Did you know the average new car today will set you back – when you tally all associated costs over the next 15 years – about $100,000? Depreciation, insurance, gas, repairs, interests — they all add up, says Canadian stats guru Dennis Desrosiers.

Still, what if you want a new vehicle with some comfort or security features (powered windows! Bluetooth! AWD!) but you want to save, oh, just a tad? Well, here are the cheapest cars you can pick up at a Canadian dealership as of September 2019.

Canada’s absolute cheapest car

It’s the Chevrolet Spark. Add the $1,600 freight and delivery fees to the base MSRP of $9,995 and you’ve got the cheapest new car you can buy in Canada — just $11,595 before taxes.

What do you get for that money? Bluetooth connectivity, Apple Car Play/Android Auto, a 7-inch infotainment screen, 4G LTE Wi-fi hotspot (if your cell phone has data), voice recognition controls and semi-generous cargo space for such a small vehicle (770 litres). Oh, and there are 10 airbags!

What are you giving up? A telescopic steering wheel (yeah, it only tilts) and be prepared to lose a friend: there are only four seats in the Chevrolet Spark. Also, don’t dream about powered windows or powered mirrors. And forget pretensions of doing power burnouts: With only 98 hp from the teeny four-cylinder 1.4-litre engine, performance is not the reason to buy the Spark.

Transport Canada-certified fuel consumption: 8.0 L/100 km (city); 6.0 L/100 km (highway)

Swear by Japanese cars? The cheapest one is—

At $10,488, the Nissan Micra. Add the $1,670 freight and delivery fees and you’re driving the cheapest Japanese new car you can get, for $12,185 before taxes.

What do you get for that money? Seat belts for five passengers (one up on the Spark) and the most fun-to-drive little 109-hp car you can ask for. You’re laughing? You shouldn’t: Have a look at what Quebec and Ontario racing drivers do to those Micras on the track — or watch our senior contributor David Booth demonstrate what not to do with it. Oh, although sub-compact cars hardly ever offer accessories, the Nissan Micra has 17 of them for you, from colour-keyed body pieces to sport stripes and chrome exhaust finishers. #CheapCanLookGood

What are you giving up? As with the Chevrolet Spark, your windows will have to be hand-cranked down and your steering wheel will be only tilting. You will also have to unlock your doors manually, one by one. And there are only two speakers in the entire car.

Transport Canada-certified fuel consumption: 8.7 L/100 km (city); 6.8 L/100 km (highway)

The cheapest car with powered windows



At $10,998, it’s the Mitsubishi Mirage. Add the $1,575 freight and delivery fees and you’re on a roll for the cheapest new car with powered windows – and mirrors – for just $12,573 before taxes.

What do you get for that money? Yes, you do have powered windows. But only at the front. Compared with the Chevrolet Spark (a $978 difference) and the Nissan Micra ($388 difference), you also get a fully telescopic steering wheel. You’ll want it, if you’re taller than the average, because the Mirage is teeny-tiny. What else? Mitsubishi offers one of the best warranty coverages in the industry, with its 10-year/160,000-km Powertrain Limited Warranty. And the Mirage claims very low fuel consumption with its three-cylinder 1.2-litre engine mated to a 5-speed manual transmission.

What are you giving up? Well, for one thing, that claimed low fuel consumption isn’t that miraculous, considering the Mirage, with its 78 hp, is currently the least powerful vehicle on the market. For some perspective, let us remind you even the gas smart fortwo used to have more power – 89 hp – than this. Another infamous achievement: The Mirage drives on 14-inch tires, the smallest rubber in the Canadian market.

Transport Canada-certified fuel consumption: 7.1 L/100 km (city); 5.8 L/100 km (highway)

The smallest – cheapest – but best-equipped car



For $15,690, it’s got to be the three-door Toyota Yaris CE. Add the $1,620 freight and delivery fees and you’re buying yourself the best-equipped little car of our market — for $17,310 before taxes.

What do you get for that money? You have the heated front seats. I repeat: you have the heated front seats. Although Korean small cars offer that treat for a price tag equal or even lower than Yaris’, the small(er) Yaris comes standard with half of the award-winning Toyota Safety Sense suite. So you get the auto-high-beams, the lane-departure warning and the pre-collision alert, some items rarely if ever found in this vehicle segment.

What are you giving up? The base three-door Yaris doesn’t have air conditioning. And since it doesn’t have cruise control either, you won’t get the dynamic radar cruise control, a (very nice) constituent of Toyota Safety Sense package. If you want this intelligent cruise control, you’ll have to jump in bigger Toyotas — the Corolla and up.

Transport Canada-certified fuel consumption: 7.8 L/100 km (city); 6.5 L/100 km (highway)

The cheapest SUV

For $18,298, you’re looking at the Nissan Kicks. Add the $1,815 freight and delivery fees and you’re parking in your driveway the (currently) cheapest SUV for the Canadian market for a mere $20,113 before taxes.

What do you get for that money? You get air conditioning, those great Zero Gravity (front) seats Nissan launched six years ago, fog lights, intelligent emergency braking and – yes! yes! – the remote keyless entry with the availability to start by pressing the push button.

What are you giving up? Well, AWD is not offered, even on the most-well-equipped top-trim Kicks (SR). That said, this version will give you, for just a tad below $24,000, the coolest audio gadget on the market: Speakers in the driver’s headrest.

Transport Canada-certified fuel consumption: 7.7 L/100 km (city); 6.6 L/100 km (highway)

When you need AWD for cheap, you’ll want—

For $19,995, the Subaru Impreza sedan. Add the $1,650 freight and delivery fees and you’ll be happily singing “Mon Pays, c’est l’hiver” while driving the cheapest AWD four our market, for $21,645 before taxes.

What do you get for that money? One of the best AWD systems of the industry. Period. Add $900 and you’ll get the five-door version of the Subaru Impreza.

What are you giving up? Heated seats. They used to be part of the “Subaru Deal” for us, living in the Snow Belt, but they stopped being offered as standard equipment in 2012, when the smallest-Subaru-in-the-range’s price tag dipped under $20,000. And sadly, no part of the EyeSight safety suite is offered on the base model, not even the pre-collision braking. To enjoy one of the most comprehensive security systems, you’d have to spend at least $27,300 on your Impreza.

Transport Canada-certified fuel consumption: 10.1 L/100 km (city); 7.5 L/100 km (highway)

The cheapest diesel-powered car

At $26,595, the oil-burner you want is the Chevrolet Cruze LT Diesel. Add the $1,700 freight and delivery fees and you’ll be “cruz-ing” with the cheapest diesel vehicle on the market, and a relatively rare one, too. It’ll set you back $28,295 before taxes, unless you want the lovely hatchback version. Then add $800.

What do you get for that money? Well, obviously a lot. Think heated front seats and an 8-position powered driver seat, air conditioning and remote start, remote keyless entry and keyless start, 4G LTE Wifi and 10 airbags. More than anything else, you’ll appreciate the below-5.0-L/100-km sipped by the four-cylinder 1.6-litre turbodiesel engine, as well as its 240 lb-ft of torque.

What are you giving up? A lot of money — it’s almost 2.5 times as much as our list’s cheapest car, incidentally also a Chevrolet. For that invoice, we would have like the ventilated seats. But hey, it’s one of the few diesel cars you can still buy in the wake of DieselGate, so let’s not complain too much.

Transport Canada-certified fuel consumption: 7.6 L/100 km (city); 4.9 L/100 km (highway)