I blasphemously picked the 328i for you Siko mainly because of its driving dynamics advantage over the C300. Personally if I were shopping in this segment I would go for a C-Class or an A4, but we are shopping for YOU good sir

The manual option is a big thing for you, and despite the improvements of the MB manuals, I doubt it would match a BMW manual. That is something you will have to personally determine by test-driving them, but I'm going to assume the BMW is better. Its also faster and has marginally better driving characteristics, which seem to be important factors to you. Looks are great but you can only look at a car so much, you will have to drive it...and the BMW will probably make you smile more while you are driving it.