2009 Hyundai Accent GS vs. 2009 Nissan Versa Sedan 1.6

The phone rang at work: "Your mother had an accident this morning, totaled her car," my wife said. "A young girl pulled out of Trader Joe's and T-boned her. The car's a mess. She's definitely going to need another one."

Great! I thought. No, I mean, no, not great that she had an accident -- "She's okay, right?" My wife's lack of panic inferred she was fine. But "great" in the sense that that horrible car of hers had met a premature demise. She bought her wretched, power-steeringless, 2000 Ford Escort ZX2 impulsively, without even a test drive. Or me, a chance to warn her of its terribleness. "Didn't want to bother you," she said with an earnest look.

At her modest fixed income, we'll have to find a cheap replacement. But what? Should it be a very cheap new car or a little bit better used one? It just so happens that the day before this silver-lined event occurred, I had volunteered to write this piece comparing the two cheapest cars in the American market today. Suddenly it's not an abstract exercise.

The two cars in question are the base versions (or maybe they're the bargain-basement versions) of the Nissan Versa (the Sedan 1.6) and Hyundai Accent (the GS three-door). And their chase to the bottom of the barrel actually has been rather funny to watch. The Accent, by bent of its sheer lack of car-there, was the original occupant of this humble throne. Then Nissan, for some jealous reason, took an eraser to its Versa, replacing its standard 122-horsepower, 1.8-liter engine and six-speed manual with a 107-horse, 1.6-liter coupled to a five-speed and scotched just about every feature unnecessary to the most primitive vehicular motion-plummeting its price $1080 below the Accent's. Indignantly, Hyundai dialed the Accent's price $20 under the Versa's, which is where the battle has stalled. Anybody for unpainted?