One of the most frustrating things I’ve learned about the automotive industry is that there is a pervasive, industry-wide notion that you just can’t make money building cheap, affordable cars. Maybe it’s true. I don’t know for sure, but I do know most automakers seem to believe it, which is why here in America the average price of a new car was almost $50,000 last year, and the list of new cars you can buy today under $20,000 is so small it can’t even technically be called a list, because a list implies at least the barest degree of plurality, and there is only one car on that list: the Nissan Versa, which starts at $17,190.
In fact, if we expand the boundaries of that list in order to make it, you know, an actual list, including cars costing up to, say, $24,000, then of the 10 cars currently being sold in America that would make that list, three of those would be Nissans: the aforementioned Versa, the Sentra at $21, 590, and the Kicks Play at $21,520. Oh, the Kicks Play seems to be the last-gen version of the Kicks that they still sell; the all-new Kicks is only $21,830. So that’s actually four cars.
In this list of the top ten cheapest cars in America, we see the three Nissans (again, there should be four, but whatever) and then we have two Hyundais, two Kias, a Chevy, a Volkswagen, and a Toyota. Nissan is clearly the most committed to the low-end here. And not only do I respect the hell out of that, Nissan has always been this way.
Sure, Nissan’s a bit of a shitshow now, and, okay, maybe has been for a little while. Maybe their alliance with Renault didn’t exactly go the way they wanted and yeah, maybe their CEO had to escape Japan in a big box, but who are you, the Pope? We all make mistakes. Nissan’s made plenty of them, and is arguably still making them, and probably will make more in the future. At least, I hope they’re in a position to make more mistakes in the future, because I’m not sure any other major global automaker in the world right now is as committed to affordable cars as Nissan is.
Think about how many carmakers got where they are today on the backs of cheap, accessible cars, only to now have all but abandoned them. Ford is Ford because of the Model T, arguably the first truly affordable car ever built. Now the cheapest new Ford is the $26,000 Maverick truck, and while that’s a great machine, it’s by no means the backbone of Ford’s sales.
Volkswagen built their empire thanks to the incredible success of the Beetle, famous for being cheap and durable. Now a VW’s average price is about $45,000. Honda’s success in America was largely thanks to the very affordable and efficient Civic, and today Honda doesn’t even sell their excellent affordable Fit here anymore, and Civics range in price from $25,000 to about $35,000.
What I’m getting at is all these companies that started out selling cars that anyone could afford have moved away from affordability, and have effectively turned their backs on the cheap cars that got them where they are today. In doing so, turned their backs on the people that can only buy a cheap car, too.
Except Nissan.
Maybe they’re too stubborn or proud or stupid to give up on the low end of the market, but I’d like to believe that there’s just something in Nissan’s DNA that compels them to keep building cars that nearly anyone can afford. Remember, Nissan (a holding company started in 1928 whose name is a contraction of Nihon Sangyo) started out as Datsun, which in 1932 was building the Datsun 11, which may have been a copy of the Austin 7, though nobody can really say for sure. Copy or not, it was similar enough to the Austin 7 in the sense that it was a small, very affordable car for the masses. And that became the motivating theme behind Datsun for decades to come.
Datsun always understood that cheap didn’t mean boring, and just because you’re broke didn’t mean you didn’t deserve to be happy and stylish, and their cars reflected this idea. The Datsun B210 of the 1970s is a fantastic example of this – a dirt-cheap car that you actually wanted.
Datsun also was one of the pioneers of the small, cheap truck market in America, starting with the 1957 Datsun 220 and continuing into many tough and fun little trucks all through the 1980s and into the Nissan Hardbody era.
And it wasn’t just the obviously cheap cars and trucks that Datsun/Nissan excelled at; when they wanted to do something more stylish and performance-oriented, even when the prices went up, these cars were still bargains in their particular classes.
