If it feels like cars are more expensive than ever, well, that’s because they are. The average transaction price in the U.S.—that is, the average amount someone actually pays for a new vehicle—is currently hovering just under $50,000. That is, to me, a ridiculous amount of money for a car.
Depending on what you consider “affordable,” you may think the concept of a cheap new car is disappearing before our eyes. The Mitsubishi Mirage, once the cheapest car on sale, died earlier this year, spelling the end for the bare-bones, sub-$20,000 hatchback in America.
Today, only a small handful of vehicles carry an MSRP under $25,000 – specifically, just ten as of this writing. That’s despite an incredible craving for vehicles in this price bracket. Why? Well, many automakers don’t bother with cheap, entry-level cars because the profit margins are crazy thin. If they can sell more premium cars for more money, why bother with cheap cars at all?
Thankfully, not all hope is lost. If you don’t want to drop $50,000 on a new car, you don’t have to. All the cars that follow are priced at less than half of that. Here they are, in descending price order.
10. 2026 Chevrolet Trailblazer – $24,995
The first-generation Trailblazer was a proper SUV. You could get it with three different types of V8, and it even came with a low-range transfer case for proper off-roading cred. The current Trailblazer, which is a subcompact crossover with no real off-roading equipment, is decidedly less interesting. But it’s also very affordable, coming in at just a few bucks under $25,000.
For someone who simply needs A Vehicle, the Trailblazer checks all the boxes. It seats five people, comes available with all-wheel drive, makes enough horsepower, and does over 30 mpg on the highway. This relative mediocrity will be commonplace on this list—if you want something interesting these days, you’ll have to spend more money.
Perusing Cars.com, it looks like about 6,600 Trailblazers are sitting on dealer lots right now. Importantly, only 549 of them are priced under that magical $25,000 mark. If you don’t mind buying a Trailblazer that’s been sitting for a couple of years, you can buy this base 2024 LS model for just $19,390 from a dealer in Homestead, Florida.
9. 2026 Nissan Kicks – $23,925
While the Kicks is perfectly average to drive, it’s definitely the most interesting-looking vehicle on this list to my eye. Its monolithic slatted fascia and two-tone color schemes make it genuinely interesting, even if it rides worse than the competition.
The 2.0-liter inline-four making 141 horsepower won’t blow anyone away, nor will the mandatory continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT). Importantly, all-wheel drive is available as an option for those in tougher climates who feel like they need it (personally, I think a set of snow tires would do the job just fine).
The base S models are pretty bare-bones, but you do get all the necessities. If you want to save the most money possible, you’ll have to look for that trim at your local dealer. There are over 1,100 of them on U.S. soil now, some discounted thousands below MSRP.
8. 2026 Toyota Corolla – $23,920
Though the Corolla is one of the most expensive (or “least cheap”) cars on this list, it’s the first one I’d recommend. Toyota’s entry-level sedan is charming to look at, pleasant to drive, and cheap to run. If you’d rather be more practical, you can even get it as a hatchback (though the hatch is about $3,000 more expensive).
I’d argue the $28,210 hybrid model is the gem of the range, as it’s able to squeeze out nearly 50 mpg with a conservative driver behind the wheel. I am definitely not a conservative driver, but I was able to get 47 mpg when I tested one last year.
If upfront cost is your concern, the base car and its naturally aspirated inline-four and its 169 horsepower will do just fine. There are thousands for sale sitting at dealers across the country right now under $25,000, and even a few discounted under $20,000. For a car that’ll likely never die with proper maintenance, that’s pretty reasonable.
7. 2026 Hyundai Elantra – $23,870
Like the Corolla, the Elantra is a pleasant thing to drive and gets great fuel economy. The Hyundai might even drive a little bit better, but Hyundai generally doesn’t have the same legendary reliability reputation as Toyota, and there’s no hatchback body style available. So I’d rather the Toyota.
What the Elantra does have are some distinctive looks, a better interior, and Hyundai’s damn impressive 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty. So even if it does break more often, the big stuff is covered.
