The cheapest cars ever sold in Australia (and what they’d cost today)

May 5, 2024

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Ever wondered how much the car market has changed over the years? Here are the cheapest cars to ever go on sale in Australia from each decade.

Automotive technology has come a long way since the first car was publicly available for purchase in Australia. While a few private companies built steam-powered ‘motorcars’ in the early days of Australian motoring, it was the Ford Model T entering the history books as the first mass-produced car to go on sale Down Under in 1908.

While the Model T arrived here as a sort of Ikea-like kit for local dealerships to construct and sell, it wasn’t until 1948 that Australia began to mass-produce cars under the Holden name. The 48-215, or Holden FX as it is more commonly known, rolled onto showroom floors in 1948 and started Australia’s long-running love affair with cars.

Since then, we have had a bustling new car market imported from all over the world, and despite Australia’s relatively low population, we are spoiled for choice.

While the costs of shipping vehicles to Australia remain significant, there have always been options for those who want to jump into a brand-new car without breaking the bank.

Here are the cheapest cars ever sold in Australia, dating back to the 1960s (the last decade for which we have reliable pricing data).

The 2020s: 2020 Mitsubishi Mirage

Price when new: $13,990 (plus on-roads)
Price in 2024 adjusted for inflation: Around $16,000
Price on the used market now: $7000–$10,000
Powertrain: Front-wheel-drive, 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol engine

The cheapest car you could buy new in 2020 was a Japanese one. The entry-level 2020 Mitsubishi Mirage with a manual transmission was just $13,990 before on-road costs when it rolled into showrooms.

For that price, you got a pretty basic car and interior, although you did get air conditioning, power windows and even power steering. The Mirage was powered by a little three-cylinder 1.2-litre engine mated to a five-speed manual transmission.

You could fit five people into a Mirage, and you even got a five-year/100,000km warranty for peace of mind.

The 2010s: 2013 Chery J1 Manual

Price when new: $9990 drive-away
Price adjusted for inflation: Around $12,900
Price on the used market now: $1000–$3000
Powertrain: Front-wheel-drive, 1.3-litre three-cylinder petrol engine

Chery gave us one of the first tastes of Chinese-made economy cars when it landed in Australia with the J1. You could drive away in one of these little hatchbacks for under $10,000 in 2013.

The Chery J1 was a bare-bones hatchback, with a 1.3-litre engine with manual gearbox that got you from point A to point B as cheaply as possible. However, they did come with air conditioning, power steering and ABS.

The J1’s downfall was its inability to run on 91 unleaded; it needed to be filled with premium 95-octane or higher. However, the claimed consumption was an impressive 6.7L/100km, which could be as low as 5.5L/100km on the highway.

The J1 was only equipped with two airbags, and it scored a three-star ANCAP rating by 2013 standards.

The 2000s: 2001 Daihatsu Cuore HandiVan

Price when new: $9750 (plus on-road costs)
Price adjusted for inflation: Around $17,000
Price on the used market now: $1000–$3000
Driveline layout: Front-wheel drive, 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine

A subsidiary of automotive giant Toyota, Daihatsu has always been one of the most affordable new car options for Australians until it departed from our market in the mid-2000s.

The Daihatsu Cuore HandiVan was best described as ‘just a car’. These little machines were stripped of so many features that they didn’t even have rear seats, hence the name HandiVan.

For your sub-$10,000 spend, you got no air conditioning, no power steering, wind-up windows, a grey interior, no radio, and just two airbags. Granted, you could option air conditioning for an extra $1435 and a radio cassette with two speakers for $315.

The little three-cylinder 1.0-litre engine had a five-speed manual gearbox that was calibrated well for Australian roads. These cars could hit 110km/h and above while churning out 41kW at the wheels.

Since these were classified as panel vans, you could purchase a HandiVan as a business vehicle. They become a popular choice as florists’ cars and other inner-city delivery vehicles.

There were more expensive variants of the Cuore, such as those with an automatic gearbox, a radio, and rear seats, but they were all still quite affordable.

The 1990s: 1992 FSM Niki

Price when new: $5999 (plus on-roads)
Price adjusted for inflation: Around $13,000
Price on the used market now: $7000–$12,000
Powertrain: Rear-wheel-drive, 0.7-litre two-cylinder petrol engine

Perhaps one of the strangest cars to grace Australia’s shores was the FSM Niki. Born out of the Fiat 126, which was built nearly two decades before the FSM Niki came to Australia, this little Polish car didn’t have much going for it.

FSM stood for Fabryka Samochodow Malolitrazowych, and the Niki was imported into Australia between 1989 and 1993.

As Drive‘s Features Editor, Rob Margeit, aptly said: “How it passed local safety and emissions laws in the late 1980s was never fully explained”.

