When it comes to seriously, genuinely cheap new cars in America, football season is over. The Nissan Versa is dead, and with it, the notion of ordering a new car with a sub-$20,000 sticker price, along with the entire non-premium subcompact car segment. So what’s next? What’s the absolute cheapest new car you can buy in America? Why, it’s the Hyundai Venue.
If you’ve forgotten that this little crossover exists, here’s a little background. In the late-2010s, the subcompact car market was dying while the subcompact crossover market was booming. At the same time, Hyundai was turning the bones of its Accent subcompact into a crossover, and decided it could be the entry point to its American lineup. Smaller than a Kona, less expensive than an Elantra, job done, right?
Unsurprisingly, this was the right call. While sales volumes have never threatened the Elantra or Kona, last year saw a 21-percent uptick in volume to 29,805 units. That’s not bad for a relatively niche product that had already been on sale for six years. After all, the walk-up to an Elantra or a Chevrolet Trax or a Nissan Kicks is fairly small, but in this end of the market, every Benjamin counts, and the cheapest gets bragging rights. We’re talking about a price tag of $22,150, including freight, for the cheapest Venue SE, after all. So what do you get for the money?
Well, even this base Venue would’ve been a bit ritzy by the standards of 20 years ago. Air conditioning, power windows, and power door locks, sure, but also automatic high-beams, alloy wheels, and projector headlights. At the same time, standard wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto would’ve been inconceivable in 2006, so let’s call that more than just the basics ticked. Hyundai also claims the Venue has five-MPH bumpers, but judging by the headlight locations, I don’t want to test that the hard way. Legal would probably get mad.
Mind you, the figures coming from under the hood are very years-ago. While 121 horsepower and 113 lb.-ft. of torque are solid numbers from a naturally aspirated 1.6-liter inline-four, fuel economy figures of 29 MPG city, 33 MPG highway, and 31 MPG combined aren’t spectacular, especially for a small-engined, CVT-equipped, 2,612-pound machine. At least that relatively modest curb weight does give the Venue decent acceleration. Figure zero-to-60 mph in under nine seconds, which blows the Versa into the middle of last week.
It’s been years since I’ve last driven a Venue, but it’s still best to temper expectations. It’s not going to offer the quietest highway ride, or the most nimble handling, or the nicest plastics, all stuff you shouldn’t expect from America’s cheapest new car anyway. It’s $22,150 and comes with a bunch of creature comforts, and seems more focused on urban commuting. However, thanks to a modest 159.1-inch length, the Venue is expectedly easy to park and should ride alright over bumps at city speeds.
So yeah, the Hyundai Venue is America’s cheapest new car for 2026. Does a $21,500 Chevrolet Trax feel worth the premium? Quite likely, but it doesn’t come with a ten-year powertrain warranty. In the meantime, pour one out for the sub-$20,000 new car. Twenty grand is a lot of money to a lot of people, and it’s uncertain whether any new car will fall below that barrier again.
Top image: Hyundai
I assume the latter number is excluding freight, but that’s a pretty egregious error. And the article has been up for a day without it being fixed.
Yeah, it’s excluding Chevy’s $1,800 destination charge. Also, it appears from Chevy’s website that the Trax is now going for $21,700 sans freight.
I remember a time when $22,150 was more than $21,500. The world is changing so fast.
I thought surely a nissan sentra would be cheaper than 20k. Nope, starting price is 22,600. That’s nuts.
I’m confused.
A Venue: “America’s cheapest new car anyway. It’s $22,150”
“Does a $21,500 Chevrolet Trax feel worth the premium?”
Um, isn’t $21,000 < $22,150 ??
So isn’t the Trax then the cheapest? What premium??
EDIT: I see this was asked below, and it’s a typo? Seems like an important thing to get right, or to edit quickly, since this is the entire point of the article. Thanks
Football season isn’t over until the second Sunday in February! Then I go into mourning.
I’ve bought a number of used cars and a few new ones. I don’t know if I’ll buy a new one again. I probably won’t have to.
I keep cars for a long time. ’01 Jetta. 16 years. Current ’17 Accord nearly nine at this point, with < 75K on the clock. So, depreciation is not the killer for me that it is for some. And there is some peace of mind to know that you’re not buying something that wasn’t well-maintained. I paid cash for the Accord and even if it was worth nothing tomorrow, it would work out to about $315/month. And of course, it will be worth something. And the longer I keep it, the lower the monthly amortization cost will get.
I guess somebody has to buy new cars so that there are, eventually, the used cars that younger me had to buy.
My wife bought one, small, easy to drive, park, and gets over 35 mpg most of the time. I suppose the only downside is it’s not the best on long trips, but we went 4+ hours and both of us felt fine.
