More World's Cheapest Cars

A couple days ago I posted a rather funny piece on the tiny $2,000 Tata Nano which is the world's current reigning cheapest car. Well, you might wonder what other cheap cars that penny pincher's drove over the years. Here's a few more honorable mentions:

1925 Ford Model T Touring: Price $290. With the advent of mass production, Henry Ford was able to reduce the price of his Model T automobiles from $850 in 1909 and a high water mark of $950 in 1910 down to just a mere $290 by 1925, allowing your grandfather as well as many 1950's hot rod kids a very cheap ride.

1950's Isetta: Price under $1,000. Built in a number of European countries including Germany, Italy, France, with different prices and engines, the tiny single front entry door Isetta cars(first designed in Italy) were pure econoboxes. Some had single cylinder 13hp engines. It looks likely that a new retroIsetta model built by BMW may be available for 2010.

1969 Subaru 360: Price $1,297. When Subaru was only a three year old automobile brand they made a terrible attempt to break into the American automobile market with the pathetic little Subaru 360 cars. These two cylinder wonders might have gotten as high as 66 miles per gallon, but they were extremely cheap cars in every regard. And there was even a tiny little pickup truck version once available that featured a truck bed so small that you only put a few pairs of shoes or garden supplies back there. The suicide doors were a nice feature as well. These tiny cars were actually about 3 feet shorter than a VW bug and looked inspired by the VWs.

1970 1/2 AMC Gremlin: $1,879. On April Fool's Day 1970, little American Motors launched the AMC Gremlin, America's first modern subcompact. By chopping about a foot and a half out of the compact Hornet models, AMC was able to build a whole new line small cars with a unique chopped off back look. The $1,879 models fixed a sealed back window and no back seat. But for a mere few dollars more at $1,959, you could buy the better model with a back seat and rear window that opened. Believe me, that was worth the extra cost. But the little Gremlins were well built little car, with a strong 6 cylinder engine and later a V8 engine in some models that made them into little hot rods. The AMC Gremlins probably rank as one of the best cheap cars ever built for many reasons including sturdy body designs and long running engines and transmissions. Unfortunately, the later AMC Spirit built off of this body design in 1979 until 1983 had many problems with engines or other quality control problems and simply does not measure up to the old Gremlin in durable design.

1971 Ford Pinto: $1,919. Say what you will about these little cars. including the fuel tank problems they had. But for a mere $1,919 these were good cheap cars. For very little money these Pintos often ran for many years and offered reasonable service. They also featured a low seating position and were decent handling little cars. The later station wagon models were a real workhorse for a small business or a family on a budget.

And of course no one should forget the Citroen 2CV and a few other miserly cars built over the years when the buyer's biggest concern was price and certainly not quality.