Bersa also makes a compact 9mm that fits in your price range. Its not much bigger than the Thunder .380 and can be found new for $360 or so. The downside is the Bersa 9mm is harder to find in a gun store than the .380.
http://www.bersa.com/bersa-firearms/...ro-series.html
As for reliability, here's a video of two testers firing a Bersa 9mm over 1400 times as fast as they can reload and fire. They even pour water on it three times and it keeps on firing.
http://www.bersa.com/videos/test.html