Best new car for under $20,000 in 2023

Best (and only) car for under $20,000

2023 Mitsubishi Mirage

Best new car for under $20,000 in 2023

Why it is notable: Highly affordable; very effective

Could be improved: terrible speed, awful to drive

The cheapest new car we are certain will be available in 2023 is the 2023 Mitsubishi Mirage hatchback, which has a starting price of $17,290. A keen watcher of inexpensive cars will notice that this pricing is significantly higher than the $15,690 of the 2022 Mirage hatchback, which is due to the replacement of the standard five-speed manual with a continuously variable automatic.

With a starting price of $18,290, the Mitsubishi Mirage G4 sedan is only available with an automatic transmission, making it slightly more expensive than its hatchback counterpart.

Depending on trim, the Mirage can achieve up to 39 miles per gallon combined in terms of fuel efficiency. Unfortunately, with only 76 horsepower, the Mirage is excruciatingly slow. With shoddy and disjointed management, it doesn't make up for it. This automobile is not something we'd suggest.

The 2023 Kia Rio and Nissan Versa do not yet have standard asking prices, as was previously mentioned, but we anticipate that they will be priced similarly to the 2022 models. The base price of the 2022 Kia Rio was $17,545 for the sedan and $18,485 for the Rio 5-Door hatchback. The Nissan Versa S still has a five-speed manual in 2022, and if that continues until 2023, the Versa should cost close to the $16,675 base price of 2022, making it the least expensive new car on the market in the country.