Best of all, there’s absolutely no shortage of cheap new Elantras on dealer lots right now. According to Cars.com, there are over 7,000 of them available, all under $25,000. The 2025 models are heavily discounted, too, with some priced in the $17,000 range.
6. 2026 Nissan Sentra – $23,645
The Sentra used to be farther down this list, but thanks to a big refresh that dropped last month for 2026, it’s a bit pricier. Considering the changes to the exterior and the big step up in interior quality, I’d say the extra change is worth it.
My colleague Sam Abuelsamid already got the chance to drive the new Sentra and admired its simplicity, solid list of standard features, and updated design. The 149-horsepower four-cylinder engine is unchanged, paired with Nissan’s CVT (the manual was dropped for 2026).
It’s tough to say how these cars will actually be priced at dealers, considering deliveries have yet to begin. If you don’t mind owning the previous-gen Sentra, there are thousands of 2025 models sitting on lots right now with deep discounts.
5. 2026 Kia K4 – $23,385
I drove a Kia K4 press car briefly last year after driving a series of sub-$5,000, high-mileage shitboxes for a few months. I’m well aware of just how much stuff comes in a new car these days, but the K4 was a nice reminder of just how nice even the cheapest new cars can be.
The interior of the K4 is modern and fun, and while the styling might not be everyone’s cup of tea, it’s at least interesting. For some reason, Kia is even planning to import the hatchback version into the United States next year, which makes me incredibly happy.
If you want a K4 right now, though, you’ll have to settle for the sedan. There are thousands upon thousands of new ones for sale under $25,000 right now (nearly 10,000 as of this writing, according to Cars.com), with some 2025 models priced in the $19,000 range. That is a lot of car for the money, believe me.
4. 2026 Chevrolet Trax – $22,995
The Chevy Trax is the cheapest vehicle you can buy from a domestic brand right now. While that might not mean much to you, it does mean something to Chevy and the swaths of buyers out there who refuse to buy anything without a bowtie, Ford oval, or Dodge badge attached to its nose.
The Trax is also just … a good car. Like its bigger Trailblazer sibling, it does the fundamentals well, and doesn’t look like a featureless blob (which can’t be said of the last-gen Trax). The 1.2-liter three-cylinder engine sounds puny, but thanks to a turbocharger, it delivers 137 horsepower and 162 pound-feet of torque, which is perfectly fine for a car of this size.
The Trax is one of the more popular cars on this list, so while there are a few thousand models available under $25,000 from dealers right now, they’re not as heavily discounted as some of the other cars on this list. In fact, there isn’t one example on Cars.com that’s at or below MSRP. So don’t expect any big discounts in the negotiating process.
3. 2025 Nissan Kicks Play – $22,910
One funny thing about automakers is that sometimes when they replace a car with an entirely new model, they simply keep building the old one, too. That’s exactly what Nissan’s done with the Kicks. It replaced the old Kicks with the model you see a few spots back on this list, but it also still sells that outgoing model, which is now called the Kicks Play.
The only real benefit of going for the Kicks Play over the normal Kicks is the price. It’s cheaper, sure, but you’re missing out on the new design, more powerful engine, and much-improved interior. Still, $1,000 is $1,000, so I don’t blame anyone who goes the cheaper route.
Because the Kicks Play is only offered in one base trim, it’s the rarest of the cars on this list, with fewer than 600 new examples for sale right now nationwide, according to Cars.com. But some are heavily discounted to as low as $17,994. That feels like a much fairer price.
2. 2026 Hyundai Venue – $22,150
People tend to forget about the Hyundai Venue, despite it being the cheapest crossover in the United States. That’s because the Venue is, at this point in its lifecycle, a pretty forgettable vehicle. It came out in 2019 and hasn’t ever received a substantial update.
The four-cylinder engine makes just 121 horsepower, getting power to the front wheels only via a CVT automatic. Amazingly, Hyundai used to sell the base Venue with a standard six-speed manual transmission, but it was discontinued in 2021 due to slow sales. Manual versions are, as a result, pretty rare.
If you want a new Venue, there are plenty available under the $25,000 mark, with discounts below MSRP ranging between $2,000 and $3,000, depending on how far you’re willing to travel.
