Can you believe that the average non-luxury new car sold in July cost $44,700? That’s according to Kelley Blue Book, a vehicle valuation firm with its nose to the grindstone on vehicle costs. Needless to say, most people can’t afford the payment that a $44,700 car entails, and with entry-level car options dwindling, it may feel like the demise of the cheap car is nigh. However, look a bit harder and you’ll find gems on the bottom end of the market. Good, no-nonsense, economical transportation like the surprisingly decent 2024 Nissan Kicks.
For 2024, the Nissan Kicks S starts at $22,125 including a $1,335 freight charge. You’ll notice that’s more money than a Chevrolet Trax LS for a less powerful, less mature vehicle, but the Kicks has substantially better highway fuel economy. The EPA rates the Trax at 28 mpg city, 32 mpg highway, and 30 mpg combined, but the Kicks is rated at 31 mpg city, 36 mpg highway, and 33 mpg combined. From personal experience, a 30 mpg average seems about right for the Trax, but the Kicks will happily exceed that combined rating, should you not be absolutely caning it. Thanks to its lightweight construction, that’s hard to resist.
Sure, the Kicks may only have 122 horsepower, but it only weighs 2,629 pounds in base trim. Combine that with a reasonable 14.7:1 steering ratio, and you end up with a car that feels agile in a way most modern cars just don’t. It’s a relatively unfiltered, low-risk, high-reward driving experience that tempts you into leaning on its 205-section all-season tires through bends. There’s even a hidden sport mode for the CVT (press the button on the rear side of the gear knob) to keep the revs up. There’s just something joyous about fizzy, simple motoring, and the Kicks fits that description.
Of course, you could also go nuts and spec a top-spec SR with the premium package for $26,075 including freight, a spec that included a heated steering wheel, pleather seats, a surprisingly decent Bose stereo, and a 360-degree camera package. Even at that price point, the 2024 Nissan Kicks includes an awful lot of kit for the money. Sure, it isn’t fast, but it’s a reasonably roomy, compact fuel-sipper that will get you and your things everywhere you need to go.
Although the variety of cheap cars on the market may be dwindling and prices may be going up, there’s still stuff out there in the low 20s. With late model used car prices still hovering in the stratosphere and new car interest rates typically more attractive than used car rates, now might be the time to go for something cheap, cheerful, and new over a second-hand car, be it a 2024 Nissan Kicks, a 2024 Chevrolet Trax, or even a new Mitsubishi Mirage.
(Photo credits: Nissan)
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How the heck is that cheap for a subcompact?
I think for just the equivalent of 2 rent payments more than the Nissan – I’d rather own a Mazda 3 – with much more power, plenty of secure space (Because trunk) and still rated at @27/37mpg
I’d be choosing the Trax over this every single day.
Yep, or the Buick Envista is only $1300 more than the Kicks. I prefer a true automatic over a CVT.
As you should.
It’s a shame they don’t offer this with a manual. They do offer a manual in other markets.
I was just looking up a manual version of this car. I refuse to buy any car with a CVT.
My last car was the Kicks older brother, the Juke, and I loved that car. I drove it to almost 190k miles before it met it’s second, and final deer. It was incredibly reliable too. I put 120k of those miles on it, and never had any major repairs. Oil changes, tires, brakes, and two wheel bearings in all that time.
I like the look of the Kicks, but Nissan’s track record with their CVTs worries me. My Juke had a stick, which may account for it’s longevity.
I can get a VW Jetta for 22,6K, with better MPG and a 6 speed. Way rather have that.
You can get a base Impreza for 22,995. Way rather have that.
Looks like a base hatch runs about 24.5k with no options after delivery. Still a better value sure, but an Impreza will typically run you a bit more than the Kicks.
If we’re talking cheap subcompact crossovers, I think I’d pony up an extra $1500-2000 and get a base model Mazda CX-30 instead. For the money you get a better interior and an actual transmission along with more power and better handling.
I usually think “$1500-2000 is a lot, especially in this price range” when someone says something like this but, in this case, that is roughly the replacement cost for a transmission so…
And lets be honest here, how many people are actually paying in full when buying something like these cars? Not many. The difference in monthly payment for a $2000 price difference is extremely negligible.
I haven’t even considered those, but knowing they have a far more reliable transmission, I will consider it!
And here I thought every crossover was heavy, the Kick’s weighs in at….. HOW MUCH?!
2,600 POUNDS?!
That’s pretty damn light, in my eyes! Genuinely impressive!
It seems like a solid deal for what you get with the base model. Once the price gets closer to $27,000 however, there are better options. I’d consider leasing one if I needed a cheap car for a few years and wanted to wash my hands of it before the Nissan CVT goes kaboom.
