Affordable small cars you can still buy

Not long ago small cars formed the single biggest new-vehicle sales segment Down Under, where hugely popular models like the Toyota Corolla and Mazda3 regularly vied for the title of Australia’s favourite car.

But as SUVs and then utes overtook them in the sales race and car-makers tired of small profit margins in a cut-throat market sector, the once-ubiquitous small car has become a far rarer more expensive proposition.

Gone are the days when every car mainstream brand offered a stripped-back small car with a sub-$20,000 sticker price slapped on the windscreen, with popular models like the Corolla, Mazda3 and Kia Cerato now commanding $25,000-plus starting prices.

In fact, excluding micro and light cars, there are now only two small cars available in Australia that slide in below the $25K mark, let alone the $20K barrier.

The latest Mazda3 was one of the earliest small cars to head upmarket with the latest generation arriving with a $24,990 starting price in February 2019. Since then there’s been an update and a $1000 price hike.

At the same time Ford has quietly been reducing its Focus range due to slowing demand, with the two remaining mainstream hatch variants – Active and ST-Line, both priced at $30,990 plus ORCs – now effectively discontinued. That leaves only the upcoming MY21 Focus ST-3, priced from about $48K, before it’s replaced next year by the MY22 Focus ST and ST X.

Now Honda has released its 11th-generation Civic hatch in a single VTi-LX premium variant and the former bastion of affordable motoring comes with an eye-watering starting price of $47,200 as part of the Japanese brand’s upmarket push under a fixed-priced agency sales model with national drive-away pricing.

And if you really want to go berko, you can pay six figures for the Mercedes-AMG A45 S hot hatch, which at $100,300 plus ORCs is the most expensive small car available in Australia.

But there are still – literally – a couple of affordable small cars still available with a sub-$25K list price Down Under, in the form of the Hyundai i30 hatch and Subaru Impreza hatch and sedan.

Priced at $23,420 plus ORCs in hatch form, the Hyundai i30 is Australia’s second most popular small car behind the Toyota Corolla. But unlike the world’s top-selling nameplate from the world’s biggest car-maker, the i30 can still be had with a manual gearbox, making the entry-level variant $25,490 drive-away.

The base Hyundai i30 hatch is powered by a 2.0-litre petrol engine and comes with cloth-trimmed seats but isn’t bereft of modern tech. Standard equipment extends to an 8.0-inch colour touch-screen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a 7.0-inch digital driver’s display and semi-autonomous steering, acceleration and braking.

Meantime, the Subaru Impreza used to command a premium over its rivals due its standard all-wheel drive system, but these days the entry-level Impreza 2.0i AWD sedan is priced at $23,990 plus ORCs with an automatic (CVT) transmission as standard, making it one of the most affordable automatic small cars in Australia.

The cheapest Subaru Impreza hatch is also priced from under $25K, at $24,190 plus ORCs. Apart from the auto, both models come standard with a 6.5-inch touch-screen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, cloth seat trims and CD player! However, there are none of the autonomous driving goodies seen in the Hyundai i30.

Light cars and micro cars offer some respite from rising prices, with Australia’s cheapest car (Mitsubishi Mirage) still priced from $14,990 plus ORCs, but it seems the bargain-basement small car is now a thing of the past.