I agree on the whole with IO540s comments.
The sidestick is different. Like anything different I suspect you need a few more hours to be comfortable with it. Having flown aeros with a stick and a yoke I prefer a stick. Having flown tourers with a stick, a yoke and a side stick in terms of the actual flying I dont think there is much between them, but in terms of freeing up lap space and generally tidying up the cockpit the side stick has a great deal going for it - which is of course one of the reasons Airbus adopted the side stick.
In terms of safety there was some concern in America that the accident rate amoung Cirrus was higher than for the rest of the GA fleet in the early days. As with so many things you need to look beyond the statistics rather than jump to the rather irrational conclusion that the aircraft is inherently unsafe or requires the skills of an exceptional pilot.
The Cirrus is a 50% step up in speed for most GA pilots. It is slipery and therefore requires more careful speed control during the approach and more fore thought. Perhaps most importantly it is tempting to think it is more capable than most other light aircraft - after all it is quick so you can potentially climb through the weather, it has a high service ceiling, so you can remain on top, it may be FIKI approved or at least have the ability to deal with temporary exposure to ice, the avionics are sophisticated, and the autopilot is very good. The fact is in competant hands it is more capable than most light singles but in reality not by that much and then the hands need to be good.
Of course in the States the insurers quickly realised what was causing the distortion in the stats and required pilots to demonstrate they had the required skill set - in short you could no longer go buy a Cirrus with 100 hours P1 and no additional training.
The stats now show the Cirrus to be no more dangerous than the majority of light singles, which, if you think about it probably means they are less dangerous because the missions people fly in Cirrus are inherently more risky than the missions undertaken in most like singles.
In my estimation put the same 500 hour pilot in a Cirrus or a 30 year old Warrior with sufficient time on both types in all weathers and I reckon the Cirrus would by a small margin be the safer aircraft.