Yahoo Autos Were the Cheapest Cars of 1984 Really Better Deals?
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An interesting thing I've learned after writing about affordable cars of the 1960s through 1980s is that many—maybe even most—readers believe that the deals on economy cars were better in the old days.
The cheap cars you can buy in the United States today are all loaded with costly hardware to meet current safety and emissions regulations, not to mention standard comfort and convenience features such as air conditioning and power windows. Surely they must be far more expensive, once we adjust prices for inflation!
The cheapest new 2024 model-year car you can buy in the United States right now is the base Nissan Versa S sedan, with an MSRP of $16,680. That money (before taxes and fees) gets you a 2,650-pound four-door sedan with 122 hp, a five-speed manual transmission, and a somewhat poky power-to-weight ratio of 21.72 pounds per horse.
It also comes with ABS, traction control, air conditioning, power windows, rear-view monitor, Bluetooth-integrated four-speaker audio system, power door locks, and a bunch of other stuff we take for granted in modern vehicles.
Priced just a bit higher, we have the 2024 Mitsubishi Mirage ES CVT base four-door hatchback and its $16,995 MSRP. Its specifications are similar to those of its Versa rival, with two important differences: It comes with an automatic transmission—but its engine makes just 78 hp.
That makes it the only new highway-legal car Americans can buy right now with fewer than 100 hp, 31 years after the last sub-50-horsepower new car was available here. The Mirage's power-to-weight ratio is a seemingly catastrophic 26.72 pounds per horse.
If you time-travel back 40 years with the inflation-adjusted cost of a '24 Mirage in your pocket, could you buy something quicker and/or fundamentally better with that money?
Short answer: hell no! I've long thought that modern econo-commuters like the Versa and Mirage get undeserved bad raps from reviewers, and just a couple of months ago I rented a 2024 Mirage G4 sedan for driving to junkyards around North and South Carolina and then to do my job judging at the South Carolina Block Party 24 Hours of Lemons race.
The rental company offered me a free "upgrade" to a Jeep Renegade, but I wanted to try out the much-reviled Mirage nearly eight years after I last reviewed one (favorably).
And the Mirage proved to be perfectly serviceable transportation for close to a week of driving around two states. Its 78 horses and CVT worked just fine on freeways, and I had cold A/C and could play music from my phone through its audio system.
Here I am with my dignified judicial facial hair plus my fellow Lemons judges, and you can see that four grown—though perhaps not so mature—men fit inside with tolerable comfort. Judge Jason Torchinsky, seated behind me in the back seat, had driven his Nissan Pao hundreds of miles to the race and felt the Mirage seemed like a futuristic luxury machine by comparison.
Both Jason and I are Generation Xers who spent our formative automotive years (the 1980s) as broke-ass car nerds driving hoopties with varying degrees of terribleness/coolness, and we love all cheap economy cars from the Model T through… well, now. After much discussion with Jason and others of a similar mindset, I chose 1984 as the model year for a head-to-head comparison against 2024's cheapest cars.
It doesn't hurt that I graduated high school in 1984, the first model year for the C4 Corvette and a year in which Chevrolet dealers still offered the heartwarmingly antiquated Chevette in the very same showrooms.
The 2024 Versa S sedan's $16,680 MSRP comes out to $5,492 in May 1984 dollars (using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' calculator), while the 2024 Mirage hatchback's $16,995 price equates to $5,595 in mid-1984 bucks.
Exactly eight highway-legal four-wheeled motor vehicles available for new sale in the United States as 1984 models could squeeze under those figures (and if you think you can find some edge-case loophole I didn't think of, e.g., plywood cars built in Bhutan and imported by sea-snake-towed barges, go away now).
No trucks qualified, not even the most stripped-down bargain-basement models of the Isuzu P'up, Mitsubishi Truck/Dodge Ram 50, Ford Ranger, Chevrolet S-10 or Mazda B2000.
Sure, hungry dealers looking to move iron late in 1984 might have offered big discounts well below MSRP, but we're just comparing official factory MSRPs here (and I'm using my extensive personal reference library of contemporary price guides and factory brochures as source material, not the bogus MSRPs you'll find with hasty Google searches).
We have seven two-door hatchbacks and one two-door sedan, six built in Japan and two built in the United States. Let's get started!
