New Cars under $20K

The average transaction price for a new car is $40,857, which means for all the $75,000 cars, there must be some cheap cars offsetting it. Here are the vehicles you can get for under $20K MSPR in 2021:

• Chevy Spark
• Hyundai Accent
• Hyundai Elantra
• Hyundai Veloster
• Hyundai Venue
• Kia Soul
• Kia Rio
• Kia Forte
• Nissan Versa
• Nissan Sentra
• Nissan Kicks
• Ford EcoSport
• Mitsubishi Mirage
• Subaru Impreza
• VW Jetta

Many of these are only $5 - $500 under the cap, and a few models miss this cap by less than $100. To me, its odd that you can no longer get a Ford or Chrysler for that price, or a Toyota or Honda. Even GM only offers the $13.4K Spark. You can only get a Jetta from VW, not even a Golf or a Polo. The good news is that you can some decent cars compared to the Stanzas and Tercel EZ of 20 years ago. At $20K, the Soul has a great interior, the Veloster is fun, the Sentra and Elantra are quite good, these may be base models but they are not the penalty boxes they used to be.

My first thought is that's very likely the median sales price, rather than the mean.

Comparing this to 20 years ago... inflation is a thing. A quick lookup says that $20k today is about equivalent to $14k back in the day. I think it's amazing that there are so many cars staying under that cap, doubly so that you can get the likes of a Veloster, Imprezza, or Jetta at that price point.

I think car companies are probably keeping those offerings at an artificially low price point because "$20k" is one of those big psychological shift points. They're going to try to hold onto barely squeeking under that number for as long as they can. I think those other companies that don't sell under that anymore just looked at it and said, "No way we can sell at that price without losing money. New floor is $24,999."

It fails your MSRP standard, but Im seeing brand new Bolts advertised under $20k these days. It might be stacked discounts that very few people actually qualify for, but if you can actually get them for that price it seems like a crazy good deal to me.

In reply to Beer Baron :

What do you call back in the day?  A bit vague as back in the day entirely depends on when you were born.

Just hit up googlymoogly for an inflation calculator and very roughly $20K today is around $10K in 1990, $13k in 2000, and $16.5K in 2010.

Now, there probably were more cars available under $10k in 1990 than under $20k today, but in reality they were utter E36 M3 boxes where even basics like ABS, air con, power windows, locking etc. were either options taking them over $10k or simply not even available.   While we might love old simple basic cars as toys, I sure as hell wouldn't want to commute in a Ford Festiva or the like these days.  Yes, there are a few die hards (blow hards?) on here who still think adding carpet and starter motors is unnecessarily pandering to modernity and the world has gone soft.  I realize they believe the flying spaghetti monster intended the driver and passengers to be an integral part of the crash structure, choking the environment with pure carburetted unburnt fuel, trips taking three times longer than necessary to get anywhere while boiling us alive in warm weather, and where you're supposed to reset your points on the road side while the kids are building a toy guillotine on the parcel shelf to decapitate their baby sibling.  

Let's not forget, Keith like to point out that despite a base ND Miata starting at $27K it's cheaper in real terms than it was back in 1990.

Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Beer Baron :

What do you call back in the day?  A bit vague as back in the day entirely depends on when you were born.

OP said, "20 years ago," so that's what I was using.

I think we're all saying the same thing. I am pretty impressed that there are this MANY cars that are this nice for this cheap. I would be much happier with a $20k Imprezza or Veloster in 2021 than I would have been with a $13k... umm... power nothing Toyota Echo(?) in 2000.

...but I'm still not going to sell off my '03 S2000 to buy one.

Or look at cars like the WRX.  

2002 MSRP $23,495 (2021 $34,349)

2012 MSRP 25,996 (2021 $29,780)

2021 MSRP 27,495

The WRX has gotten $7,000 cheaper or 20% more affordable over it's 20 year life in the USA.  

Unfortunately the corvette has stayed roughly the same price at about $60-65k base price inflation adjusted over the last 30 years.