Take the legendary Z car, for example:
The Z car was a design triumph; the looks and feel of a Jaguar E-Type, but with much better reliability, and at half the price, if not less. If you could get past the lack of a leaping cat and a lot of unfortunate British classism, you could have a hell of a car. And, more recently, there was the GT-R:
When the GT-R came out in 2007, it was a legitimate supercar, beating the Porsche 911 around the legendary Nurburgring, all while costing $69,850.
The Nissan GT-R did it in 7:38, while a 2007 Porsche 911 Turbo did it in 7:42, and cost a hell of a lot more. Even their most expensive cars were at the low end of their respective markets. Nissan can’t help but make cheap cars, even when they’re supercars.
Nissan just seems to respect low-end cars more than almost any other automaker. Even when they make special-edition halo cars, like their special, limited-run series of Pike cars from the early 1990s, those cars were all based on some of their cheapest, most basic economy cars, just dressed up in limited-run bodies and made extremely desirable.
Who else was doing this kind of thing, at this scale? Nissan took their basic, cheap-ass Micra/March and dressed it up to make true design icons that are still in demand to this day. I know, because I drive one!
I can assure you that under that fun, retro-inspired exterior, it’s a cheap (but tough!) little economy car under there. And that’s one of the things I really love about it.
I know Nissan is up against the ropes now. And, believe me, I’ve been very aware that Nissan hasn’t really done anything that spectacular or even interesting for almost a decade now. But they’ve never given up on the low end of the market, and they’ve always treated their buyers without a lot of cash to throw around with dignity and respect, and they’ve consistently had multiple options for people who just need basic, honest transportation that isn’t so boring you’d consider slipping into a coma just to mix things up a bit.
I want Nissan to survive, and I want them to focus on what they do best, which is building decent, sometimes even fun, cheap cars. Let all the other candy-assed carmakers run away from the low end because they can’t be bothered to figure out how to make money with smaller margins or how to effectively cut costs without sacrificing quality. Let ’em run away, to their safe, pampered premium buyers.
Nissan needs to stay, down here, with the people, doing things that actually matter, and building good, affordable cars for people that need them. You can do it, Nissan. You haven’t given up yet, so why start now? You got this.
I’m with you here, 100%. But I gotta say, the reason I’ve not been giving Nissan serious looks is because at some point they did seem to have turned their backs on the idea of non-boring in the low end market, at least in the US. The low end stuff you picture that’s at all interesting is old or non-US. (Maybe it’s the US market’s fault because they stopped buying the non-boring low end, idk.)
My Datsun history:
• Blue ’72 510 (the “Japanese 2002”) two-door
• Red ’77 pickup
• Red ’81 B210 wagon, in which I commuted 65 miles each way between Denver and Colorado Springs for three years. It never let me down but would send explosive farts through the exhaust if you let up on the gas while the little four-banger was pulling hard up Monument Hill (a four-percent grade up to 7,352 ft AMSL)
I’m still puttering around in my 2015 Frontier
Hell yeah! And if you are, well… lighten up, Francis.
I remember riding around in my mom’s 210 wagon thinking it was so much more fun than my dad’s Oldsmobile wagon, mostly because it was more nimble (the 455 in my dad’s Olds sounded far better, though). I remember the day I picked up a Z31 300ZX a few decades ago and being super excited, even though it wasn’t the Z32 I really wanted but couldn’t possibly dream of affording. I also remember when the Infiniti G35 dropped and wanting one of those even more than a Z32 (but again couldn’t afford one). I also remember the dread of each and every time I got a Nissan for a rental after around 2007, because that meant hours of highway drone and buzziness from the CVT and likely electrical gremlins in the infotainment systems. Nissan’s days of cheap-but-fun cars, ones you could forgive fortheir quirks and problems, has been gone for a while. I’m glad they still make affordable cars, as someone needs to fill that niche, but I can’t recall the last time I saw a Nissan or Infiniti that I had any desire to own.
It’s a strange moment we’re in.
