[lordfrito]

I'd definitely buy one! Back in around 2007 I went to the Chevy dealer and said "What's the cheapest car you got" and he said you want a Cavalier... I got it with air conditioning and an automatic for around $12k.

It was a great car at a great price, zero problems.

I don't understand why cars have gotten so much more expensive in the last 20 years. There is definitely room at the bottom for entry level vehicles.

I suspect the problem may be the increasingly strict emissions laws that push the OEMs into preferring certain segments at the expense of others. It might be that it doesn't make sense for the OEMs to pursue the low end market, it's not worth the trouble.

[bombcar]

This is $17k which isn’t bad for almost ten years of inflation.

https://www.mitsubishicars.com/cars-and-suvs/mirage

[alright2565]

On that page, I clicked on the "Build and Price" button. All that page contains is their SUV models.

I then checked the 5 dealers closest to me. At these 5 dealers, there are only a total of 3 base model cars in inventory, all last years' model: 18k, 18k, and 20.6k

The explanation is obviously the chicken tax and fat profit margins on their larger SUVs.