The least expensive new car you can still buy is also probably one of the least well-known small cars. It is not the Honda Civic. It is not the Toyota Corolla. It is not the Hyundai Elantra.
It is the Elantra's Kia cousin, the K4.
What It Is
The K4 sedan is Kia's least expensive car and also the least expensive new car you can buy, period. It starts at $22,290 for the LX trim, which undercuts its Hyundai Elantra sibling — which starts at $22,625 — by $335. The LX comes standard with 16-inch steel wheels (more about the virtues of this follows below), LED headlights, keyless entry/ignition and a 12.3-inch LCD touch screen.
The K4 is also available in a hatchback body style — starting at $24,990 for the EX trim, which comes standard with a full-width digital LCD display, 17-inch alloy wheels, upgraded upholstery, dual-zone climate control and a wireless charging pad.
The Elantra comes only as a sedan.
There are four other trims — for the K4 sedan — including the $23,390 LXS, which gets an upgraded six-speaker audio system and 16-inch aluminum wheels.
The EX sedan ($24,490) is equipped with the same upgrades as the EX hatchback.
The sporty GT-Line ($25,490) gets 18-inch wheels, gloss black and satin chrome exterior trim, paddle shifters for the standard continuously variable transmission, heated front seats and navigation.
The top-of-the-line GT-Line Turbo ($28,390) gets a more powerful turbocharged engine, plus synthetic leather seat covers, a sunroof, adaptive cruise control and a premium eight-speaker Harman Kardon audio system.
The hatchback is also available with the turbo'd engine and the other upgrades. The GT-Line lists for $25,990 and the GT-Line Turbo lists for $28,890.
What's New for 2026
The K4 is now available as a hatchback; it had been a sedan-only small car when it was introduced as a new model (and the Forte's replacement) in 2025.
What's Good
— An affordable car is an appealing car on that basis alone.
— Sedan or hatchback body styles.
— Very roomy up front and also in back.
What's Not So Good
— Sedan's small trunk (14.6 cubic feet) limits sedan's practicality.
— CVT automatic only (with the standard engine).
— More practical hatchback isn't the least expensive small car you can buy.
Under the Hood
All trims except the GT-Line Turbo come standard with the same drivetrain, which consists of a naturally aspirated (no turbo) 2.0-liter four that touts 147 horsepower, paired with a CVT automatic and front-wheel drive. This combo rates 29 mpg city, 39 mpg highway — so averages about 35 mpg overall. That's not the highest number in the class — that honor goes to the Honda Civic, which touts 32 mpg city, 41 mpg highway — but the difference is small, whereas the difference in MSRP is not. The Civic sedan's base price is $24,695 — $2,405 higher than the K4's base price.
It takes the K4 with its standard engine about nine seconds to get to 60 mph.
If more speed is wanted, the GT-Line Turbo offers it. This version of the K4 — sedan and hatchback — is uniquely equipped with a 1.6-liter, turbocharged four that makes 190 horsepower, and it's paired with an eight-speed automatic in lieu of the otherwise standard CVT. Equipped with this engine, the K4 is a much snappier performer. It can get to 60 mph in about seven seconds. Fuel economy dips to 26 mpg city, 33 mpg highway, but it's not a huge dip from the mileage touted by the K4 with the base engine, especially relative to the power/performance increase you get with the turbo'd engine.
This engine also does not require premium fuel, as many turbocharged engines do.
On the Road
Driving a small car is no longer a kind of punishment for being poor (or just not wanting to be poor by spending a fortune on a car) as it was in the Before Time. The time when small, inexpensive cars were cheap cars — the word in italics to emphasize how they felt rather than how little they cost.
The K4 is not like that. It is inexpensive — but that is a qualitatively different thing. Just a little more than $22,000 gets you a solid-feeling, roomy small car that comes standard with amenities that were once optional in even luxury-priced cars, such as LED headlights and power pretty much everything (windows, locks, cruise, keyless entry, AC). If you remember cheap small cars, you remember when they came standard with a steering wheel — and not much else. Many did not even come with a radio — let alone a stereo. AC was a high-dollar extra. You saved money — but at the cost of driving something you probably didn't want to drive.