The engine, which hung over the back axle, was an air-cooled two-cylinder carbureted screamer with a displacement of just 652cc. This tiny car had an overall length of 3.1 metres, weighed just 600kg, and put only 18kW to the ground.

The options list had “not available” next to air conditioning, automatic transmission and power steering. What you saw was what you got: flipper front windows, a single-speed interior fan, drum brakes all around, and a non-synchro gearbox. Not even a glovebox or radio.

If you enjoy weird cars and hate yourself a little bit, these strange little cars go for around $10,000 on the used market today, almost double the cheapest model you could get back in the 1990s for $5990.

The 1980s: 1980 Suzuki Hatch

Price when new: $3990 (plus on-roads)
Price adjusted for inflation: Around $20,000
Price on the used market now: $3000–$5000
Powertrain: Front-wheel-drive, 0.5-litre three-cylinder petrol engine

With perhaps one of the least creative names for a vehicle ever, the Suzuki Hatch burst onto the scene as another Japanese economy car and represented one of the first four-stroke ‘Kei-class’ vehicles sold Down Under.

The Suzuki Hatch embraced the same marketing tactics as the Cuore HandiVan in that it was a ‘light-commercial vehicle’, i.e. it had no rear seats.

Suzuki Australia marketed the car as a “good egg”, promising “an exceptional four-stroke, three-cylinder motor gives you all the power you’ll need. It’s ideal for city conditions. Fast, manoeuvrable and powerful”.

We aren’t too sure what spec list Suzuki was looking at, but the 0.5-litre front-wheel-drive layout put just 19kW to the ground, although the car did only weigh 530kg.

One of the only price competitors to the Suzuki Hatch was the Leyland Moke ($3999 plus on-roads), which resembled a golf cart rather than a car, thanks to the fact that it, literally, had no doors.

They’re cool by 2024 standards, although not expensive, so you’ll end up picking one up for under $5000, which is still more than the $3990 you could pick one up for in 1980.

The 1970s: 1971 Fiat 500

Price when new: $1278 (plus on-road costs)
Price adjusted for inflation: Around $16,000
Price on the used market now: $20,000–$30,000
Powertrain: Rear-wheel-drive, 0.5-litre two-cylinder petrol engine

The adored Fiat 500 has had one of the most epic leaps in price on our list from its original price to its value today. It’s now a bona-fide classic car that you could pick up for less than $1500 when it first came to Australia in 1962.

It held its position as one of the cheapest cars you could buy brand-new Down Under, only being bested in price by the Lightburn Zeta and the equally weird West German NSU Prinz during the 1960s. After these two models fizzled out, the Fiat 500 enjoyed its top spot as the cheapest car you could buy new in the ’70s.

This gorgeous little car was nothing but pure Italian charm. Its little 499cc rear-mounted engine put out just 13kW allowing for a top speed of 95km/h (without a headwind).

The need for a city car wasn’t felt just yet in the ’70s, so these little machines were being bested in sales ten-fold by the much larger XY Ford Falcon and Holden Kingswood despite the price deficit.

Thanks to their unpopularity when new, a good Fiat 500 is incredibly difficult to find in 2024 and a restored one can run over the $30,000 mark or even beyond.

The 1960s: 1964 Lightburn Zeta

Price when new: $1190 (plus on-roads)
Price adjusted for inflation: Around $18,000
Price on the used market now: Unknown
Powertrain: Rear-wheel-drive, 0.3-litre two-cylinder petrol engine

What happens when a household goods entrepreneur gets his hands on equipment to build his own car? One of the most unique things to come out of Australia: the Lightburn Zeta.

Harold Lightburn had taken over the family business in 1941 and established the Lightburn Company just as World War II was in its final throes. Taking over the reins from his father, he built a large facility on the former site of Camden Motordrome in South Australia and turned it into a manufacturing base for his newfound company, Lightburn & Co.

Just five years later, Lightburn had built an enviable manufacturing business, employing 500 staff and making brick moulds, concrete mixers, power tools, wheelbarrows, go-karts, white goods, wheels, and everything in between.

In 1963, Lightburn began producing its own car, the Zeta. This little fibreglass body encased a 324cc two-stroke engine sourced from the UK. It even came with a sequential gearbox that could hit its top speed of 100km/h in forward or reverse.

Performance-wise, the car struggled on any hill, or anywhere really – with magazines at the time citing performance figures as ‘virtually nil’. In reality, tests of the time rarely reached 100km/h with a zero to 50mph sprint taking almost 75 seconds.

In 2024, it’s nearly impossible to find one for sale. We can’t even speculate the price of a Zeta on the used market because they simply do not come up for sale, and it’ll take a special person to buy one of these for their collection.