The Kicks is fine I guess, but it feels like yet another “we tacked on 3k because we tricked you into thinking it’s an SUV” scam. This is for all intensive purposes a Versa hatchback, and probably should start a bit lower for it.
Looking at the Kicks just makes me miss my SX4, which was cheaper, AWD, better screwed together and all together a more pleasant product than this.
Anyway, as much as I’m not impressed by it, I’m glad it exists. This generation of Nissan products are MUCH better than the last, including the Versa which went from worst car you could buy (yes I’m including the Mirage) to totally acceptable subcompact (now oddly with no competition at all).
I’m curious if the CVTs are now starting to hold up if you change the transmission fluid regularly. Does anyone know if this has actually reduced Nissan’s shitty CVT failure rate? I’ve heard all sorts of things and I’m not sure what to trust there. I never understood why Nissan or anyone else would tell you a fluid is lifetime, unless the manufacturers goal was to completely destroy their own reputation.
Sorry, I couldn’t get past your second sentence.
*for all intents and purposes
Ha, my bad.
I fought my way past it because the points made were good.
You win some and you lose some.
I’ll be the first to admit that running into those sorts of errors stop me in my tracks so it’s all good. I cringed when I read back through it.
Nissan is using the cvt because I guess they studied how long people keep their car on average and they’ve designed the car to die after that amount of time.
The cvt is also common because it’s 2 belts and a pulley. None of those expensive doodads that a real transmission requires, so it’s a win win for them.
It’s a decent looking vehicle, but that CVT is a hard pass.
I love cheap and cheerful cars so normally something like the Kick, Kick’s, Kicks?, whatever can’t be bothered to scroll up, would appeal to me but Nissans CVT is the worst transmission on sale. Failure rates even now decades into development are atrocious. With a stone simple manual might be alright but no one would buy that anyway.
Achilles Heel. I wonder why they’ve stuck with their CVTs even after all the litigation. Must cost a ton to design new slushboxes and alter your factories to build and install them I guess.
CVTs are cheaper to make and smaller to install. Toyota and Honda make good ones, so Nissan is just lazy.
You’ll be running so fast from this your feet will be kicking your own ass.
I’ve kinda liked the looks since they first showed it years ago out of all the various tall hatchbacky vehicles of the segment. The Kicks was kind of the start to me of Nissan trying to course correct with their product line – this along with the current Versa and Sentra certainly showed improvement over the prior cycle of Nissans in design.
Against the new Trax though, this is still a good bit smaller inside for passengers (cargo volumes are close), so that’s part of the tradeoff for something like the mileage for the price. I think the Soul is a bit better buy for the price vs. the Kicks, coming in about a grand less, but the mileage isn’t as good there either.
My husband had one from his previous job. Anything above 70mph was a pain, the transmission will start screaming. He will get calls from his job about speeding, how in this world he was speeding in a Nissan Kicks? He quit later since driving at 3 AM visiting patients driving that thing was miserable while they will scream at him for going “too fast”
Sure, you can buy a cheap vehicle…you could buy a Kicks…but at what cost?
They should get Jean Claude Van Damme to be the spokesman… just for kicks.
He’s on a roll right now…they’re apparently rebooting Mortal Kombat (the game) and he will finally play the role that was supposed to be his from the very beginning – Johnny Cage.
The ad should be Van Damme kicking things like high fuel prices off a gas pump. $60 bucks to fill the tank? Kapow! More like 30 bucks! I don’t think it would make for a good ad, but it would make for some great memes.
If JCVD did a split on two moving Nissan Kicks, I might be sold on this thing.
They’re total NPC mobiles but I’ve never minded them to be honest. They’re cheap, cheerful, and come in fun colors. I like economy cars that have a sense of humor, and the Kicks certainly does. It’s right there in the name.
…that being said I could live without Nissan giving cars away to anyone with a pulse and flooding our infrastructure with heat seeking hoopties.
I’m notoriously anti-Nissan over their cvt, and I don’t care for crossovers. That said, I have to admit that I kept looking at one of these at a facility I worked at a couple months back. It was grey, but had the roof in that awesome copper Nissan does so well, and, by the end of the week, I had to admit that I kinda liked it*
*or would—if it were 10” less tall and had a manual. I mean, <2700lbs with 110hp can be quite entertaining….
I’m not sure we should be celebrating the fact that $22k is what you have to pay for the base model of an entry level econobox.
I know that there are reasons – inflation, cars are better/safer than they used to be, etc. but the reality is that even at that price this car is out of the reach of a huge portion of the population.
