Twenty years ago, the Nissan Versa hit dealer lots with a starting price of about $12,550. Nissan just killed the model.
It was the last new car in America with a sticker under $20,000, and the next-cheapest option, the 2026 Hyundai Venue, starts at $20,550.
A few years ago, the lineup of cheap new cars looked normal. The Mitsubishi Mirage sat around $18,000, the Kia Forte filled the same slot, and the Versa came in just under $20,000.
Then the math changed.
The Mirage went away in August 2024, Kia killed the Forte and replaced it with the pricier K4, and Nissan ended Versa production in December.
Those cars all had one thing in common: they were built overseas, where labor costs are lower. When Trump put a 25% tariff on imported cars and parts, the thin profit margins on those budget models got even thinner, and several automakers decided it wasn't worth keeping them on the lineup at all.
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New car buyers paid $50,326 on average in December, according to Kelley Blue Book, while Edmunds put the number at $49,466.
Either way, the typical American is spending the cost of a small house deposit on a single vehicle.
The lost cheap models aren't the only reason. Buyers are also picking bigger and more loaded cars, but pulling the floor out of the market did matter a lot.
Cox Automotive's data tells the story:
The new car market is splitting along income lines.
Analysts expect car prices to drop by roughly $500 on average in 2026, as automakers fight for a smaller pool of buyers and start piling on incentives to compete.
That's still nowhere near the level where a brand-new car becomes affordable for a median-income household, with many of those buyers now shifting to used cars or holding onto what they have for longer.
A $500 monthly payment used to land a Toyota Highlander before the pandemic, and now that same monthly payment is enough for a Toyota Corolla, according to J.D. Power.
Buyers are paying more for less, and the cheap end of the market hasn't come back. There's no real sign it's coming back soon.
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