Man, I remember in 2009-2010 how you could get a Versa for $9995. How times have changed.
Bought a 2007 Focus for $10700. In 2014 bought a Fiesta 5 door for $12975. Both were new with heavy rebates as gas was cheap at those times so not much demand for small cars. Both 5 speed manuals, wind up windows, and am fm cd. The Fiesta also had AC, blue tooth, central locks. No touch screens, nannies, turbos, DFI. The Fiesta is,and I’m sure will always be my most favorite car. Simple, fun, honest.
Did you check the MSRP on the 2026 Chang Li?
My GOD that thing is just repulsive. I’m not a huge fan of current GM styling, but I’d happily pay a tickle more for a Trax to not have to look at that sad dopey little thing in my driveway.
Don’t worry, since it’s an H/K you can visit it at the dealer shop to look at the sad, dopey little thing.
Assuming hyundai is keeping this through the year, theres a restyle of it coming here. Shares some of the styling cues the kona and sonata have.
Google indian market venue for this year to see.
But yeah. Theyre uhhh an acquired taste for sure as is. I lament the loss of the manual trans AND the 6sp auto these originally had when they came out.
I had a Mitsubishi Mirage as a rental back in early 2025, and just had a 2 week rental in the Venue. Neither were particularly -BAD- rentals. I spent 3 hours in the Mirage driving at Interstate speed the whole time laughing. It was good fun and I never felt uncomfortable. Car Play, Collision Avoidance, AC, tilt, electric windows and locks.
The Venue I had for two weeks in Northern California and Oregon. Again a perfectly decent rental. Comfortable, acceptable acceleration, it handled well in the mountains, did some climbing of some frosty paved forestry roads without any issues, trans braked back down, with nothing overly exciting about it. Parked in every small parking slot without any question, and getting nearly 40 mpg. Perfectly acceptable rental for just myself.
We keep forgetting how cars have epicly improved since the 1990’s and the 2000’s. I remember getting baseline Oldsmobile Ciera’s in the mid 90’s, and Dodge Avenger 4 doors as rentals in the 2000’s. The Mirage was ok, but the Venue was better then both in every way.
Keep in mind that a $20,000 USD car today was a $8100 USD car back in 1990. You were not getting much of a new car for $8100 back in 1990. 1990 Geo Metro MSRP for a 4 door hatch was $8050.
All this math is saying is stuff costs more now. I don’t think the math says anything different than a house cost $50k before and now costs $250k so $250k now is the same as $50k before. No measure on value just average prices and the difference.
It used to be that the US car market was awash with deals for new car buyers… but cars are expensive there! I just had a quick look at Hyundai New Zealand and the Venue starts at $33990nzd. That model is a higher spec than the one in the above article. This works out to be $19,500usd. I’m fairly certain we have a free trade agreement with South Korea so that may help, but we are a really small new car market so volume is hardly on our side. My mind is slightly blown.
Makes me miss the Fit even more. Much of me is sad that we didn’t get the 4th gen in the States…but it’s CVT only now, so I guess we didn’t have to see such a fun car lose the fun gearbox (cough cough GTI).
No kidding, whike its styling was a bit out there, i was really hoping we’d get it.
Totally understand the civic was near double the car for a a couple grand more, but sometimes we dont want a big ol bloat mobile.
Pity the 6sp had a near useless 1st gear and felt like it was screaming going 75
I once thought that, until I ended up in a 6 speed 2014 2.0 Skyactiv Mazda3. The 6th gear was Soooo tall that it was useless and got crap MPG’s compared to the Fit. The Fit was so much zippier.
Thats kinda wild, although the ratio spread of the 3rd gen fit is the same as the 5sp of the 2nd fit. So i kinda have to wonder why bother.
This is enough car for most people. And if you live someplace where they dump tons of salt and it is routinely below zero this can be a less rusty alternative to a abused car.
Despite my general love of turbocharged motors, I would trust Hyundai’s basic n/a four over the General’s little turbo-triple for the long haul, especially with the warranty.
But I would buy a used something better over either one. $22K will buy you a low miles RAV4. There is an AWD LE (bonus – no CVT) at Watertown Toyota in Boston with 17K on it for that price, though 40K is more typical for the upper trim RAV4s. I know which I would trust to go the distance if I was looking for cheap motoring. If you can swing $25K there are a zillion nearly new ones out there in the 30-40K range. This is why cheap cars are a hard sell. New crapcan, or mildy used MUCH better car? I don’t love the RAV4, but there is a reason it’s a bases loaded home run best seller for years now. Or if you can deal with not being in a CUV, a billion almost new Civics and Corollas for $22K. For that matter, a NEW Corolla is under $23K.
