With so many of its rivals consigned to the history books, the 2025 Nissan Versa is the last small car standing.
If you want to find a new car for under $20,000, your options these days are pretty much the Nissan Versa…and that’s pretty much it. The 2024 model came in as one of the cheapest cars in America alongside the Mitsubishi Mirage (which waves farewell after this year). Now, the 2025 Nissan Versa does admittedly get $510 more expensive, but the MSRP still comes in at $18,330 including destination charges.
Granted, that sort of price tag is for the base Versa S, with a 5-speed manual transmission. I’ve said before — and I’ll reaffirm it here — that I think the Versa is a good, honest little car for people who want a commuter with the peace of mind of a warranty. The 5-speed manual model won’t be electrifying to drive, but part of me would actually stick with it over the CVT, even if you have to give up a few features.
Still, the 2025 Nissan Versa gets LED headlights across the entire range now, which is one reason for the higher price tags. Nissan also offers complimentary maintenance for the first two years or 24,000 miles, which will save you a few hundred bucks right there. Even the S model comes with useful features like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, so you don’t necessarily need to step up the trim walk unless you want some more convenience features.
For example, moving into the $21,630 SV or $22,330 SR will get you a driver attention alert, while the SR gets you a larger 8-inch (rather than 7-inch) touchscreen infotainment display, heated seats and adaptive cruise control. 2025 Nissan Versas get standard automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning and high-beam assist across the range, too. That said, the two higher trims only come with the CVT, so you’re yoked to that transmission whether you like it or not unless you stick with the base model (and good luck finding one that’s packing a 5-speed).
All 2025 Nissan Versa models, like before, come with a 1.6-liter naturally aspirated engine under the hood. Again, nothing special as it makes 122 horsepower and 114 lb-ft of torque, but the car is also tiny, so it’s not as much of a liability as you might think. It also manages up to 40 mpg on the highway (35 mpg combined), so its decently frugal on top of the low entry price.