1984 Dodge/Plymouth Colt 2-door hatchback: $15,172 in 2024 dollars
This car was a Mitsubishi Mirage (which wasn't offered with Mitsubishi badging in the United States until the 1985 model year) and was essentially identical whether sold as a Dodge or Plymouth.
Horsepower: 68
Pounds per horsepower: 27.43
Transmission: 4-speed manual
No-extra-cost goodies: Tilt wheel, carpeting
Stuff you didn't get as base equipment: Lighter, right-side mirror, you name it
Price of air conditioning: $1,883 in 2024 dollars
Price of automatic transmission: Not available on base model. No, really!
Price of crappiest factory AM radio: $273 in 2024 dollars
The Colt was tied for the title of cheapest new 1984 car Americans could buy and it was quite a deal for its era. However, you'd need to spend the 2024 equivalent of at least several thousand bucks to get one that would be considered even moderately tolerable by 21st century standards. You see that power-to-weight ratio of 27.43 pounds per horsepower?
That beats all the other 1984 cars on this list—and it's still not as good as the ratio for the 2024 Mirage, which benefits from modern electronic fuel injection and a CVT that keeps the engine in its happy zone for as long as the gas pedal is floored. As for the 2024 Versa S, it would leave the base '84 Colt behind so humiliatingly that it would appear redshifted in the Nissan's rearview mirror.
1984 Mazda GLC 2-door hatchback: $15,172 in 2024 dollars
The GLC (Great Little Car) went to front-wheel drive for the 1981 model year (except for the wagon, which remained on the old rear-wheel-drive platform through 1983), then became the 323 for 1986. Having driven and worked on plenty of mid-1980s Colts and GLCs, I'd say the GLC was the better-built of the two, with the Colt being slightly more fun to drive.
Horsepower: 68
Pounds per horsepower: 27.79
Transmission: 4-speed manual
No-extra-cost goodies: Rear defroster, remote driver's-side mirror, lighter
Stuff you didn't get as base equipment: Radial tires, right-side mirror, inside fuel-door release
Price of air conditioning: $1,822 in 2024 dollars
Price of automatic transmission: Not available on base model
Price of crappiest factory AM radio: Not available on base model
Hardly anybody bought these cars as zero-option base models, but they existed.
1984 Subaru STD 2-door hatchback: $15,479 in 2024 dollars
This car was known as the Leone in its homeland and by trim level in the United States (sadly, there never were STD badges on the base-model cars). The four-wheel-drive wagons get all the press today, but Subaru sold plenty of very cheap front-wheel-drive three-door hatchback versions during the 1980s.
Horsepower: 69
Pounds per horsepower: 29.71
Transmission: 4-speed manual
No-extra-cost goodies: Dome light and… forget it, you got nothing
Stuff you didn't get as base equipment: Tachometer, carpets, whatever
Price of air conditioning: Not available on base model
Price of automatic transmission: Not available on base model
Price of crappiest factory AM radio: Not available on base model
Subaru in the United States by the middle 1980s was beginning to offer quicker and more luxurious cars than it had during the previous decade, but stripped-down miserable econoboxes were still part of its bloodline.
1984 Toyota Tercel 2-door hatchback: $15,484 in 2024 dollars
Toyota built this generation of Tercel from the 1983 through 1988 model years, and it was both very slow and very reliable. We remember the four-wheel-drive wagon version best today, but the base hatchback sold for more than 60% less.
Horsepower: 62
Pounds per horsepower: 32.02
Transmission: 4-speed manual
No-extra-cost goodies: Intermittent wipers, lighter
Stuff you didn't get as base equipment: Carpeting, right-side mirror
Price of air conditioning: Not available on base model
Price of automatic transmission: Not available on base model
Price of crappiest factory AM radio: Not available on base model
This car has the worst power-to-weight ratio of all eight on this list (though you need to get into serious decimal places to see that the Pontiac 1000 beats the Tercel by 32.0153 to 32.0161 pounds-per-horse), and I can say from having owned a couple of these cars that they are agonizingly slow. On the other hand, Toyota cut no corners on build quality and so this would be the cheap 1984 car of choice for those seeking reliability above all else.
1984 Nissan Sentra Standard 2-door sedan: $15,792 in 2024 dollars
The Sentra first showed up in 1982 as a replacement for the antiquated Datsun 210, and it began the "Name Is Nissan" rebranding process that finished in 1984. It couldn't quite undercut the cheapest Tercel on price, but it cost way less than the Corolla. With its old-timey post sedan design, this is the only non-hatchback on our list. It's also the only 1984 car here with a five-speed as base equipment.
