5 cheap cars you’ll want to do your research on

We were all very interested when the $20K Slate EV was announced. It was a pickup with no features, not even painted. Inside was a blank dashboard and windup windows — and you could add features at a price.

Did we like the Slate because it was cheap and because we could pay for only the features we wanted? The average car costs around $48K, but you can get one for around $20K, or even less. What do you get for that? Is it a horrible empty box or is it nice enough for someone who hates paying for stuff they don’t need? I didn’t know either, so I did some digging, and this is what I found.

5

2025 Nissan Versa S

$17,190

Nissan

The Nissan Versa S is a small five-seat FWD sedan often described as basic, honest transportation. It is the only car in the US starting at under $20K. The good news is that it is a nicer car than the price suggests. The bad news is that Nissan will most likely end production of the Versa S this year.

The most affordable Versa is the S trim with a 5-speed manual transmission. There is a CVT option available, which gives better fuel economy, but will cost about $1.6K more. The Versa S has decent luxury features for its price, with several options you can add and pay for. Safety and driver assist technology are also more comprehensive than I expected.

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4

2025 Hyundai Venue SE

$20,200

Hyundai

The Hyundai Venue is a subcompact crossover that seats five comfortably, with good features as standard. As a small crossover, the Venue is ideal for daily urban driving, commuting, the school run, and weekly shopping. Its small size makes it easy to park and maneuver in heavy traffic. Safety and driver assist technology are very good, although it does not score the maximum on its crash test.

The Venue comes standard with CVT transmission, which adds to its effortless driving, but even at that small size, this car is a bit under-powered for effortless highway overtaking. The basic Venue has a vibe that sort of justifies its $3K higher price tag than the basic Nissan Versa.

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3

2025 Kia Soul LX

$20,490

Kia

The Kia Soul is a subcompact five-seat crossover with quirky looks, and a boxy, upright body that creates a lot of space inside. The Soul is a very practical and pleasant urban runaround with good features and lots of driver assist and safety technology to keep everybody safe, although it too does not get the maximum stars in crash tests.

The Soul comes standard with CVT transmission and FWD only. The basic LX already provides a good, solid car, and you have a choice of many optional features to make your ride better. Like the Venue, the Kia Soul is more at home in the city than on the highway.

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2

2025 Chevrolet Trax LS

$20,500

Wiki Commons Ethan Llamas

The Chevrolet Trax is a five-seat subcompact crossover. It has sharp looks and a pleasant, if somewhat bland, interior. The Trax has lower, more car-like dimensions than the Kia Soul, for example. The bottom trim is decidedly bare in features compared to its more expensive variants, but it is still a pleasant car to drive in the city, and feels like good value for money. Safety and driver assist are on par with the other cars on this list.

One area where it stands out is the six-speed automatic transmission for those who dislike the sound and feel of the CVT, although the small turbo engine has to work hard for its horses. The Trax has good space for passengers and cargo.

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1

2025 Nissan Sentra S

$21,590

Nissan

The Nissan Sentra is a compact sedan, bigger than the other cars on this list, on par with the more expensive Honda Civic or VW Jetta in size. Reviewers often remark on the comfortable front seats and pleasant interior fittings. It also has a decent amount of trunk space for a sedan.

The Sentra has a conventional two liter enigine with a CVT fitted with artificial gear changes like an automatic. This improves the feel and sound of the car, if not the performance. The baseline Sentra has good features that can be upgraded, and its safety and driver assist technology is as good as any sedan in its class. Like the smaller Versa, this Nissan also gets five stars in the NHTSA crash test.

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