It's a real shame that Honda pulled the Fit from the US. We got our 2019 Sport in Nov-19 for $18k(which included being about $2k upside-down on our trade-in). I cross-shopped Hyundai/Kia & the Yaris. The Yaris was cheaper by about $300, but we just didn't like it as much as the Fit. 
 

By the time I added basic option packages to the other cars - which sometimes required not so basic options to get other things - they were over $20k. Now, street prices may have been lower, but I also didn't find any locally optioned the way we wanted.

Curiously, when we bought our '09 Fit Sport new in Mar-09 it was slightly over $18k otd, and that was without a trade in or negative equity!

Even GM only offers the $13.4K Spark

I read something about the Spark last year and didn't think it was that expensive. Here the Spark was $9,999 Canadian.  At the then current exchange rate it cost almost double in the US. I just looked and it's $10,400 now, about $8k US.

As recently as a couple years ago the Spark, Micra, and Mirage(?) were all under $10k

as a Frugal.. I despise the idea of a 25k car. So a 40k car falls squarely in my "never" category. And I'm okay with that.

Yet I'm also never gonna drive a Hyundai Excel or Renault Encore or the (nonexistent) modern equivalent - bare bones cars today are amazing by comparison. 

My Mendoza line is the Honda accord LX. A damn nice car, not a E36 M3box.. for around 21k. 

I can remember the car ads for a '88, 88 for $8888.00. 

I remember seeing ads touting the 318ti as being a BMW for under $20K (it was like $19,950).  Looks like the cheapest BMW you can buy now is the 2 series for $35K.

not a single honda or toyota? Seems like they're just skipping the bottom end segment completely

codrus (Forum Supporter) said:

I remember seeing ads touting the 318ti as being a BMW for under $20K (it was like $19,950).  Looks like the cheapest BMW you can buy now is the 2 series for $35K.

 

318ti was launched in 1994.  $19,995 in 1994 $$'s is $35,485 in 2021 $$'s.  So a base BMW is the same price now as it was then, actually $500 (1.5%) cheaper now than then.

Yeah and the 318ti sport which was 23400  is 39,730 and a new 41,500 (4% more) 330i would run circles around it (But probably isn't as entertaining to drive).

In reply to OHSCrifle :

My old limit was the civic/Elantra/corolla sized cars. But then we got the newer smaller cars are as good as the larger cars were just 3-4 years ago. They stopped being a penalty box.

The Toyota Camry is fun to look at..

1994 Camry Base - $16,718 - 2021 $29,669

1994 Camry LE 4cyl - $19,268 - 2021 $34,710

1994 Camry XLE V6 (TOP OF LINE) - 23,978 - 2021 $42,554

2004 Camry Base - $18,875 - 2021 $26,280

2004 Camry LE 4cyl  - $19,875 - 2021 $27,673

2021 Camry LE (Which is the new Base) - $24,970 (-15% compared to 1994 base, -29% compared to 1994 LE) 

2021 Camry  SE Hybrid - $28,785 (Still cheaper then the 1994 Base) 

2021 Camry TRD full options - $35,690 (Only $1000 more then the 1994 LE 4cyl)

2021 Camry XSE (Top of line) - $38,500 (-9.5% compared to 1994 TOL)

2021 AVALON Hybrid - $43,400 (Within $1000 of the top of the line Camry from 1994).

Since my Miata example was already made for me... ;)

Nissan actually had a sub-$10k Micra in Canada just five years ago. Best part was that there was also a one-make series, because Quebec loves spec racing cheap cars. And when I went to look at one in the showroom (because you have to), it was parked beside a GT-R. Now THERE is an upsell challenge.

The Chevy Spark was also under $10k Canadian at that time.

I really liked the Micra rental car I had in Canada several years ago.  I think my biggest annoyance with the bottom of market cars is that just to get them with cruise tends to require an option package that adds a thousand or more to the base price.  At that point, it starts making sense to go up one size class.  In these days of electronic throttles, it should just be standard.

While cars may be a better deal when you do the math, if you still can't afford it does it really matter?

I miss when a base model mini truck was one of the cheapest things on the lot.

Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Beer Baron :

Now, there probably were more cars available under $10k in 1990 than under $20k today, but in reality they were utter E36 M3 boxes where even basics like ABS, air con, power windows, locking etc. were either options taking them over $10k or simply not even available.   While we might love old simple basic cars as toys, I sure as hell wouldn't want to commute in a Ford Festiva or the like these days.  Yes, there are a few die hards (blow hards?) on here who still think adding carpet and starter motors is unnecessarily pandering to modernity and the world has gone soft.  I realize they believe the flying spaghetti monster intended the driver and passengers to be an integral part of the crash structure, choking the environment with pure carburetted unburnt fuel, trips taking three times longer than necessary to get anywhere while boiling us alive in warm weather, and where you're supposed to reset your points on the road side while the kids are building a toy guillotine on the parcel shelf to decapitate their baby sibling. 

I would go that far but dailying my Ford Ranger with manual transmssion, manual windows and locks never bothered me to be honest. But give me A/C and a decent stereo god damn it. 

My wife drives a CX9 Touring and I am about to have Mazda 3 Premium but i can live without a lot of that stuff and it wouldn't bother me one bit. 

In reply to Gearheadotaku (Forum Supporter) :

The forthcoming Ford Maverick C2 (Focus platform) based unibody FWD pickup should fit that bill in a couple of years. Auto only and AWD will push it up in price, but I bet a base one will be in this equation, or whatever the new $20k is by then. 

Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Beer Baron :

What do you call back in the day?  A bit vague as back in the day entirely depends on when you were born.

Just hit up googlymoogly for an inflation calculator and very roughly $20K today is around $10K in 1990, $13k in 2000, and $16.5K in 2010.

Now, there probably were more cars available under $10k in 1990 than under $20k today, but in reality they were utter E36 M3 boxes where even basics like ABS, air con, power windows, locking etc. were either options taking them over $10k or simply not even available.   While we might love old simple basic cars as toys, I sure as hell wouldn't want to commute in a Ford Festiva or the like these days.  Yes, there are a few die hards (blow hards?) on here who still think adding carpet and starter motors is unnecessarily pandering to modernity and the world has gone soft.  I realize they believe the flying spaghetti monster intended the driver and passengers to be an integral part of the crash structure, choking the environment with pure carburetted unburnt fuel, trips taking three times longer than necessary to get anywhere while boiling us alive in warm weather, and where you're supposed to reset your points on the road side while the kids are building a toy guillotine on the parcel shelf to decapitate their baby sibling.  

Let's not forget, Keith like to point out that despite a base ND Miata starting at $27K it's cheaper in real terms than it was back in 1990.

Now I'm just sad my kids were the same age so there was no giullotine built on my wagons non existent parcel shelf. What I'm willing to daily and what your willing to daily are very different things I'm sure but that line did make me laugh. I'm off to tune my carburetor (sorry no points, it's HEI) 

My first job in the auto industry was at a Saturn dealer in winter 2006/7. I seem to remember seeing new tags for $13,99x and thinking it was amazing that a new car could be so cheap. Of course, neither of my parents have ever bought a new car even to this day, and most of my purchases have been under challenge money, so you can see that I'm a purebred cheapskate. 
 

I was pretty happy with my '18 fit for $17,900. And if I wasn't frantically saving for a house (insert "in this economy!!??" meme) I'd be making a deposit on that sexy new frisbee. I don't think cars are all that expensive if you consider the expected lifespan. Also I'm pretty surprised that the Impreza is on this list. 

Gearheadotaku (Forum Supporter) said:

I miss when a base model mini truck was one of the cheapest things on the lot.

 

THIS^^^ I had a standard cab long bed GMT 400, and a standard cab S10. The S10 was cramped with a standard cab. The full size less so. I now have GMT-800's (both ex cabs, one short, one long bed) and am going nuts looking for an older smaller truck. These new trucks are just effing huge!

In reply to Mr. Lee :

That is funny considering the GMT 800 is a fair bit smaller than most of the next gen trucks. My dads tundra is like driving a yacht. One with the bridge on the second level.