America’s Best Car May Be Cheap

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jan 17, 9:50AM EST

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America’s Best Car May Be Cheap — © 2021 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross facelift PHEV (CC BY 2.0) by Rutger van der Maar

The “best car” can be measured in several ways. Some choices are made by such research firms as J.D. Power and others by such media as Car and Driver. These often rely on consumer preference for features. Others are based on safety tests. Still others are based on average years of longevity. iSeeCars has come up with another yardstick. What is the best new car for the money?

iSeeCars looked at 8.3 million new cars sold from September to December 2023. It then matched each new car model to the used model from its longest-lasting cars study. iSeeCars Executive Analyst Karl Brauer commented, “By identifying cars that combine the lowest purchase price with the longest lifespan, we’re helping consumers who want to maximize their car-buying budget. (See the 13 surprisingly cheap sports cars to buy.)

One of the least expensive cars sold in America topped the list. The manufacturer’s suggested retail price for the Mitsubishi Mirage is $18,811. The Mirage is a small car by almost any measure. The compact hatchback has a 1.2-liter four-cylinder engine that gets 39 miles per gallon. For highway driving, the figure is as high as 43. The car gets mediocre reviews. Car and Driver give it a 2.5 stars out of five. Its reviewer wrote, “The Mirage is a rather disappointing vehicle: it’s slow, not especially comfortable, and its interior feels chintzier than a watch from TK Jewelers.”

iSeeCars looked at the average “lifetime” of the Mirage and pegged it at 172,784 miles. That means the price per 10,000 miles is $1,099, which is the best in the study.

The Best New Cars for the Money

According to iSeeCars, these are the 10 best new cars for the money:

Model	Price per 10K Miles	Average New Price
Mitsubishi Mirage	$1,099	$18,991
Toyota Corolla	$1,374	$25,017
Subaru Impreza	$1,409	$27,830
Honda Accord	$1,432	$30,321
Honda Civic	$1,531	$28,594
Toyota Camry	$1,585	$31,960
Nissan Versa	$1,588	$20,601
Honda CR-V	$1,617	$35,490
Mazda MAZDA3	$1,644	$30,253
Toyota Prius	$1,683	$35,313

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.