Horsepower: 69
Pounds per horsepower: 28.59
Transmission: 5-speed manual!
No-extra-cost goodies: Rear defroster
Stuff you didn't get as base equipment: Carpeting, right-side mirror, lighter, etc.
Price of air conditioning: Not available on base model
Price of automatic transmission: Not available on base model
Price of crappiest factory AM radio: Not available on base model
This is the biggest car of the '84 Cheap Eight (though the Chevette and 1000 are a bit heavier), and its engine is tied with the Subaru's for most powerful on this list. Things would get difficult for the Sentra once the shockingly cheap Hyundai Excel showed up a couple of years later, but then the Sentra got bigger for 1987.
1984 Honda Civic base 2-door hatchback: $15,943 in 2024 dollars
The third-generation (1984-1987) Honda Civic was a huge sales success in the United States, and these cars were genuinely fun to drive… well, that is unless you got the Cheapskate Edition base model and its 1.3-liter engine.
Every Civic trim level above this car got an engine with 76 hp and 83.8 lb-ft (versus 60 hp and 73 lb-ft in the base car), which makes a big difference when your curb weight is under a ton.
Horsepower: 60
Pounds per horsepower: 29.95
Transmission: 4-speed manual
No-extra-cost goodies: Remote driver-side mirror, coin box, carpeting
Stuff you didn't get as base equipment: Remote hatch release, tachometer, trip odometer, lighter
Price of air conditioning: Not available on base model
Price of automatic transmission: Not available on base model
Price of crappiest factory AM radio: Not available on base model
Even with the 60-horse engine, this is still the car I'd buy if I had to pick one from this list. Build quality is close to that of the Tercel and the Civic handles and rides much better.
1984 Chevrolet Chevette CS 2-door hatchback: $16,284 in 2024 dollars
Finally, we get to a genuine red-white-and-blue Detroit car, though it was originally designed by Opel for the Brazilian market.
The Chevette was an old-fashioned rear-wheel-drive car that first went on sale in the United States as a 1976 model (because the far more technologically advanced Chevrolet Vega had become a sales liability by that time). Because it was very cheap to build and got good fuel economy, GM kept building the Chevette all the way through 1987.
Horsepower: 65
Pounds per horsepower: 30.58
Transmission: 4-speed manual
No-extra-cost goodies: AM radio, two-speed wipers
Stuff you didn't get as base equipment: Glovebox door, carpeting, lighter
Price of air conditioning: $1,914 in 2024 dollars
Price of automatic transmission: $1,200 in 2024 dollars
Price of crappiest factory AM radio: Free (but the AM/FM stereo was $331 in 2024 money)
The Chevette was cramped and primitive, but there wasn't much to go wrong with it and it had rear-wheel-drive for (one-tire) parking-lot burnouts. Plus you got a free single-speaker AM radio to celebrate 1984!
1984 Pontiac 1000 2-door hatchback: $16,682 in 2024 dollars
Sharp-eyed readers may notice that the 1000 listed at two 2024 dollars more than the Versa S sedan, but it cost 313 fewer present-day frogskins than the current base Mirage. And the idea of a Pontiac-badged Chevette is so fascinating that I'm including it in this list.
Horsepower: 65
Pounds per horsepower: 32.02
Transmission: 4-speed manual
No-extra-cost goodies: AM radio, black exterior trim, center console, locking glovebox, front swaybar, cut-pile carpeting, day/night inside mirror, much more
Stuff you didn't get as base equipment: Color-matched seat belts, right-side mirror
Price of air conditioning: $1,914 in 2024 dollars
Price of automatic transmission: $1,200 in 2024 dollars
Price of crappiest factory AM radio: Free (but the AM/FM stereo was $331 in 2024 money)
Interesting Pontiac Chevette facts: It was badged as the T1000 at first, then became the 1000 for 1984. The final 1000s were 1986 models.
After 1984, some significant developments in cheap-car availability took place in the United States. First, the Suzuki-built Chevrolet Sprint appeared as a 1985 model, then the bargain-basement Hyundai Excel and hilariously cheap Yugo GV appeared for 1986. As interesting as it would be to explore the cars of that year, our next Cheap Cars Then and Now article might need to go back 50 or 100 years instead of just 38.
