2006 Nissan Frontier Nismo Off-road Crew Cab Pickup 4-door 4.0l on 2040-cars

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Only 3 new cars cost under $20,000. Here’s what you should buy used instead

Looks like some more people have realized something we pointed out late last year. There are only three new cars under the magic $20,000 price limit currently for sale in the United States. Those three vehicles are the Nissan Versa with a starting price of $16,925 (all prices here include destination fee), the Kia Rio at $17,390 and the Mitsubishi Mirage at $17,650. Should push come to shove, so to speak, we'd probably pick the Nissan as our top choice among those three due to its practicality, comfort and overall polish when compared to its similarly priced peers. But really, as we've suggested before, there are better options. Our top pick for a used vehicle under $20,000 remains the Chevy Volt. It's stylish, comfortable, practical and, above all else, efficient, assuming you can plug it in at home. If you don't have access to a plug at home, you'll likely be able to find a very gently used car for the same price as one of the budget options above. We'd check out the Honda Fit, Kia Soul, Subaru Impreza, Toyota Corolla hatchback and Volkswagen Jetta from the  model years and aim for something with under 20,000 miles and with a year or two left of its factory warranty. A quick inventory search shows that some of those cars, notably the Impreza and Jetta, can even be found Certified Pre Owned in most parts of the country. For a more thorough breakdown of some of the available used-car options we'd recommend, check out our guide to the Best Cars Under $20,000. For what it's worth, with the average new car transaction price hovering alarmingly close to $50,000, we wouldn't expect to see any more options coming any time soon for well under half that sum. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Green Kia Mitsubishi Nissan Car Buying Used Car Buying Sedan

Poor headlights cause 40 cars to miss IIHS Top Safety Pick rating

Over the past few months, we've noticed a number of cars and SUVs that have come incredibly close to earning one of the IIHS's highest accolades, the Top Safety Pick rating. They have great crash test scores and solid automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems. What trips them up is headlights. That got us wondering, how many vehicles are there that are coming up short because they don't have headlights that meet the organization's criteria for an "Acceptable" or "Good" rating. This is a revision made after 2017, a year in which headlights weren't factored in for this specific award. This is also why why some vehicles, such as the Ford F-150, might have had the award last year, but have lost it for this year. We reached out to someone at IIHS to find out. He responded with the following car models. Depending on how you count, a whopping 40 models crash well enough to receive the rating, but don't get it because their headlights are either "Poor" or "Marginal." We say depending on how you count because the IIHS actual counts truck body styles differently, and the Infiniti Q70 is a special case. Apparently the version of the Q70 that has good headlights doesn't have adequate forward collision prevention technology. And the one that has good forward collision tech doesn't have good enough headlights. We've provided the entire list of vehicles below in alphabetical order. Interestingly, it seems the Volkswagen Group is having the most difficulty providing good headlights with its otherwise safe cars. It had the most models on the list at 9 split between Audi and Volkswagen. GM is next in line with 7 models. It is worth noting again that though these vehicles have subpar headlights and don't quite earn Top Safety Pick awards, that doesn't mean they're unsafe. They all score well enough in crash testing and forward collision prevention that they would get the coveted award if the lights were better.

Nissan didn't have much say in merger talks, but it had what FCA wanted

TOKYO — Nissan wasn't consulted on the proposed merger between its alliance partner Renault and Fiat Chrysler, but the Japanese automaker's reluctance to go along may have helped bring about the surprise collapse of the talks. While Nissan Motor Co. had a weaker bargaining position from the start, with its financial performance crumbling after the arrest last year of its star executive Carlos Ghosn, it still had as its crown jewel the technology of electric vehicles and hybrids that Fiat Chrysler wanted. The board of Renault, meeting Thursday, didn't get as far as voting on the proposal, announced last week, which would have created the world's third biggest automaker, trailing only Volkswagen AG of Germany and Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. When the French government, Renault's top shareholder with a 15% stake, asked for more time to convince Nissan, Fiat Chrysler Chairman John Elkann abruptly withdrew the offer. Although analysts say reviving the talks isn't out of the question, they say trust among the players appears to have been broken. "The other companies made the mistake of underestimating Nissan's determination to say, 'No,' " said Katsuya Takeuchi, senior analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities in Tokyo. The Note, an electric car with a small gas engine to charge its battery, was Japan's No. 1 selling car, the first time in 50 years that a Nissan beat Toyota and Honda. Renault and Fiat Chrysler highlighted possible synergies that come from sharing parts and research costs as the benefits of the merger. But what Fiat Chrysler lacks and really wanted was what's called in the industry "electrification technology," Takeuchi said. With emissions regulations getting stricter around the world, having such technology is crucial. Yokohama-based Nissan makes the world's best-selling electric car Leaf. Its Note, an electric car equipped with a small gas engine to charge its battery, was Japan's No. 1 selling car for the fiscal year through March, the first time in 50 years that a Nissan model beat Toyota and Honda Motor Co. for that title. Nissan is also a leader in autonomous-driving technology, another area all the automakers are trying to innovate. "Although Nissan had no say, its cautionary stance on the merger ended up being very meaningful," Takeuchi said.