What's Your Go-to, New Vehicle Recommendation For Grads/Budget-oriented Buyers Spending $20k STREET PRICE?

Toyota Corolla.

Corolla or Focus or Cruze or Civic or Elantra or Sonic or Forte because they cheap to buy and are pretty reliable.

The answer to this question is without doubt a Honda Civic - which can be had after discounts in that price range easily.

FOr those who want an American Brand - the Chevy Cruze works too for those who want interior space - but today - having all been discontinued - there will be some real buys from Ford for the Focus as well - even if it is smaller inside.

A compact pickup. It helps with moving, settling in, having an active lifestyle, it doesn't cost much to buy or maintain, and with an extended cab it has enough space for young people with no kids.

Try to do that for $20K is the issue.

Yeah, $20k today is not what $20k used to be. Perhaps go with a certified used.
Asking a 6 foot 4 young man to fit inside a Fiesta is rather cruel.

This is the conversation my wife and I are having for our fostered son. Jed's a great driver but insuring him on a GT350, RCF, or an Escalade is out of the question. He can't be insured on the Stinger because it is a company car. He's been driving some of the pre-flipped oldies and pre-to-be-auctioned cars. We want airbags by the dozen, but we don't feel that even if you can buy a $50K car for your kid you just don't do it. My wife's first car was a Jetta even though her folks have more money than God himself. Jed's as flannel-shirt, Ag student, cowboy as you can get, so he'd like a truck, but a livable Canyon, Colorado, or Tacoma will be well above $30K. I'm waiting for the August fire sales because I'll take the rebate and the real invoice to determine the number.

@MD - Surely a used / off-lease full-size truck could be had in the USA for $20k? Having said the a Tacoma sized pick up is a great first vehicle for an outdoorsy person.

@CC To be honest we haven't started looking aggressively.

Jed's currently driving a Ford 500 we took in on trade. It has 180K miles on the clock, but runs OK. We gave a charity allowance for it on a new car and would have gotten $750 for it on our unofficial back-lot sales. There are a LOT of used car dealers around the county that are selling worn out cars and we offload to them a lot. I bought it for $750. It has airbags and antilock brakes and is easy to insure. He has superb grades and no tickets, so that helps. He's also been to track driving school with a "teen annex" street driving course.

It would also be challenging to steal a CPO pickup in town because they are like gold retail. Here, late-model used pickups bring top dollar and don't last long on the street.

Jed is perfectly happy with the 500. It's my wife that will say "That car isn't safe for our boy and we need to the the right thing." Translation: "I feel like spending money."

That will be when I get aggressive in finding the miracle car.

Fiesta ST.

Yes...assuming you can find one. They didn't sell well so dealers didn't stock them so they didn't sell...

Neither the Focus ST nor the Fiesta ST sold well for us, but we had more success with the Focus.

Fiesta ST, Honda Civic Si, Jeep Renegade.

Mazda 3 or 5 -you can't go wrong. Cheap to buy, operate, repair & super reliable

And given that Mazda's sales are terrible, they are excellent deals.

Mazda 3, VW golf, Honda Civic.