Looking for a new car under $20,000? Good luck. Your choice has dwindled to just one vehicle

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Looking for a new car under $20,000? Good luck. Your choice has dwindled to just one vehicle

BY TOM KRISHER
Updated 8:26 AM EDT, August 21, 2023

DETROIT (AP) — 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. Now, there’s just one: The Mitsubishi Mirage. And even the Mirage appears headed for the scrap yard.

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.)

The Mirage, with hatchback and sedan versions, costs less than half of what the average U.S. new vehicle does. That average is now just above $48,000 — 25% more than before the pandemic struck three years ago.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/car-auto-price-inexpensive-sale-mirage-suv-e33932cfa77a799329f278dfb120c30d

[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. I'ma drive my paid-off 2008 Acura TL into the damn ground

Luckily I don't think I've put even 5K on it in the 3 years since Covid started, she's still sitting under 150K ... and my last Acura (1997 CL 3.0) lasted me 17 years and about 340K miles without a major repair.

Screw these prices man. I mean I'd love a nice hybrid with all the bells and whistles, but ... I don't really want a 600/mo car payment, plus the pricier collision insurance and higher taxes and all that.

[Diamond_Dog]

4. Amen, Hugh.

Well said. I have an older Corolla that I plan to hold onto as long as I can. 48 grand for a car is absurd. Screw that! I get 32/city 39/highway more or less in my Toyota.

My oldest son got in right under the wire …. He got a new Corolla in the low $20K range in 2021.

[unc70]

5. Same for me and my 2002 RL with 200k

It has all the safety features they offered back the like side airbags. That means it lacks many of the electronic safety features available today. Other than that, it is in pristine condition. Wonder if I will live long enough and stay healthy for the car to reach 300k.

[Wonder Why]

9. I still have a 15 y/o Camry Hybrid. Have spent $2K on water pump, 1 12V battery, tires,

brakes last year & outrageously priced tire sensors (can only be replaced by dealer). Was fully loaded when purchased new from dealer. Yes, that's $2,000 excluding oil changes and filters - in 15 years. 2009 model bought April 2008.

My other car is a 11 y/o Prius. All it ever needed was 12V battery - last year.

Paid cash for both. So, you can afford a hybrid.

And let's not count the lower gas cost. Camry 35mpg average. Prius recently got 55mpg on 60 mile round trip.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. Plus, they are making almost no cars with stick shifts.

My son needed a replacement car, and every time he found one with a manual transmission on-line, it was already sold by the time he could contact the dealer. So the claim that people don't drive them any more is clearly wrong.

He wound up getting a four year old Toyota Corolla, total cost something like $24,000.

[mitch96]

10. I think it's interesting that the least stolen cars are stick shift models. Bad guys can't shift..

Now would that lower your insurance rates? Naw that's asking too much from the blood suckers...
m

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

13. A couple of weeks ago I was showing someone something in my garage, and

she was astonished that I didn't keep the garage door locked. I pointed to my car and said, "I drive a stick shift. No one will ever steal it."

I do understand why people prefer an automatic, but honestly, more people could and should be driving a manual transmission.

I will say that when I went to purchase my current car (a 2017 Honda Fit purchased in 2018), when I went to the local Honda dealership and spoke with the salesman who approached me, he did not try to convince me I ought to consider an automatic. He simply told me he had no stick shift Fits on the lot, but would get in touch with me if any showed up. Two days later he called me to let me know one had shown up. At the time I was hoping to buy new, but of course I agreed to test drive the vehicle they now had on the lot. During the test drive, he commented that 2017 was the last year Honda put a CD player in the car. He made the sale on that comment.

What I am happiest the most was that the salesman didn't try to convert me to an automatic. I personally love a stick, and long ago decided that when I can no longer drive a stick, it's time to stop driving.

More recently my son decided to replace his 1999 Honda Civic. It was long past time, and I was encouraging him to get a new car. I did suggest he consider an automatic, but like me (hooray son!) he only wanted a manual transmission. He'd hoped to purchase a new Honda Civic, but wound up with a four year old Toyota Corolla. He's still getting used to all the many advancements in car technology since 1999.

[calguy]

3. I remember back when I was in high school, the average car loan was two years

We've slowly seen the car industry chain their consumers to more monthly payments, with six and seven hear payments the norm.
Remember when they advertised the Ford Maverick as the *last car under $2000?

