The Nissan Versa tops our list of the five most-affordable new cars.
While used cars do have their appeal, they can also create headaches. Buying a new car has its advantages: A factory warranty comes standard, major repairs are usually in the distant future, and most still have that new-car smell.
The five most affordable cars on the market today come from the compact and subcompact classes. While small in size, they’re also small in price and operating costs. Contrary to popular belief, however, many of these cars have very roomy, well-equipped interiors. A few, in fact, offer more interior space than certain bigger, more expensive vehicles.
One of the attractions of small vehicles is relatively high fuel economy. While these are not fuel-economy superstars like the Toyota Prius or Honda Insight hybrids, they are thrifty enough in their own right and can get between 25-36 mpg depending on city and highway usage. Cars that have high fuel economy numbers usually aren’t the quickest, so if you’re seeking strong acceleration, none of these cars will satisfy your need for speed.
Nissan Versa -- $13,550 Kia Rio -- $14,225 Toyota Yaris -- $14,465 Hyundai Accent -- $14,570 Chevrolet Aveo -- $14,790 |
Safety features are usually important to small-car buyers, considering the cars in this class are also some of the lightest vehicles on the road. As such, the cars on this list offer safety equipment that includes ABS, front side airbags, and curtain side airbags. None offer traction control or antiskid systems, though.
Some models have more standard features than others. To level the playing field, we’ve given the prices of equivalently equipped vehicles. All had to be 4-door sedans and have most of the following features: Manual transmission, air conditioning, cruise control, ABS, and front-side airbags. The cars on this list can be equipped with an automatic transmission, but it costs about $800-$1,000 extra.
Sometimes, satisfying our list of required equipment necessitated an upgrade to a higher trim level or option package. For example, cruise control usually falls into pricier upper-level trim and option packages. While they do cost more, there is good news; with higher prices come more goodies, like a CD player, power accessories (door locks, windows, mirrors), and satellite radio, to name a few.
We could go on and on about the loads of options that some of these cars offer, but it might take a while, so we’ll keep it simple. Whatever your budget, there’s a car on this list for you.
07.24.2009
