Looking for a new car under $20,000? Good luck. Your choice has dwindled to just one vehicle [View all]
Source: Associated Press
Looking for a new car under $20,000? Good luck. Your choice has dwindled to just one vehicle
BY TOM KRISHER
Updated 8:26 AM EDT, August 21, 2023
DETROIT (AP) — Just five years ago, a price-conscious auto shopper in the United States could choose from among a dozen new small cars selling for under $20,000. Now, there’s just one: The Mitsubishi Mirage. And even the Mirage appears headed for the scrap yard.
At a time when Americans increasingly want pricey SUVs and trucks rather than small cars, the Mirage remains the lone new vehicle whose average sale price is under 20 grand — a figure that once marked a kind of unofficial threshold of affordability. With prices — new and used — having soared since the pandemic, $20,000 is no longer much of a starting point for a new car.
This current version of the Mirage, which reached U.S. dealerships a decade ago, sold for an average of $19,205 last month, according to data from Cox Automotive. (Though a few other new models have starting prices under $20,000, their actual purchase prices, with options and shipping, exceed that figure.)
The Mirage, with hatchback and sedan versions, costs less than half of what the average U.S. new vehicle does. That average is now just above $48,000 — 25% more than before the pandemic struck three years ago.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/car-auto-price-inexpensive-sale-mirage-suv-e33932cfa77a799329f278dfb120c30d
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