Yeah, 30 years ago, we had 4 cars under $7,000 ($14,900 today), 12 cars under $8,000 ($17,000 today), 21 cars under $9,000 ($19,100 today), and 26 models under $10,000 ($21,250 today), and the craziest thing was they weren’t ALL miserable penalty boxes (although there were certainly those, also), there were actually some pretty decent cars in those price ranges. Today, there’s only 3 models that sticker for under $20k, and 2 of them are already being sunsetted. Some people just want simple, basic transportation at a price that doesn’t bury them in debt, and those people are SOL. Time was a used car was the usual tone deaf answer from aloof apologists, but that doesn’t even fly now either, if anyone’s priced out what decent used cars are going for.
I’d say the kicks has enough improvements over a 93 Geo Metro to justify the price difference after inflation.
Agree to disagree, but, you know a Honda Civic was $8400. There’s a lot of crap in cars that few people would check the box for if it was optional
I’d argue the entire rise of suvs is from people buying things they don’t really need. People buy a Subaru Ascent when a Honda Fit would probably do just in case they need to go up a dirt road to a friend’s cottage in a snowstorm with four friends, luggage and dogs.
I don’t think anyone would opt out of A/C, even if they live in Toronto, for the same reason.
I’d opt out of a/c, personally, if it saved me $1000-$1500
I believe the last car to have a/c optional, the Wrangler, stopped about 2 years ago. The accountants must think they can upsell or that it’s not worth the line variation.
A/C? There is a ton of garbage stuff they put in cars well beyond A/C. Hell, I’d even pay more to lose some of that junk (any active “safety” nags and any OTA connectivity beyond receiving radio).
Right? A Honda Fit 5 years ago had these same power and weight ratings and started under $17k – that’s a huge difference at the low end of the market
I hope one of the Trim levels is the ‘ME’
We always called our CR-V EX the p*ssywagon.
Good to see someone who appreciates the pumped-up Kicks.
Unironically one of my favorite songs of the last 15 years. On the surface it’s just a fun rock radio banger but it has serious depth between the macabre lyrics to contrast the upbeat music, the layering in the production (there are some really cool and ominous synths noises in the chorus and scattered throughout the song) and the fact that it’s in F minor which is a fairly uncommon key for a pop or rock song.
Highly recommend listening on a good pair of headphones. It gave me a new appreciation for the song and it’s still on a lot of my playlists to this day. I’m honestly not super passionate about much of their other stuff and the critics seem have never much cared for them but I’ll die on the “Pumped Up Kicks is an amazing song” hill.
Between Hey Ya! and Pumped Up Kicks, I learned you should never trust 2000/2010s pop music until after you read the lyrics.
The first half of Torches is all bangers. The second half kind of peters out IMO.
Only if I can get them on Route 66.
Sirius busted out a rare treat the other day – the mix version of Depeche Mode’s Behind the Wheel and Route 66. I was happy to have been in my car for it.
Richard Blade is a massive Depeche Mode fan and he occasionally whips out some deep cuts like that. I heard it too. Behind The Wheel is my favorite DM song of all time. You could even make an argument that it’s a great car centric song but it’s Depeche Mode so we all know it’s really about BDSM lol.
You’re right – he’s always going on about them!
My favorite has to be the 12″ single of Route 66, with that hellacious bongo drum solo in the middle.
How did it make it into production with that name? It’s not even a verb associated with movement. Jumps would be marginally better. Someone at Nissan probably knife fought their way though multiple meetings due to their overcommitment that Kicks was totally rad name. Just call it a Pulsar you cowards!
I mean… the car they named Juke sold 214,000 over 9 years.
I daily one of those and I still think it’s a dumb name.
But juking is cool. Kicking is for cowards on 4th down.
I think “Juke” and “Kicks” sound fine, really. On the other hand, I drive a Prius, which sounds a bit too close to “priapism”
I’m with you (see below) but I do kinda hope the Pulsar name returns for an EV sedan or coupe. Nobody will miss Atlima, ever.
And not car but car related Pulsar trivia – in the ’70s, Hamilton made one of the first ever digital watches, the Pulsar. Roger Moore wears one in Live and Let Die. It cost as much as a car at the time!
Maybe it’s for the sheer irony that nobody is buying a Kicks ‘for kicks’.
The worst part about it is the name. At a distance, if I squint, it has a pleasing, almost car-like silhouette (or as close as we get these days…sigh), but then I see the nameplate on the back.
Would have been so much better if they’d called it Bluebird.
I had to think for a second there, what does Nissan have to do with Donald Campbell? or Big Bill Broonzy?The penny eventually dropped.
Tell me Nissan wouldn’t better appeal to its target (not the practical people actually buying ’em) audience with a JDM-ish name like that? And nobody is buying a Kicks so they can say out loud at parties they drive one.
As a 510 owner, I sure don’t want this thing to be the legacy of my 70s BMW hunter. its already diluted enough, no need to crossover it. And I think machismo would still prevent most men from buying a car called bluebird.