[Hugh_Lebowski]

8. I don't remember the 2K price level but I definitely remember the 5K price level

Early 1980's when I started driving, there were MANY models coming in between 4 and 5K brand-new.

Granted cars these days have WAY nicer features and are much safer than the ones around then, and are surely way pricier to build, but jeez ... we're looking at cars being 5X that price now.

Back then federal minimum wage was $3.35 an hour, and what is it now, $7.25?

Pffft.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

14. The truly scary thing about those

much longer payments, is that the car is under water for the first few years. I've heard too many stories of someone who had a six or seven year loan, totalled the car in a crash a year or two in, and then learn that insurance only pays the actual value of the car, not what is owed on it. So now they need a replacement car and still need to pay off the old one.

People need to figure out that they should only take out a minimum loan on their first car. Then, when it's paid off, put the loan amount into a separate savings account. When it's time to get a replacement car, use that money to buy the replacement. Don't take out a new loan.

When my sons were buying their first cars, each had a sum of money from savings. That was what they had to spend. No loan. Each was able to find a car they liked and could write a check for. And that's how it should be.

[mitch96]

6. MSRP under $20k and then the dealer adds on options and fees and you start looking at $25k

No thank you. If I was looking for a new car I would look for a one or two year old car from a private seller. Get the car checked out six ways under the sun to make sure there is no problems. One or two year old cars still have part of the MFG's warranty.
No fees, no bull ßheiser. Here's the car, here is the money, done.
I hate dealers and their bullshit. Then again that's just me.. YMMV
m

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

15. I umderstand what you are saying.

I will say this: that in the many years I've been purchasing cars (first one was a '59 VW Beetle -- convertible -- purchased in 1967) there has been a huge change in the information out there. In the 1980s, when my husband and I bought some cars, we'd go to the dealerships of car companies we considered reliable, and try to figure out what they were saying.

Once the internet became a thing, we could go on line and check out everything.

Here's another tip. If you walk into a dealership, even if it's your favorite car company of all time, and you don't feel comfortable, leave. There are plenty of other dealerships out there.

I was involved in the purchase of eight cars in something like three years. Needing a new car. Cars totalled. More of those than I wish to remember.

Late one night my husband and I got the phone call all parents dread. It was our younger son. "It's okay," he said. "No one was hurt but I think my car was totalled. It was not my fault." He was right. His car was totalled, and since he was due back at college in Oklahoma (we lived in Kansas) in about a week, there was a time crunch. We looked at lots and lots of cars, he test drove many, and we did find a car for him. The day we were to pick up that car, his older brother headed out to get himself lunch, called me seven minutes later to say, "I've just been in a car crash, and I think my car was totalled, but it wasn't my fault." The accident was about three blocks from our house, so I went over there. He was right. Not his fault, his car was totalled. My first thought was, "I know where every single stick shift car is in our area." He was likewise returning to college, and we were able to find a car for him in the very limited time we had. If you are in the Overland Park, KS, area, I will happily tell you about the many dealerships and one independent used car lot that I like.

I will say that those two purchases are only the tip of the iceberg. Which is why I'm fearless about buying cars. Most people buy one every three or five or seven or more years. Purchasing so many in a short time was in a way, wonderful. Even though it had been a while, when I went to purchase my Fit a few years ago, I wasn't bothered or intimidated by the process.

[Unwind Your Mind]

7. One of the best pieces of financial advise I've been given

Is to never buy a new car. Buy used with low miles and keep them as long as you can

It’s served me well. I’ve purchased 4 cars in my adult life and never paid even 10k

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

16. Also, don't take out a loan.

Pay cash. If you had a loan for your first purchase, once it's paid off, put that money into a separate savings account. When you need your next car, you now have the cash for it.

I'm 75 years old. I'm not sure just how many cars I've owned, probably 10 or 12 at this point. Most were second hand. Early in my marriage, when we were getting a new car, my then husband was adamant about purchasing new. "I don't want to buy someone else's problems," he said. I was honestly enthralled with that attitude, as purchasing new had never been on my radar.

But some years later, with a rise in car costs and a levelling of our income, going back to buying used happened. By that time the internet was well established, and we could find out what we needed to purchase cars.

I actually love buying cars. I'm only sorry that my son did his recent car purchase entirely on his own, without Mom participating. Although being independent from Mom is a Good Thing.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

11. Still driving my 2009 Tacoma

Just under 100,000 miles and still runs fine.

[roamer65]

12. I'm helping to combat new car price inflation.

Im done buying new.