Is it the small size or the shorter scale you want? 24.75" scale isn't really that hard to find. If it's the scale you want, and not the tiny Grand Concert size that you want (which isn't much bigger than a parlor by the way), then there are dozens of great options for you. After all, it's the same scale as the iconic Gibson J-45, which is easily within your price range if you're also looking at Taylors. Of course, that guitar is gigantic. Almost every Seagull is pretty much the equivalent 24.84" scale, and they're quite inexpensive, especially considering they're made in Canada.
Here, I made a link for all Sweetwater listings sorted by price with 24.75" scale:
http://www.sweetwater.com/c600--6_strin ... zVcIiJdfX0
But the more important thing is that I need to correct you on some info here. First of all, I have a GS Mini. It is far from cheaply made. What's cheap about it? It's certainly not the price. The GS Mini-e is $629, priced exactly the same as their entry level bread & butter Grand Auditorium 114e, and I picked these two models because they arguably have the exact same features (no cutaway, electronics, gig bag) and are only different in body shape and size. The Grand Auditorium is THE classic Taylor guitar, no doubt about it. I have the cutaway version (114ce) at $799, but the point is, I have both the 114 and Mini-e and I can't say one definitely sounds better than the other. They just sound different, that's all. They have similar volume and both have a perfectly balanced sound and record so well, but the 114 is brighter and the Mini-e has a sweeter sound. I had a 316ce LTD before it was stolen, and while that was a wonderful American-made solid wood guitar, I honestly much prefer having two smaller and cheaper yet high quality guitars with two different sounds instead of one large, expensive guitar to rule them all.
GS Mini is nothing like the Baby Taylor. If you saw it in person, you wouldn't even really know that it's a smaller guitar until you saw a larger guitar next to it. It plays like a dream and sounds damn good, too. The GS Mini is such a well thought out guitar. It's small, sure, but it's made just like a shrunken bigger guitar, whereas the Baby Taylor is made like a cheap little guitar. Thanks to the Grand Symphony shape that the GS mini has, it plays very comfortable and is attractive to look at, too. It's a stunning little guitar.
That said, would I recommend it as your first and only nice guitar? No. I absolutely recommend the 114ce, or 114e if you really don't need the cutaway, but I love the cutaway. It's easy to overthink things, but you know, there are certain things that come with certain designs, and the one word that I can think of when it comes to the Taylor 114ce is balance. Over time, you might want a guitar that does this or does that a little better than the 114ce, but you'll never find a guitar quite like the 114ce in its affordability, comfortable ergonomics, and its expressive, versatile Swiss army knife tone. It sounds good with fingers or with a pick, and even against higher model Taylors, its sound is still more than usable. It's a beautiful tool because it'll always cut through the mix but be just mellow enough to be in the background when you want it to be. You might find another guitar that works better for some things, but you'll be hard pressed to find another guitar that can seriously do everything so well, and do so for $799. Even when I had a 316ce LTD, which was a $2399 guitar, I probably would have preferred using 114ce for recording if I needed a guitar that sits in a mix well.
But you want short scale? I mean, really, does it matter? What really matters in my mind is how big the guitar feels, and the 114ce feels really small because it's not the dreadnought shape and has just the right curves. The 312 is a great guitar, I'm not dismissing that, but you know, it's a really small guitar, and with the small size, certain things come with it, notably poor bass response and a trebly tone. It's thought of more as a fingerpicker's guitar and might sound too peaky with a flat pick. If you're a picker and you have to have shorter scale, you're really looking at the wrong brand. Seagull or Epiphone or Gibson would get you a more strum-friendly tone with the shorter scale.
But you should get the Taylor 114ce anyway because it's the best guitar in the world in that price range and you really can't go wrong with it. When you really know what you want, more than you just want a really nice acoustic guitar, then spend the money to get something nicer, and keep your 114ce as your backup, because you know what, it'll never do you wrong.