If the K4 were a little larger, it'd compare favorably with a Mercedes or BMW because there's truthfully not that much meaningful difference anymore between the luxury-priced stuff and cars like the K4.
Is it "slow"? That depends on whether you need to be able to get to 60 mph in less than seven seconds. If you do, then there are other — more expensive — cars that can do that. But — aside from fast and furious acceleration — you are getting pretty much everything else for a lot less.
The turbo-equipped K4 has the speed you may need — and (once again) for not much money. It is difficult to find anything priced under $30,000 to start that's other than a transportation appliance. Here's one that stickers for just a little more than $28,000, and probably you'll be able to dicker that down to $27,000-something. For that, you'll get the small (but punchy) 1.6-liter turbo'd engine that makes its peak torque (195 foot-pounds) at just 1,700 RPM, which can be felt as immediate forward pull when you need it. Push the little Drive Mode button on the steering wheel to dial up Sport mode, and the Mercedes-Benz-like one-piece LCD screen display goes red backlit, and the throttle response gets sharper, the gear-change action snappier.
The only thing missing that would make this a lot more fun — and this goes for both the turbo and the standard-engine'd iteration — is a manual transmission, which used to be standard in small, inexpensive cars. In the base-engine car, a manual would make the 2.0-liter four feel stronger and give the driver more control; in the turbo-engine'd K4, the manual would just be a lot more entertaining — because it is always more entertaining to drive a sporty/performance car with a manual transmission.
At the Curb
The hatchback K4 is smaller — and roomier — than the sedan.
At 185.4 inches long, the sedan is just shy of a foot longer than the hatchback — which is 174.4 inches long — and both K4's have the same first- and second-row legroom (42.3 and 38 inches, respectively), but the hatchback has about twice the space for your stuff behind its backseats (22.2 cubic feet) than the sedan has in its trunk and the hatchback's total cargo-carrying capacity can be opened up to 54.3 cubic feet by folding the backseats forward.
This is the huge advantage hatchbacks have over sedans, including much larger ones. The K4 hatch has more space for cargo than any full-size sedan currently on the market, yet it has a subcompact-sized footprint, which means it takes up less space in your garage or curbside. Both versions of the K4 have adult-friendly backseats too — something many small cars lack.
The hatchback is also a practical and much more interesting-looking alternative to (god help us) another crossover.
All three hatchback trims — the EX, GT-Line and GT-Line Turbo — come standard with the Mercedes-looking single-sheet LCD screen (it's actually two separate displays in one housing), and when you first sit down, it's hard to get your head around the fact that this $24,000-ish hatchback has an interior that looks like a $100,000 luxury-badged car's interior from not that long ago, when only six-figure cars had these big, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" displays and inexpensive cars still came with a few basic gauges plus some idiot lights.
The same high-zoot interior is available in the sedan as well, but you can skip the big LCD display if you prefer not to have it; the base LX and next-highest LXS trim have a more basic main gauge display, with a 12.3-inch infotainment screen off to the right. The base LX also comes with the sensible-shoes 16-inch steel wheels mentioned earlier. They are a subtle money-saver in that not only do 16-inch tires cost less than 17-inch (and larger) tires, but steel wheels are less easily damaged than alloy wheels, which also cost a small fortune to replace when a curb strike or pothole hit bends one.
The Rest
Though it has a big LCD touch screen, the K4 also has big toggle-type switches for the climate controls that allow you to easily and by feel increase/decrease the cabin temp you prefer. There's also a scroll wheel for turning up (and down) the stereo volume.
The cupholders are huge — and adjustable. There are also multiple USB power-points, all also easily accessible.
The only hair in the soup is, it takes eight to 10 seconds or so for the infotainment system to boot up after you start the engine, which means it takes that long for the radio to turn on.
This is a common thing in all new vehicles, by the way.
The Bottom Line
A new car that can be bought for about $22,000 is something like getting more than just two sad little plastic bags of groceries for $100.
And now you can get it in a new body style too.
Eric's latest book, "Doomed: Good Cars Gone Wrong!" will be available soon. To find out more about Eric and read his past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
View the Kia K4 this week.
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