In that price range my favorites are the two I own plus one of their cousins. Top of the list for me is the Reggie Hamilton Standard Jazz, an active/passive P/J with several other nice touches too. My first bass when I came back to playing is the Deluxe Active Jazz, a great active take on the Jazz bass. It's cousin is the Deluxe P Bass Special which is an active P/J bass on a P body with a Jazz neck. The last two are active only so if you wanted a passive mode on them they would have to be modified.
There are several Modern Player and Blacktop models that are a bit cheaper and they generally offer some less common features. If you want Fender you may not want Squier by Fender but if I were going to buy a passive P bass it would be the Squier Matt Freeman. There are several other upper end Squiers in that price range that look and play great. But I understand if you want an actual Fender. Nothing wrong with a Squier, it just might not be what you always dreamed of owning.
I currently own two passive Fender MIMs too, which I bought used. If you want a new passive bass it is kinda hard to pass up the many excellent passive Squiers in favor of their more expensive Standard cousins but on the used market you can get a lot of nice basses in your price range. So you certainly should check the TB classifieds for a few weeks to see what pops up. You should be able to get some MIA models in that price range.
Ken