“Cheap cars!” we clamour, while they sell like cold cakes and the biggest purveyor of them loses money at a rate that imperils the company itself. I can’t see how this contradiction lasts.
If automakers can’t make a profit on cheap cars, I don’t see how volume improves things. “We’ll make it up on volume!” only works if overall cost declines as volume ramps up. High volume mostly magnifies losses if the cost per unit doesn’t decrease as volume goes up.
The biggest beef I have with Nissan of the last 15-20 years was that its vehicles were such albatrosses around the necks of their buyers. It’s one thing to make a cheap car that is uninspiring but at least gets one from point A to point B reliably. The much maligned Chevrolet Cavalier was a working-class hero in terms of reliability, if uninspiring as a machine. It’s another to destroy the finances of the working class when a catastrophic drivetrain failure renders the machine useless. Nissan has done the latter, not the former.
Zooming out a bit: The vehicle market follows the money. And the money is increasingly moving to more expensive vehicles. One might think that the cheapest vehicles would be flying off dealer lots given how expensive trucks/SUVs are. Yet, those are the ones flying off lots. Which makes me think that the dynamic has changed. The People’s Car is an anachronism from another era, because the People got bisected into those with money and those without.
Maybe once Civics and Corollas start posting double-digit gains in sales again, I’ll change my opinion. At least Honda and Toyota can produce those vehicles and make a profit at the same time. Seems a more sustainable idea than flooding the market with money-losing Nissans that ruin their working-class owners.
GM – runs poorly longer than most cars run at all.
There is just no reason for cheap new cars today. They aren’t enough cheaper, but they do tend to be worse in myriad ways.
Porsche nailed it years ago – “the entry level car is a USED car”.
So true. I’ve never seen such terribly made newer cars. Altimas are just scary and the rouge is just a cvt killer. Corolla and that Corolla cross civic and hrv aren’t much more the the lowest of Nissan and get alot more. I thought there was always a case for the mirage at $14k and under with the 10 year warranty but the dealers are so bad they would be in a bad place.
In Mexico they even have cheaper options with the Nissan March (Micra), the previous generation Nissan Versa and the previous Nissan Kicks (e-power).
The Chinese automakers came to Mexico trying to get a slice of the pie but Nissan is still doing well, parts are plenty and Nissan dealerships are in every small town. Now with the tariffs, Nissan mexican product will do well since cars are produced locally and most of the parts too. Good luck GM, Stellantis and Ford selling SUVs with a high price tag.
The Mexico market was one reason why I thought the Nissan/Honda merger could make sense, at least from the perspective of North American production in a combined market. But it looks like that market situation is about to be no more.
They weren’t dedicated to selling cheap cars as much as relegated due to having generally crappy products. Selling cheap cars was because they had no other options and is also the reason they are on the edge of failure.
The difference between these Nissans/Datsuns of yore and the current lineup is pretty obvious, though. Those cars are appealing. The Pike cars were charming. The 240Z and 510 were giant slayers. Even the humble B210 brought lashings of 70’s style to the party.
Nowadays, though, Nissan doesn’t distinguish itself in any positive way whatsoever. When you’re financing a car out over 5 or 6 years, smallish price differences mean less. Is $50/month worth moving into a larger, nicer car as opposed to a Versa? For a lot of people it probably is. If everything has 140-150hp and a CVT these days why would you buy a Sentra as opposed to a Civic or a K4/Elantra?
Of course the answer is credit. And it’s tougher, especially for an established automaker, to break out of the “new car of last resort” paradigm. I’d like Nissan to do that, I really would. I was cheering when they unveiled the IDx concept, which seemed like they were going to possibly turn a page. What did they give us? A new Z that was 90% old Z and cost twice as much as it should.
Nissan needs to turn things around fast. Goodwill and fond memories can’t make up for a lackluster present.
I think you’re confused about how much something slightly larger/nicer actually costs and what that amount of money means for people.
