Potential Diesel buyer advice?

Hi everyone!

I've been seriously looking at the Cruze diesel for some time to replace my trusty (but sadly rusting out) Escape. I've had my eye on it for some time but am finally getting serious and was hoping for some advise. I figure what better advise than in this thread?!

So I have some requirements with my car search:

1) Excellent fuel economy; I do a lot of driving; long commute to work and multiple locations etc so something efficient is a big help to my budget. Even with spending more on diesel the economy is impressive
2) space; my needs are modest but I do often have to lug some supplies around for work (IT) so a hatch would be ideal. A truck/SUV is overkill and I'm actually looking to buck the trend and downsize to a car. I do have to have enough space for a car seat for my son (who is 2.5) but other than that I rarely need to carry passengers especially not in the back so rear space isn't too critical. That said I am about 6'1 or 6'2 so I do need to fit reasonably comfortably.
3) at least a little bit fun to drive. I'd like to get the 6 speed assuming its an easy manual to live with. I'm a bit rusty driving a stick (learned on a TDI jetta years ago) A real high performance car probably wouldn't be as easy for me to live with my daily commute. Also hoping for something comfortable that doesn't feel really cheap inside. I really liked the look of the fancy seats available; for a car I spend so much time in in should be nice despite my modest budget. I've locked at sportier cars (ie fiesta ST, but honestly those seem a little small and maybe not the easiest to live with day in/out not to mention MPGS not quite where I want) I'm 33 years old so I haven't totally given up yet but I may be too old for some other cars lol

The combination of these things keeps leading me back to the Cruze. I was quite disappointed to see it being discontinued (and the 2019 eliminating the manual) So my hope has been to find a 2018 hatchback 6 speed unfortunately they seem to be hard to find. Im assuming you can't order them anymore. I'm willing to go out of state to get what i want. I just found a 2018 manual hatch with about 20k miles for 17.5 which seems pretty reasonable (not my exact specs but I may have to compromise a little given how rare they seem to be)

Is anyone willing to share their advice on this car or the process of finding/buying one?

thanks!