FWIW – when we were shopping for my sainted Mother’s next, likely last ride three years ago, these had just come out. She hated it. Cramped little tin box. The Soul was a much, much, much better deal, much more spacious and generally nicer for rather less money. But of course they have killed that car off. The Soul was the only really cheap car that I thought was any good, and we tried them all. $20.5K MSRP with the Tech Package, and we got some money off and cheap financing such it wasn’t worth paying cash for.
I’m seeing $22kish for the cheapest last generation Ravs within 100 miles of me if I look at 80-90k miles. $25k gets me down to 40k miles, but still a 2020 so a 6 year old out of warranty car. Does it matter that it’s lacking a warranty? Probably not. But the used Rav4 market is just wild. $28-29k gets me a up to a low mileage 2025 and a couple grand more is a brand new one. We wanted to replace my wife’s 2012 with a newer one she could drive for another 12 years and at the time it just didn’t make sense to buy used, and it seems like it still really doesn’t. Point is I understand why people want to buy new. Not that the Venue is a good option outside of an around-town runabout.
In any case, a new corolla is unbeatable for the price. Yeah it’s not gonna be a hybrid for that money, but it still gets great gas mileage. And if you want something a bit bigger and SUV shaped, GM crossovers depreciate just about as fast as anything out there and are reasonably reliable.
So look further than 100 miles and find those bargains. Nobody said saving money was easy. 🙂
Hybrids don’t make much sense (unless there is very little difference in price) when the straight ICE version gets 40mpg anyway. Which is why in another post I made the point that MPG is a terrible way to compare fuel economy. Going from 15 to 20mpg is a much bigger cost savings than 40 to 60.
That is an insane deal for a RAV4.
Around here, the typical RAV4 for 22k is 6 years old and has 75k on it.
Edit: Not that I find the Venue to be a tremendous value. An Elantra for virtually the same price is far better equipped, larger (if you want that) and gets far better gas mileage.
I’d still trust a 6yo Toyota over the cheapest possible new Hyundai if I was the one driving it. I got my mother a new KIA so that ANY issues are not MY problem to deal with. In fact, it has a CEL right now, booked into the dealer tomorrow for a look. Not my problem to deal with, though of course *I* got the phone call.
Uncool dude, moms are the best
She’s more like my nutty big sister, we were both raised by my grandmother. I love her, but she’s a little crazy.
“when we were shopping for my sainted Mother’s next, “
Who sainted her? Did she meet the Pope?
Is not eveyone’s mother sainted? And she has met a Pope! The woman has been around.
“Is not eveyone’s mother sainted?”
I can’t see Melania Trump being sainted in spite of being a mother…
There are exceptions to every rule. Certainly when your mother is a literal whore she is unlikely to also be particularly saintly. My mother is many things, but she only ever married for love, not money. Nor, as far as I know, are there naked pictures of her on the Internet. Thankfully it didn’t exist in the mid-60s. 🙂
May I point out that Mary Magdaline was a street walker and Jesus blessed her.
He was an unusually forgiving sort, if legend it to be believed.
Though that said, I have no problem with sex workers. You gotta make a living somehow.
How about Hillary?
She’s definitely a saint.
She had to be to be married to Bill all these years…
I like the guy (Hillary too, and I think she would have been a great President, we need a stone cold bitch in the White House, IMHO), but he’s a philandering cad. Of course it may be a chicken and egg situation there… 😉
My mom died on All Saint’s Day. Definitely sainted.
I’m sorry for you loss.
Better off going South to buy
I have for decades. But just calling out a particularly good deal.
The BEST cars are up in the PNW though. No rust, AND no sun damage.
I really liked the first gen “Hamster” Soul. I rented one for a week around Toronto and it was the first H/K car I actually liked. I don’t know they held up over time, but for the first time, it felt like it could.
A few months ago, I had a Sentra as a rental, and it was surprisingly pleasant. You know, for getting from point A to point B. Efficient too.
I have several friends who have owned Souls, serially in one case. No major complaints from any of them, which gave me some confidence.
Turns out the CEL was just Mom not tightening the gas cap enough. Go figure. My code reader is in Maine, or I could have saved her a trip to the dealer this morning. But under warranty, no big deal, it’s around the corner.
As often as that turns out to be the case, I’m surprised there’s not a “check gas cap” light on the IP or whatever. But then, as many YouTube “Fail” videos I’ve seen with someone dragging the filler and hose down the road, maybe I understand why they don’t bother.
Some cars have them, many cars don’t and just use the CEL. Saab 9-5s have a separate light for it (BTDT), my BMWs have a “check gas cap” message that can be displayed. Nice littler earner for the dealerships I suppose.