1. 2025 Nissan Versa – $18,585
Following the death of the Mirage, the Nissan Versa has taken the crown of the cheapest new passenger car in America. The tiny sedan has occupied the bottom of Nissan’s lineup for years now, and up until this year, even offered a five-speed manual (the last car in the country to offer a five-speed).
Like its bigger Sentra sibling, the Versa is set to get a pretty big refresh for 2026, which will likely mean a step up in price. For now, though, it remains the only vehicle you can buy in America with an MSRP under 20 grand.
I’d personally recommend waiting for the new model to drop, but if you’re the impatient type (and on a budget), 2025 models are plentiful across the country, with some dealers offering thousands in discounts. Here’s one for under $15,000!
Honorable Mentions
The Jetta was a sub-$25,000 car last year, but thanks to a slight price bump in 2025, it now carries an MSRP of $25,270. That’s still pretty cheap for anything German, and proof that if you want to be a little bit different with your purchase, you don’t have to spend much more.
Then there’s the Mirage. While production ended this year, there are still a few left on dealer lots in case you want to snag a good deal on a tiny hatchback with a warranty. The only downside is you’ll have to be close to one of the 28 examples left for sale nationwide, going by Cars.com inventory. The cheapest is this one in Miami, which is listed for $13,350.
Cheap cars are a dying breed, but if you know where to look (and you’re willing to put up with something boring), you should have no trouble finding one that suits your needs. How long this’ll last, well, who really knows.
Top graphic images: Nissan; Hyundai; Chevrolet; DepositPhotos.com
The Trax is cutting an almost Outback-style profile these days, and more so than the next gen Subaru itself. Also, the Corolla hybrid is a friggin steal
The Trax is good looking. My wife and I were behind one and she hadn’t seen it before. She asked what it was, I told her and she was like “It’s way better than the old ones. I’d drive that.”
It’s a shame they don’t make some kind of high-zoot AWD model with actual balls. It’d be a decent sporty crossover.
I’m still highly annoyed that Toyota will only sell the Corolla hybrid in sedan form instead of hatchback. Should Toyota change that in the next year or two, a Corolla hybrid hatchback will be replacing my aging Kia Niro.
Also, it is amazing how much better the new Kicks looks than the old Kicks. Even more surprising is that the design cues work for the new Sentra pretty well, but not for the ugly Ariya that started all those styling cues.
it’s called a Prius
I’ll just buy preowned. I bought a fully equipped launch edition 22 Bolt EUV (super cruise, leather, heated and ventilated seats, heated steering wheel, 360 camera, heated rear seats, etc.) from a used car dealer this week for $17,250. It has 44,000 miles, so 4.5 years and 56,000 miles of electric powertrain warranty left. The recalled battery was replaced at 33,000 miles, so it has 89,000 miles and 6 years of battery coverage left (a quick vin search on the recall website told me that before I bought). The original MSRP was around $43,000, so I got about 60% off. It looks perfect and just needs new tires, which I’m throwing on this weekend for about $700 out the door.
Why DOES the Trailblazer look like such ass and the Trax look so good?
I test drove them both and they felt virtually identical (not too loud, decent acceleration, steering wasn’t too terribly numb, etc.) so it came down to looks. I went with the Trax. It was a no-brainer; the Trax looks like a properly designed SUV while the Trailblazer looks like a sloppy lifted hatchback. They were even priced the same. I have no idea why Chevrolet makes them both.
I keep hoping the Venue gets a refresh with styling akin to a Ioniq 5. That could actually be a little bit 80’s retro hatchbook cool. The actual Ioniq 5 gets the looks right, but it’s still kinda hefty to cosplay as a hatchback.
I read PerusingCars.com all together at first, and thought it was a website for those of us who just like to go through car listing with no intention of buying.
Sounds like my kind of website.
nothanksjustlooking.com
Quickly perusing Carfax shows that you can actually swing a K4 Gt-Line Turbo for $25024. It’s a pretty cromulent car for the money.
