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.
Isn’t the Mirage the cheapest car available now? I have an idea currently car manufacturers roll out cars 6 months ahead of the year. Since the Lefty Green Vegetables base changes on model year wouldn’t it be batter to make the year model the end of the year instead of 6 months into the previous year?
I will say it on every article like this until Nissan does it or goes under .. they need to partner with Mitsubishi and build a cheap car for the masses. 4 cylinder, stick shift, rear wheel drive. Nissan calls it the B210, Sunny, whatever.. Mitsubishi calls it the Colt. Basically a Toyobaru twin competitor but with more practicality.
I think the new Kicks is a great effort and the newer Sentras are better looking than they have to be. Hang on, Nissan.
Excellent article, Jason. Now to address the haters:
A) Nissan currently offers CVTs in segments where CVTs are fairly standard and likewise for traditionally geared vehicles.
B) It’s not 2012. JATCO CVT reliability, with proper maintenance, is comparable to other brands. A base Nissan Versa is capable of outlasting cars 3x its price. It’s not the automakers fault if you run a car into the ground.
C) Used car prices are still a joke (at least where I live). 5 years old, 50k on the odo and only 5k less than a new car. The only exception to that rule being, once again, Nissan. Although thankfully the depreciation is no where near what it used to be.
Owning a cheap car doesn’t make you poor. Neither does hating them make you rich.
I’d rather pay for a CVT replacement in 15 years on a $20k car than take out an 85 month loan at 8% APR on a $50k state-of-the-art piece-of-crap at time when eggs are at $12 a carton.
There’s a fortune to be made in cheap cars. But the rich don’t drive them. So the rich don’t care. We overextend ourselves so people think we’re rich too. And the Chinese laugh at us all. It’s unsustainable.
Well said.
Currently, their EVs are are both ridiculously cheap (at least here in Colorado, with state rebates to be had) and ridiculously high quality. I recently joined Team Nissan when I leased a 2024 Ariya EV. I hadn’t even sat in a Nissan product since around 1982, and that was a 1976 Datsun King Cab pickup, which was my first vehicle. It was a good truck, but my overall impression of Nissan is “adequate”. So when I saw the recent lease and purchase deals available on the Leaf and Ariya, and finding myself in need of a new car, I went to take a look.
Holy moly – the 2024 Ariya Platinum+eForce AWD is a LOT of car and is nicer in every way than my (considerably more expensive) 2023 Polestar 2. It rides better, drives better, has all the bells and whistles (heated/cooled front seats, heated rear seats, HUD, self-parking, 360 cameras, etc., etc.) and the interior quality is better than a 2023 Mercedes GB250 I recently rode in, with real wood across the dash, excellent minimalist design and unobtrusive screens. I got a 24-month lease for a grand total of $6650 (including all fees and taxes) with a residual of just over $30K, which seems like a hell of a deal to me. And that includes two years of cabin filters, tire rotations, road hazard coverage and one brake fluid change.
And if a Leaf floats your boat, you can find them for about $3500 all-in for a 24-month lease with about a $10k residual (IIRC).
Even though the cost markdowns are most likely due to the dire straits in which Nissan currently finds itself, I’d say Nissan is carrying on the tradition of making very good quality affordable cars.
I’m 70, and of the age when the B210 was available. Noone I knew wanted a B210.
Nissans with geared transmissions used to be incredibly durable. I’ve abused the shit out of a couple. But the CVT is still the elephant in the room.
If any cheap Nissan paired a decent feature set with either a manual transmission or a geared automatic, I’d probably have one now for the kids if I could find them on the lot at the dealerships. (You can’t get the best options without the CVT.)
I’ve looked several times. There’s a dealership not five miles from here, and whoever does their allocations simply doesn’t want the low end business. They haven’t had a new manual Versa in stock in over a year. They did have a used one on the lot last year, but wanted almost as much as a new one for it.