Well, on my Honda, the gas cap is labeled to tighten it until it clicks. Once. On my Jetta TDI, it was tighten until it clicks three times. Either way, I never got a CEL for that. The Honda’s never had a CEL. I have a cheap OBD scanner I have never used it on the Honda. The last time I used it was on my former neighbors’ Cadillac SRX. And that was back in 2022. I don’t know if the scanner even works anymore. It cleared codes on the Jetta, which were always about glow plugs. Nothing worse.
I recently did have some elcronics issues with the Honda. The keyless entry to the car acted up for a few days and when I started it, I got a low battery warning for the key fob. And then it went away. I have replacement batteries for the CR 2032 at home, but I’m 700+ miles from there at the moment and will replace it out of an abundance of caution.
This is like $17k in 2015 dollars, and like $12k in 2000 dollars. I’m not saying this is exactly how it works, but in this context the 2025 price doesn’t seem that crazy?
It’s like inflation isn’t a thing.
OBVIOUSLY inflation is a Liberal Conspiracy… LOL
So, similar as a base Civic back in 2015 (which listed at 18k for an LX sedan)?
Funny how those have diverged in cost.
So are we comparing MSRP back when you got incentives vs MSRP now when you don’t?
Create provocative title, get more clicks.
You said $22,100 for the base venue, but $21,500 for the Trax, but the Venue is cheaper? I’m confused.
It’s a typo, and a pretty glaring one. According to Hyundai itself, the Venue starts at $20,550. https://www.hyundaiusa.com/us/en/vehicles/venue
Edit: the article mentions the price including freight, so that freight cost might put it at the $22,150 price quoted in the article. Seems quite a bit for freight though. Nearly 10% of the entire MSRP
$1395 freight charge. It took me mere seconds of googling. Why can’t writers/editors do that?
Tariffs?
They would include tariffs into the total cost, it wouldn’t be a separate charge
I see these quite a bit more than the Kona, at least over the past few years.
The Korean Cousins seems to be doing the same thing I gave everyone else flak about for years — way too many subsegmented crossovers. I can’t even keep them straight.
Kia and Hyundai are closer together in their lineups than anyone since the pre-Carpocapyse badge engineering days. I have no idea how they even continue to market or differentiate their vehicles from one another. I found myself pretty close to buying a new Sportage only because I thought the Tucson was fugly. That’s not a great reason. The dealership was also horrible, so I walked for that reason, too.
Not that anyone asked my opinion, but I drove this in both CVT and manual versions (the manual has long since been discontinued of course) the first year it came out when my sister was shopping for her first new car. Of course it wasn’t epic in any way, but as a regular, around-town commuter and transportation appliance, it was quite decent. The stick version was even a bit fun. It’s smaller in back than some small crossovers (and a Honda Fit dwarfs it in terms of cargo room, but those are long since gone too) but not everyone needs absolute maximum cargo capacity. The economy seems OK, and in terms of longer-term cost of ownership, the relative simplicity of a naturally aspirated engine is a plus. IIRC, there was also a ‘denim’ version the first few years, which came in a metallic blue with a white roof and some interior stuff… it was pretty nice all things considered, especially with a stick.
I may be mistaken, but I think the absolute base MSRP when the Venue came out was in the upper teens. I don’t know the crash ratings on these, but TBH, I’d totally drive one without feeling weird about it, especially that denim edition.
The Denim was really sharp, I always liked showing those when I could. (Video guy at a Hyundai dealer.)
A reskin of this (Ioniq5 inspired?) would do wonders.
You’ll be able to find sub 30k mile Ioniq 5s for the price of a new Venue in six months.
I thought that maybe early used Ionic 5s (before the refresh) were under $30K now, but haven’t been following too closely. Sort of an apples and oranges comparison though, no? The Ionic 5 is probably my favorite ‘regular’ EV that we have in the US, but I probably won’t buy one due to service/maintenance concerns in long-term ownership.
I’ve been waiting for H to re-do the Venue for a while, but they probably only make a modest profit on them, so go longer between revisions. Dressing one up like an Ionic 5 would be nice… as it is, the Venue isn’t exactly pretty. It’d be nice if they could improve interior packaging a bit too in order to increase cargo space in the back.
I meant 30k miles. There are a ton of those things coming off-lease. I don’t know that there’s anything to worry about long-term over an ICE car. Depending on your state, the battery is covered for 10 years or so and that would be my biggest worry.
I doubt they’re going to give the same styling to the Venue. They’re having enough trouble selling the Ioniq 5s. If they made the same styling available at half the price on the same dealer lot they’d be working against themselves.