Comparing the loans for 2 cars at $2k down for 60 months, the monthly payment difference between a base Versa and a base Civic is $133. That $133 amounts $1,596 annually, or 3.3% of the median US income – that’s huge. And you can bet that a lot of people buying a Versa make below the median.
About 2 years ago, my wife purchased the cheapest hatch available at the time, the Kia Rio 5. We make a fair amount of money, and I can tell that the payment on that $17k car means a lot for our lifestyle and financial outlook.
The median income earner in the US is not a new car buyer to start with.
The real comparison is what is the difference between a new Versa and a used Altima – or better yet, something actually good.
Cheap and a bit shitty. Japanese styling and driving dynamics with german reliability. None of those is exactly a compliment.
When I was a wee Dutch Gunderson in the 70s, I had an aunt and uncle (brother and sister, not a married couple) with matching blue B-210s. The uncle later drove the hell out of a Z32 300ZX, the best generation 300ZX. For a kid from a GM family, all these things – along with my grandfather’s VW Squareback and my other grandfather’s first gen Toyota Corolla – were so exotic and… pun somewhat intended… foreign.
I agree. I respect Nissan for doing that.
I came very close to buying a 5-speed Versa last Fall. If they still offered it in a hatchback, I’d probably be driving it right now, but I decided that my dislike of trunks was enough to keep me away.
Feel exactly the same about the Versa. If it was a hatchback I’d buy one (or a Dacia Sandero).
If not for the horrific nature of their cvts (reliability wise) for like almost 3 decades I would still respect the heck out of Nissan and recommend them, but those are just unforgivable.
The first new car my mother bought herself was an ’82 Sentra. The second was an ’87 Stanza. Both had major transmission issues. Nissan making shitty transmissions long predates the horrific CVTs.
Fair enough
Don’t worry, the pending economic collapse will make cheap cars not only popular, but essential, again. Nissan just needs to hold on for another six months or so.
6 months seems optimistic, I give it a couple of weeks at most before everything completely crashes
I need a couple of months before the market collapses completely. It is more expensive and time consuming than I expected to modify my Corolla into the Doof Warrior vehicle I’ll be needing to survive our new reality.
Don’t forget that Paul Newman started out in racing with a cheap (well, when stock) Datsun 510 and then went on to win in many other Datsuns/Nissans.
Yes. Related to that, the owner of the dealer that Newman raced with, Bob Sharp, passed away on February 28th. Bob Sharp Datsun (then Nissan) was legendary.
I raced against PLN in B Sedan at Nelson Ledges in the 70s.
PLN went to high school in Shaker Heights (Cleveland) with my Mom.
It was the first time I saw an 18 wheeler transporter in the pits at an SCCA national race (Bob Sharp’s TransAm equipment).
I miss the 80’s and 90’s era Nissans. Clever, reliable, and innovative cars.
Then the Ghosn/Jatco CVT era happened. The cars essentially lost everything that made them special, and the brand was essentially propped up solely by people who couldn’t get a loan for a Toyota or Honda (and these people took the cars and drove Mach-Jesus on the highway missing bumpers, wheel covers, etc.).
I fear that Nissan will not survive now that money is expensive to borrow. That being said, Mitsubishi is around (miraculously), so maybe there is hope.
If Nissan just paused new development for a year of no new updates except reliability/robustness, it would likely play dividends to them long term.
The same statement would apply to a few automakers.
First that comes to mind is Landrover.
Stellantis, however, needs product.
I had a ’81 Datsun 200SX that I bought for $500 after high school. That thing had soooo many things wrong with it but it never failed to start, well, ok, it did fail to start one time but I swear I just twisted the
keyscrewdriver and let out the clutch and drove it home on the starter motor. More than reliable enough, fun to drive, and easily the best $500 I’ve ever spent.I had the ’84 turbo, got it my Jr year in ’93. I loved that car. Looked so sporty. Wasn’t very fast but the turbo lag felt cool. And the dual spark plugs per cyl let me fool a few people into thinking it was a V8. Digital Dash, door ajar voice, manual.
