#subcompacts

It may be hard to find a really bad car these days, but it might be even more difficult to find a car that’s attractively affordable. We have two cars here that swing in under $20,000 and it’s weirdly exciting to pit them against each other.

Over the last five years, the battle of the subcompacts has been heating up in North America, and it now features no less than seven competitors, including the Mazda2.

Scion has announced a bargain $99 per month lease rate for its iQ mini car, hoping to boost deliveries as competition in the segment grows with Chevrolet’s recently released Spark off to a strong start.

Chevrolet’s subcompact, the Spark, looks more like something out of a Pixar production than a car bearing the bow tie badge, but all is forgiven in the sub compact world provided good gas mileage. While the Spark isn’t bad, it could be better.

We might have some fancy cars over here in the USA, but there are quite a few vehicles overseas that we can’t help but think are desperately missing from our shores. More than a few are niche market models perfect for auto-enthusiasts, while others are more stylish or practical than what’s currently available in the US. And some are both.

Credit sex, swagger or supportive reviews from the automotive community. Actually, scratch that and credit them all for the Fiat 500 Abarth’s warm reception that demanded triple what the automaker originally expected to sell in North America.

Even with skyrocketing fuel prices, subcompacts are selling less than their compact counterparts.  The Ford Fiesta was the overall leader in the subcompact department, 9,147 sales but still trailed the larger Focus’  17,265 total sales. Honda Civic sales rose 7% to 26,777 which is more than triple the Fit’s total of 8,116 units in April. Furthermore, the mid-size Accord even managed to outsell the Civic.