I had some interesting times when swapping between the Honda and the Mazda (1st gear, reverse, extremely soft clutch) but now that I drive 2 of the same cars is not a big thing anymore. The only thing I remember is that engaging into first gear, compared to the Honda, you really need a full stop to do it. Also, clutch is very soft in comparison. On the Honda you can easily downshift to 1st at, i.e. 2-5MPH, with no trouble.
But anyhow, wife drove the mother's Volvo V40 (5MT) during vacation last year and after 3hrs of heavy traffic she praised the Mazda5 for how soft and easy is to use the clutch/shift gears compared to the Volvo (dunno)