And it always started, except for this brief time when it needed a new distributor.
No turbo for me but those dual plugs got me 40mpg even though I went everywhere at WOT and never shifted until redline the whole time I had that car. Mine had the crazy digital dash too but that was part of what was wrong with the car so typically all my idiot lights were all lit at once so you couldn’t tell which was which. Also the speedo was broken and just bounced around at random while going down the road. The heater and AC did absolutely nothing, the dash vents wouldn’t even blow. The weather stripping between the front and the rear quarter windows was missing leaving a 1/2″ gap where rain would whip around and hit you straight in the ear canal, the rear shocks had left the chat, the alternator belt constantly needed tightening, there was an electrical gremlin somewhere so if you left it parked more than 3 days it would drain the battery, and the radio didn’t work.
I fixed about half of those things while I had it and just lived with the rest. Still the best $500 I’ve ever spent.
Also let us not crap on the people who buy new cheap cars. Many automotive websites are full of comments that are incredibly harsh mean, cruel, bordering on threatening to people who actually buy new cars and especially new cheap cars. Some people know that they don’t need all kinds of luxury in a used car that they may not be able to physically maintain themselves and they need a reliable warranty car and a small car is just fine. It’s just transportation for a lot of people. So a little respect for people who buy just what they need. Also if people do not buy new cheap cars. They will not be any used cheap cars until the expensive ones are used to the point of being total garbage.
1000% valid point. Many people just need affordable, efficient, reliable, in warranty transport. Finding it on the used market is a crap shoot.
It’s also true that good economy cars are kept forever by the first owner.
Thank you.
I foresee this coming to a head in the not so distant future.
Nothing wrong with some people wanting to buy cheap new cars. The problem is there aren’t that many of them. When given the choice between spending $20,000 on a cheap new bare bones car or $20,000 on a 3 year off-lease CPO care that is much nicer – most buyers will take the CPO. Luxury brands figured this out first and it has moved on to the regular brands.
Something else driving this trend in the basic fact that new cars are much more reliable than old cars. Gone are the days when 100K miles was a lot of miles on an engine and the body was full of full perforation rust holes.
I’ve never seen people do that, cheap guns sure, but when you’re buying something for self defense your life literally depends upon it’s reliability, so it’s not worth cheaping out on.
Only things relating to cheapness in cars I crap on are people on bald/dogshit tires, sketchy lift kits, and serious obvious mechanical failures that mechanics find and the owners refuses repairs.
Even though I don’t have to buy cheap cars I usually do, or at minimum buy the cheapest trims. Why? I want manual features. I’d pay more for manual seats over electric, but 99% of automakers are unwilling to put a base interior in a high end model at the request of the customer. Credit to to Aston Martin for putting a V8 in a Cygnet for a single customer. My requests would be much simpler than that.
While I can afford high end automobiles I’m not a fan of sinking a ton of money into something that can be totaled by a $500 Honda Civic driven by someone with no insurance.
I have seen it often and I have done it. We had bad luck with used cars so we special ordered a new hyundai accent in 99 so we could get manual everything and a manual transmission as the dealerships would not stock any manuals. We have no problems with the car it worked perfectly for the 12 years we had it. we only paid &10K for it new. At the same time, our cousin spent $10,000 on a used Chevy impala or Malibu or something and it died super quickly.
I wish special ordering was still a thing for regular cars :'(
It has been too long since I have ordered one. I am sad that it is not an option anymore. We preferred buying that way to get what we want.(usually a manual transmission)
Ordered my 2016 GT350 just fine. Took the horrible dealer order and they built my order sheet instead.
To me the ‘build and price’ thing is not special ordering. Special ordering is ordering something not on the option sheet, hence what makes it special.
