Looking for a new car under $20,000? Good luck. Your choice has dwindled to just one vehicle
Looking for a new car under $20,000? Good luck. Your choice has dwindled to just one vehicle
Just five years ago, a price-conscious auto shopper in the United States could choose from among a dozen new small cars selling for under $20,000.
At a time when Americans increasingly want pricey SUVs and trucks rather than small cars, the Mirage remains the lone new vehicle whose average sale price is under 20 grand — a figure that once marked a kind of unofficial threshold of affordability. With prices — new and used — having soared since the pandemic, $20,000 is no longer much of a starting point for a new car.
This current version of the Mirage, which reached U.S. dealerships a decade ago, sold for an average of $19,205 last month, according to data from Cox Automotive. (Though a few other new models have starting prices under $20,000, their actual purchase prices, with options and shipping, exceed that figure.)
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Americans sure love wasting money.
If love is code for being forced to by horrible corporations that can do whatever they want because we have no consumer protections at all. Yup. If you mean buying cars, we kind of have to. Public transit is a joke outside like 3-4 major cities. I remember my first job out of college, had a light rail stop within biking distance from home and one right outside the office. Looked into riding it. Near 2 hours each way, multiple transfers. 20 minute car drive.
Big difference between buying a small car and buying a tank that costs twice as much and burns twice the fuel.
I feel like you don't understand that, in addition to the transportation shortfalls from the comment above, people are also stuck buying whatever vehicle they can afford, which oftentimes are the tanks you describe, which unfortunately have the aftermarket values that fall into lower earners' price range.
Short of that, I challenge you to get a popular rapper to talk about their pimped out Prius.
Lolololol you give me a zip code I'll find you a car cheaper than a truck. What an absurd excuse.
Who's talking about trucks?
I drive and EV, who said anything about a truck?
I have an 02 VW Golf diesel. My coworkers are constantly asking why I don't get a new car. My TDi will still be running when I'm six feet under, I'll never give it up.
There is some truth to this but small cars have been selling poorly for years now. I’m sure marketing campaigns are at play here but surely some people are capable of seeing through those. Why does no one buy small, affordable, efficient cars anymore? It’s baffling to me.
Honestly it’s becoming increasingly hard to drive smaller cars in the sea of tank sized ones for a couple of reasons.
First, it can be really hard to see in situations where an SUV is blocking your view of the oncoming traffic or you need to pull out between two tanks. Also, I find it really difficult to drive my small car at night because I have astigmatism and the oncoming trucks and suvs are shining directly at my face the whole time. Last, even small cars with good safety ratings fair poorly in impacts with higher and heavier cars, especially if I had kids I think this would be a significant motivation to not have the smallest car on the road.
It’s an infuriating situation as someone who doesn’t want to buy a land boat just to go to the grocery store, but I don’t really think the blame can solely be placed on consumers. What we really need is to close the loopholes in emission standards for SUVs, implement a tax on heavy vehicles, and start taxing gasoline at sustainable rate. Unfortunately there isn’t much desire to do any of those things right now :(
Nope. This is all driven by the car companies. They can get higher margins on large vehicles.
Also they’re barely offering sedans any more- except for high performance things
They’re all cross overs and “SUVs” and “pickups”
The fuel economy regulations are more forgiving for larger vehicles. Since the manufacturers fail at making efficient engines, they just make larger vehicles to get a passing rating. This is why small trucks no longer exist and an F150 is now the size of an elephant.
Barely offer sedans? Only if you specifically mean American manufacturers. Toyota, Nissan, Subaru and Honda all offer multiple sedan models. Claiming there aren't any sedan models out there is just pure nonsense.
I've had two Mazdas in a row and loved both.
But is it? Even the few small models available aren’t selling. If this were being forced on us, the few economy models would be in high demand but it seems to be the opposite. What is going on in the American psyche? I don’t understand it.
Extreme wealth inequality causes Muricans to be the most insecure people on the planet. Understand this and you'll also understand all the other stupid shit we are infamous for.
Unfortunately you might be right about this. It’s a difficult problem to fix.
Lololol just blame everyone but they market! I can walk into a Subaru or Nissan dealership today and buy a no frills car for under 20k (despite the false headline). People willfully choose to spend more on features.
Go try. Last time I had to buy a car they wanted 3k over sticker. The market has been a nightmare for years.
I did a year ago. Outback XT, paid $500 under sticker and they had cheap base trims on the lot for MSRP as well.
Give these guys a call. They will sell you an MSRP Impreza today. https://maps.app.goo.gl/TEq15ZHTqbQrrRus6
These, not ironically at all, are not desirable cars and sit on the lot. So while a nicer more popular car at 50k may still be hard to find, the poverty trims are very much available.
You are delusional. All you have to do is go somewhere like cars.com to see how wrong you are. Search new, all vehicles under $20,000. There's a couple, all of them would be over $20,000 after tax, title and license fees. There are barely any cars that cheap now. Car manufacturers are intentionally not offering budget vehicles now. That's the whole point.
I live in a car manufacturing city. I don't work in the industry but have plenty of friends and acquaintances who do. Have 2nd hand stories of high level managers giving speeches where they literally say they are focusing on trucks and SUVs because the margins are better.
Oh don't get me wrong, trucks and SUVs ARE the focus. They just aren't the only option. I can point out like 5 sedans under 20k with availability. People matter the choice to buy bigger and with more features. There market represents it by making more of them. But you still have plenty of choices.
Right? People can't seem to cope with the fact that Americans want bigger cars.
Not just Americans. SUVs (less so trucks) are huge sellers in Europe as well.