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Don't buy new.. after researching a bit I've come to a few conclusions on what I would call the 1-3 year old either lease driven or rental vehicles that often come for sale on the market with between 15K and 35K miles on them...
For someone who wants a V6 chevy impalas are the cheapest way to enter that segment, but the base trim of them is really stripped down, reminds you of a car from the year 2000. Still gonna cost you 15K but you get a reliable vehicle with V6 power and flex fuel in many cases.
Someone who wants a bit more upscale interior with average but more than ample power, a used, out of lease 2012-2014 Toyota Camry would fit the bill, around $15K in price or less. They are mated with a 2.5 Liter, rock solid engine with an equally rock solid, 6 speed transmission that will have no problem doing 80 on the interstate. These have the faux leather interior with the nice touchscreen, bluetooth sync, etc.
If you want a decked out Camry with V6, try getting an XLE 2013 or 2014 with all leather for around $20K with 30K miles give or take. Don't pay $20K for a used XLE without V6.
For someone who wants dirt cheap and is familiar with a manual transmission, you can get used 2012-2013 Ford Focuses for DIRT cheap, I'm talking $10K with few miles on them.. because the dual clutch transmissions are not very popular and these depreciate fast. If you can drive it like a stick shift, it should last you a long time. If you drive it like an automatic, you might face transmission trouble down the road.
If you go into the 2008-2011 model years on craigslist you can find tons of lightly driven vehicles for good prices.. Honda Civics, Ford Fusions (2009 model is most reliable) and many others of various engine sizes and powers... used is really the best bang for the buck.
Really you should be aiming for at least a 2.4 Liter engine with at least a 5 speed automatic, preferably a 2.5 liter engine with a 6 speed automatic.. I would stay away from the subcompact segment, and would call the compact segment, the segment of 1.8 Liter engines, barely passable as a long term vehicle to drive until the wheels fall off. The gas mileage improvement is marginal in the smaller engines while the performance decrease is substantial. Heck today's V6's get pretty good MPG... coefficient of drag makes more of a difference these days (why trucks and SUVs tend to get worse gas mileage aside from their weight.) Just buy used. This site helps.
There's so many makes to choose from I'm still scratching the surface.. I'm boring though so I'll probably stick with the mass produced, reliable makes.. I'm eyeballing either a Chevy Impala or Toyota Camry, or possibly a Ford Taurus.. will go look at one today. Look at the past reliability and look for problems with the above site before buying.
I would get a 60 day unlmited Autocheck membership and you can do unlimited VIN checks.. I got mine 4 days ago and have already checked the VIN numbers of 27 vehicles..
I'm really liking the Kias lately. A lot. Very seriously thinking of a new Optima, but if it were a budget issue, I'd go with the Rio. However if all I had was the list you put up, I'd go with the Chevy but wouldn't be happy with it. And you couldn't pay ME enough money to drive those Smart Cars. Yuck!
The only real selling point for the Smart is parking in very tiny spaces, and there are fewer than five cities in the USA where you can really use that advantage frequently.
The Rio tends to survey poorly in the 'would you buy this car again?' realm so would likely go for the Soul in that part of Kia's product line instead.
None. A Kia Soul for $12,900 is the best cheap new car on the market.
>>>> The Kia Soul is a great car for the money. I'd forget about the Spark, its just too small to be practical although not quite as bad as the ( not so) Smart Car. I don't think its cheap, though. Inexpensive, but a good value. The Chevy Sonic and Honda Fit are also other choices to consider.
When I see Smart cars, I wonder how anyone can feel safe in them. I'm sure they are made not to crunch into a ball upon impact, but they just seem so tiny - almost like a moped with a box around it. I can't imagine driving one out on the highway (60mph).
Should I get a Corolla LE? I'm renting one now, and I like it. I find the interior not as offensive as some modern cars, I believe I am satisfied with it. I only drive about 100 miles/week.
The Corolla is generally a safe for its class and very reliable car with a relatively low cost to own over the years. And if you decide you hate it in a few years, it's a slow depreciation car so you lose less on a future trade or sale.
If you like it, no strong reason not to get one. (And often not a big discount for a 1-2 year old one so new can make as much sense as rather gently used.),
The Corolla is easily the best of the cars, reliability wise, but still well over $16,000. I bought a new Ford Focus for $14,000 and it is quitter than my wife's Corolla and now they have a fix for the transmission issue makes it a tremendous value.
A cheap new car with a warranty can be a very smart choice for someone who needs to get to work on time every time and can't get to an independent shop and pay for the repairs that may come up on a used car. I've seen a number of single moms on a low budget that have no car DIY ability get screwed over by owning cheap used cars, when a cheap NEW car, even if it's a car like the OP mentioned, would have made sure that they could get wherever they needed to get for a low, fixed monthly cost.
Also, a cheap, say, $3000 used car requires all that cash up front at one time, along with the tax/tags/title and in many places an inspection that it may need repairs done to pass. While a new car can be had for little or no money down and will not need any repairs to pass it's first inspection. it can be a much more economical, and economically viable choice to buy cheap new than cheap used for a LOT of people.
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