The nearest manual transmission model currently in stock is over 150 miles away. The nearest that should arrive by April is 95 miles away. There are none scheduled to arrive any closer than that. That’s a long way to go for a test drive.
Cheap Nissans are barely more expensive than a good used car these days. I don’t trust a Chevy Trax as much as a Nissan, but that’s what I’m shopping for now.
I guess they didn’t give up the cheap cars but definitely got them to the point where they weren’t a value. Inflating MSRP is real issue when you add in the dealers nonsense it’s just a no go for alot of people. That’s why people fall for the “no haggle” people because they don’t want to play the little game with the sweaty little guy and the fat man choking on chicken nuggets on his little podium. I have a feeling we are about to see some bail out special style of cars because new cars aren’t moving. How Ford handled the maverick was just disgraceful what a missed opportunity. Part of that was the dealers. Part of that is not understanding that good will costs alot. I think a lot of people haven’t stepped foot into a dealer since they went in saw no cars and the dealers wanted extreme markups.
Continuing with the problematic CVT despite all it’s issues was a slap in the face to consumers. Don’t give a company like that your money.
+1 thank you Jason, my thoughts exactly..
used to ride in a friend’s tiny Datsun pickup, 1400cc and rwd, but it would get down the worst farm roads to deliver furniture, then take us fishing down even worse roads. in a pinch 4 strong men could pick it up and move it out of the ditch..
https://www.group1nissan.co.za/blog/general/1400-datsun-bakkie-remembered/
Nissan not only made affordable cars, but truly exceptional cars that punched above their weight by offering the gold standard in transmissions: the Jatco Xtronic CVT. What other vehicle could offer such a smooth experience? What other vehicle never needed transmission service due to an ingenious sealed design and lifetime fluid? What other vehicle in its class offered such superior fuel economy? None.
I can’t help but think that the advent of Certified Pre-Owned programs contributed to the end of the cheap new car segment.
My last 5 vehicles have all been CPO – given the choice of an underwhelming new car or an off-lease midrange model with a better warranty (typically powertrain is 7+ years from in-service and 100k miles) for the same price, I’ll go CPO every time.
Agree CPO off lease may have been the deathnell for the basic economy car. Why buy less when you can get more??
Thanks for the B-210 content. My former sister in law (we are still friends) got a 1978 B-210 as a high school graduation present. It was so cheap her parents could afford to get her a brand new one. She drove that thing forever, and it was a great little car.
Nissan need to give up on the 2.0 variable compression engine. It is complex, and doesn’t get good mileage. They don’t know when to cut their losses and move on!
I’ll be honest, it’ll always be hard for me to respect whoever completely missed the mark on the relaunch of the Datsun brand as lesser division for tapping into peripheral markets only (which went as well as anyone would expect), when they could have gone with a bolder approach and make it their budget brand globally – peripheral markets included. They’d have instant brand recognition all over Europe, the US and Australia, and it would fit the bill perfectly as many people in those places saw Datsun as an inexpensive, dependable choice, and I’m sure there’s people interested in cheap new cars in those markets. They could come in and corner budget markets all over the world – if they had any interest in offering cheap cars in places where bean counters project people will spend more on an entry level car, that is.
I don’t know… Renault and Suzuki looks to be OK, while what they both sell in any significant numers are small and cheap cars.
I have no interest in cheap dreck, and thus no interest in Nissan.
I had a base Frontier as a rental last week, and it was the most dire thing I have driven possibly ever, and certainly the most dire NEW thing. I preferred the Trabant I owned, at least it actually was cheap.
I’ve experienced cars below the altima. Nissan made sure they were bad enough to sell you on a altima as the minimum.
I’m not so convinced Nissan did it by choice.
The Versa and Altima are dead after the 2025 model year. The most likely outcome is a new sedan priced and sized between the current Sentra and Altima.
Selling the old Kicks for $310 less than the new one makes zero sense. It is massively inefficient to split volume over two platforms at the same price. Just yet another odd decision that shows why Nissan needs another bailout to survive.