There is only one basic 850 engine in North America (inline
5 cylinder). You can get a couple turbo variations of it or
normally aspirated. The engine is the most reliable part of
the 800 series (that applies to the turbo and non-turbo models).
So choose your pleasure there.

When frank said MT I think he means manual transmission. That
will limit things a bit so you won't have as many choices (which
may make things simplier to choose from but a MT vehicle will be
hard to find). It is about 10 hours labor to replace
a clutch so take that into consideration on a used car.

My non-scientific observations seem to indicate that 1995s and
1997s are slightly more reliable then 94s and 96s.

You can also search the archives here (to the right, below).
There are a couple posts a day asking about the reliability
issues with 850s. Just search on "850 reliability" or
"850 recommendations" for more info on this.