Houston Cars

Nissan announced a new Versa trim level - the 2009 Versa 1.6.  Stripped to the bone, this car has the lowest starting MSRP of any new car sold in America, at $9990 before destination.  Before you get too excited, this car is absolutely bare bones.  What do I mean?  Well, you’ll be rowing your own gears, and you’ll be cranking your windows up and down.  Nissan probably won’t sell a ton of these down south, as A/C is not standard.  Long highway trips won’t be a blast either, because cruise control is absent. 

On the plus side though, Nissan did include front, side, and curtain airbags standard.  So while you’re sweating from the lack of A/C, at least you won’t die in a crash.  And, the 1.6 liter engine ( down from 1.8 liters in the regular Versa ) is good for 34 MPG on the highway, so you won’t be spending much on gas.

If you absolutely must have A/C, it can be yours for a grand.  If you’re too lazy to shift, a slushbox runs another grand.  So, one might say that "reasonably equipped", the base Versa is a cool $12 grand, rather than $10k.  And, of course, these prices are before the $695 destination charge.