Buick Envista MSRP starts under $25k too. I think it’s basically the same car as the Trax, but looks a bit more unique. Unless you’re factoring in MSRP+destination charges, then it likely ends up slightly higher.
It gets a few more things standard. When spec-ing a Trax up to an Envista, you’ll generally end up paying more for the Trax at MSRP. That being said, incentives are different for both.
From a practicality perspective, it’s hard to argue against the Trax. It’s a lot of car for the price and you don’t have to worry about Nissan CVTs or Hyundai/Kia engines
If it was in The Autopian’s budget to buy test cars I’d have suggested they find out.
Buy one in North Carolina and let Jason teach Otto to drive on it, heck, lend it to the drivers’ ed program so every teenager in Chapel Hill can wail on it by way of a break-in then drive it to Illinois for Mercedes’ wife to put interstellar mileage on.
Yeah, I have my concerns about the engine lasting much longer than a HK or Nissan though. The 1.4T that the 1.2 replaced was hot garbage, and I’m not sure GM improved much with this one. I really like the car, and they come in fantastic colors, but just not sure I would trust it to go the distance.
The good news is that if something happens to that 1.2T GM will actually honor their warranty and fix it unlike all of the Hyundai/Kia customers who were left holding the bag with less than 50k miles on the clock
The 1.4T had/has German maintenance requirements for a typical customer whose budget didn’t factor in German-style maintenance. I got one to 250k miles. It never left me stranded although it did consume plastic cooling system parts with regularity. At least in my case they failed gracefully with plenty of warning to change them. But I kept on top of it, German style.
Yeah mine was old when I got it but it was constantly breaking. Yeah the plastics, consistent oil leaks, and then the transmission decided it wanted to try to die.
I’m honestly stunned at how good the new Trax looks. My sister-in-law owns one of the first-gen models, and just seeing that thing is enough to make my stomach turn. Absolute penalty box energy.
But these new ones? Genuinely attractive. Here’s hoping the mechanicals are as improved as the styling, because her first-gen Trax puked its turbo at around 50k miles.
That 1.4T is one of GM’s worst engines ever. I despise them passionately and work very hard to make sure no one I know ever buys anything with that pathetic excuse for an engine.
Yeah, it sure seems that way! Not being a GM guy, I didn’t know much of anything about them until hers decided to give up the ghost. I’ll certainly try to keep everybody I care about away from them in the future, though.
They’re not bad engines if they’re maintained. It’s an Opel design IIRC so maintain it like a German engine since it is one! Even if assembled in the US, there were a lot of German Bosch components underhood.
I’ve been very happy with mine. It drives like a small car too, surprisingly nimble (at least to me, who’s only driven smaller cars with the occasional full-size regular cab truck thrown in for good measure).
We will see the death of the sub-$20k new car in the US likely within the next couple years. Makes me wonder what the last sub-$10k new car was. Time to procrastinate on work and do some research!
Depending on how substantial the Versa’s refresh is, we might see the sub-$20k car die within a couple of months
Update: the last time you could buy a sub-$10k new car was early 2011. The 2011 (model year) Nissan Versa and Hyundai Accent were the cheapest new cars you could buy, at $9,900 and $9,985 respectively. Their redesigns for the 2012 model year pushed them over the $10k mark.
It bugs me that auto-journos seem to have given up on properly cheap cars and are now saying that $25k is fine because you get more car. That may be true, but I still want to see a cheap-as-we-can-get sub-$20k option or two with everything not required by law stripped out. I can afford more, but I don’t want to pay more than the minimum for modern cars that are fundamentally not interesting.
It just doesn’t pay. Within the last few years, power windows became standard on the Big 3 pickups. The manufacturers realized it was cheaper to give everyone power windows than it was to design and manufacture crank windows for a handful of cheapskates.
I remember buying a 2012 Chevrolet Silverado WT regular cab brand new. Manual windows and locks, no cruise control, just a radio when everything still had CD players. In 2018 I traded it in for a still new 2017 WT regular cab, and it had power everything, cruise control, a backup camera, radio with aux port, Bluetooth, multiple USB ports, and way more comfortable seats. Surprisingly it wasn’t much more expensive.