It’s an off the menu order. Just because your order is not generic does not make it special in my eyes. I don’t see what’s so special about a Big Mac without pickles, a Land, Sea, and Air on the other hand…
In 2012 or so we hit a deer with the wife’s 2007 Corolla, not totaled but it was in the body shop for a week. I was given a Sentra as a rental/loaner. I could not wait to return that droning POS and get our older (higher quality) car back. I avoid Nissan at the rental counter if at all possible in favor of ANYTHING else.
This is a stark contrast to my youth. The Maxima was the original 4 Door Sports Car and damn desirable. As was the Sentra, Pathfinder and Hardbody. Everyone wanted a Nissan Z. The original Q45 was a tech masterpiece. The first Matchbox car I chose for myself was a purple 280Z.
I’m in a rental 2024 Sentra right now while my ‘18 Outback is in the body shop. They’re still horrible to drive. Thrashy engine, cheap already-falling-apart interior, and that awful CVT. I was hoping the new/current gen Sentra would be better than the previous gen Sentra I had as a rental in 2019. Nope, still crap. Subaru has its own quality issues but they’re nothing compared to Nissan’s garbage, can’t wait to get mine back!
We thrashed a lot of Nissan/Toyota/Honda through college in the late ’90s.
agree. when I was a kid Nissan was really cranking it out with the proper 4DSC, Sentra SE-R (the B13 remains an all timer), the 300Z, Pathfinder, and still riding high on the pickup/hardbody from the 80s. Wheels definitely were falling off by the late 90s, but from 88-95 or so they made a lot of really cool & respected stuff.
I’d argue the ’00 Maxima was a high point, then they released the same size Altima with the same power, but cheaper. It went downhill quick.
Wealthy pal had a 4 door ’92 Pathfinder in college. I drove it once and it was epic. On par with the ’88 Legend another pal had.
that is a good point. the 2000 maxima was their last great car. I got pretty close to buying one a few different times and definitely look back now with regret that I didn’t pick one up. the rest of their lineup was starting to get shaky (despite still OK sales volume) and of course Renault needing to buy them didn’t help things.
I bought a used 1994 SHO instead, but it was near the top of my list.
Nissan destroyed their own reputation with the “cut costs no matter what” mentality that took over about 20 years ago. A cheap car isn’t really cheap if it mechanically totals itself before the owner has even paid it off. It absolutely sucks because Nissan used to make vehicles that were legitimately good in addition to being affordable. Now if someone asked me if they should get a new Sentra for $22,000 or a 3 year old Civic for the same price I would tell them to pounce on that Civic before someone else does. One of these cheap cars will still be on the road in 10 years, and it sure as shit won’t be the Nissan.
Exactly – Nissan was always a legitimate competitor on quality to Toyota and Honda. It no longer is.
I have data in front of me but I have to question the poor reliability. I see so many beat to crap Altimas on the road that don’t get any repairs so I can only assume no maintenance either. And they are still running. And compared to the luxury brands being driven by the same kind of demographic they don’t have a plume of white smoke behind them.
I do appreciate this, but at the same time I see a lot of lost opportunities.
They beat Ford to the electric van market with the eNV200 by 9 YEARS! Yet we never saw a single one in the US, even though it uses the same drivetrain as the Leaf.
Even if they didn’t sell well to civilians (which is unlikely as you literally had no other options for electric vans) they still would have sold great to municipalities, businesses, etc.
I would have bought several, hell I’d buy several now if they sold them in the US.
Back in the early 70s my Mom drove a Datsun truck, a 510 wagon, and then bought a new 610.
She got over 500K on the 610 before rust killed it.
Never needed any engine work, but sounded and ran like a diesel when it finally went to the junk yard.
I respect any company that builds cheap cars as long as those cheap cars are actually good. Nissan used to know how to build such things, but the cheap cars they produced during the Ghosn era were terrible in almost every way. They were badly built, cheaply engineered, unreliable, and used sub-par materials. Cheap cars do not have to = misery, as Honda proved with the Fit.
Unfortunately, the Kicks and Kicks Play are both built in Aguascalientes, so that whole affordability thing is over as of today