...Which is why you'll probably be surprised to hear me say go foreign.
For what you want, particularly that you want a V6 standard, you're going to have a hard time in the domestic market. A mid-size V6 around here is generally marketed as a family vehicle. This is smack dab in the middle of your sports/luxury cars (typically V8's although I4's and V6's are becoming more common here) which go for the big bucks and the entry-level/economy cars (think Cobalts, Sunfires, SX 2.0 etc) down at the other end. The economy cars are marketed with standard to bring the price down, typically with auto as an option and the higher end stuff is generally marketed to the slightly more affluent and offers standard as a driving experience (again, with the option for auto). The cars in between are generally classed as utility cars, designed for comfort, cargo space and ride. They tend to forego the standard transmissions because it's generally viewed that the folks in this market are probably going to want automatic anyway (and will be at the point in their lives where they don't need to save a few bucks by going standard). This ultimately brings design/development costs down; GM's entire V6 line-up is designed with no standard transmission compatible to it and hasn't been for years. That's one component that doesn't have to be designed, tested and built. One less factory line, less employees, less overhead.
The good news is, it's probably temporary. Automatics are pretty much a North American curiosity. We use 'em heavily, but most of the rest of the world ignores them. This is why, incidentally, the foreign cars all come with stick; it's already designed and implemented in their home markets, so all they have to do is import. As the Big Three continue to merge development and operations with their overseas holdings, I'd expect to see a resurgence of stick shifts in North America; the transmissions are already being designed and built overseas, so much of the savings from avoiding them is nullified anyway. Given that, and given that a lot of your 18-24 year old males are making the move to standard these days, I could see the Big Three bringing them over here. 18-24 year old males is a particularly choice market, because that's where you engender brand loyalty. A guy who buys a good Chevy at 16 will probably buy more Chevys as he gets older and wealthier. It's also a market that's heavy dominated by the Asian imports these days.
So, yeah. If you have your heart set on both a V6 and a standard transmission, you're probably going to want to look at foreign cars for now. Domestics still need a few years to catch up, but they are taking the hint.
Slowly.
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I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said
- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame
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