No more cranks for cranks.
SLATE would like to have a word with you 🙂
I legitimately like the Trax and would probably buy one.
No Kia Seltos?
Uhhhhhh, I thought the Versa is now officially dead? I certainly didn’t think it was getting a refresh or redesign?
technically it is new cars on the lots still. Kia Soul is just tick over 20K and it is officially dead after 2025, but there are still some languishing.
4 of them within 22 miles of me with a MY of 2025 and advertised for just a bit over 22k currently.
So’s the Mirage, 2024 was the last model year and we’re a couple of months into 2026 now
Yeah but the article seems to imply that it’s sticking around and being refreshed?
Its being refreshed for 2027, but only for Latin America, its dead in EEUU and Canada
Uhh, last I checked we were still in 2025? Or have I just hibernated the whole winter away? 😛
Model year, we’re 3 months into the 2026 model year. Model years are different from calendar years
We are?
the Venue very seriously reminds me of the Hyundai Accent, which I consider my first car.
Everyone says the Trax is actually a nifty not-so-little, not-so-boring car. is this true?
It has effectively taken the Accents place in the Hyundai lineup as their absolute cheapest model, but Hyundai realized people want a higher ride height and a hatch, so the micro-crossover form factor for an extra grand or two sells far better despite the slight price bump.
Yeah, the Trax is good. If you test drove one, you’d find a car that does most things well enough. I also think in slightly higher trims it looks great. The secret best one of these cars is the Buick Envista twin, which is slightly pricier but even nicer.
There’s an Envista in my parking garage and it catches my eye every time I pass it. I didn’t realize it was Traxy.
I’ve like the Envista since it came out, but the engine makes me nervous, even though the reviews are it performs well. My first car was a Buick, so I have a little bit of nostalgia factor. It would make purists heads explode, but a “GNX” trim package (even if solely cosmetic) could have sold like crazy but that moment probably passed.
I’m very happy with mine. Much nicer car than I expected when I test drove it.
A few weeks ago I rented a Nissan Kicks Play (with 28K km on it) in Monterrey, northern Mexico. It’s nothing special, but on a 600+ km road trip on mostly rural highways it was reasonably comfortable, kept up with the Mad Max traffic, and didn’t break. I honestly couldn’t expect much more from a $23K car these days.
Honda Civic?
Set the Wayback Machine to 1975, 50 years ago. The average new car was $4500-5000. What did half that money get you? Mostly absolute garbage. A stripped out Pinto? Barebones Rabbit? Zero options (or standard features) Civic?
From that vantage point, the cars you can buy today for half the average price are kind of amazing, honestly.
Eh, considering that $5000 is $30,000 adjusted for inflation, what you get for $25,000 today is more reasonable than amazing to me. The additional structural safety features are quite nice for modern vehicles, but they can keep the majority of the added ADAS tech that drive the avg prices up.
The 25 Mazda 3s’ MSRP is under 25k.
Mazdas destination charges have gone up a lot recently, I just checked and a no-option base 3 Sedan is 25,785 after destination. That said, I’d absolutely put it or it’s 1k more hatchback sibling on the honorable mentions list. Same with the CX-30 that starts at about 27k after destination with AWD standard and ~190hp. None of these are fast, any 2.5NA 3 or 30 will be quicker than you’d otherwise get for sub-30k these days.
Kia Seltos?
It continues to honk me off to no end that the 4th-gen Fit was never sold here. I get the logic, but I don’t care.
I hold an irrational grudge against the HR-V for the death of the Fit in the US.
Is this true? I have no idea.
Does this stop me from blaming the HR-V? Not even for a second.
It is absolutely true – they pulled a Ford move. Why sell a more-efficient car with more space for less money when you could sell a less-efficient car with less space for more money?
I hated the 1st-gen HR-V as soon as I knew about it because I could see the writing on the wall for the Fit.
Same. The Fit was an excellent car, and even if it was a little pricier than other subcompacts, still managed to be a great value.
I have a friend with a second gen that is pretty upset that there’s nothing out there he can replace it with. He’s considering hunting for a used southern example.