Just looked into what the cheapest new car to buy actually is right now and honestly surprised by some of these options. Like everyone's budget is tight these days so I figured I'd share what I found.

So the Mitsubishi Mirage is apparently the most affordable at around $18k to start - it's small, decent on gas, good for city driving if you don't mind it being a bit sluggish. Then you've got the Kia Forte and Nissan Sentra both hovering around $21-22k range. The Forte's got decent interior space for the price, and the Sentra is solid all-around with good safety stuff.

If you can stretch to like $22-23k, the Hyundai Elantra and Toyota Corolla are legit options. The Corolla especially if you want something reliable that'll actually hold up - everyone knows Toyota's track record. The VW Jetta rounds out the list under $25k and supposedly has a decent interior plus decent fuel economy.

Obviously these are older model year prices so actual current pricing might be different, but the cheapest new car to buy is still probably going to be in this ballpark if you're looking for something legit and not used. The key thing is making sure whatever you get doesn't eat more than like 10% of your monthly income when you factor in insurance and maintenance. Anyone else been shopping around lately? Prices feeling crazy to anyone else?