In the Essential trim, the doors can all lock and unlock with buttons on a fob, but you have to put the key in the ignition to start the car.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
I’m driving the cheapest new car you can buy in Canada: the Hyundai Venue. And this is the most basic version, called the Essential trim, which starts at $24,628 before taxes – including a $500 discount promotion program Hyundai is running this summer.
Long gone are the days when Canada’s cheapest car cost less than $10,000 before fees and taxes. The 2018 Nissan Micra and Chevrolet Spark started in the four figures, and a decade before that so did the Hyundai Accent and Kia Rio. But at that price, you were shifting gears with your right hand and cranking the window with your left.
(Let’s get all the numbers out of the way – skip ahead if you need to. The 2026 Venue has a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $21,999. Freight and pre-delivery inspection add an extra $2,200, and dealers can charge an administration fee of up to $799, as well as some other small provincial fees. In Ontario, 13 per cent HST brings the out-the-door price to $27,909. Because provincial taxes vary, you’ll pay the most in Atlantic Canada – almost $400 more – and the least in Alberta, where only the 5 per cent GST is charged and the final price is $25,884.)
The Essential trim has a colour touchscreen, wireless charging and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
I thought the car would be a lot more basic than it is. This Essential trim doesn’t include a sunroof, blind-spot collision warning, aluminum wheels or a bunch of other niceties available in the two other trims, but it does come standard with a continuously variable transmission, cruise control and power windows. You have to put the key in the ignition, but the doors lock or unlock via buttons on the key fob and the driver’s door. It includes a colour touchscreen, wireless charging and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and even has active lane-keep assist. The seats are not powered, but they’re comfortable and heated in the front, to three different levels. This is a far better-equipped car than just a generation ago.
Hyundai Canada imports its Venues from the factory in South Korea and they’re fitted to order based on what Canadian marketing and sales people think will sell well here. These are smart people – Hyundai was the fourth best-selling automotive brand in Canada last year, and its sales have increased almost every month in 2026. They know what we want from our cars, otherwise they wouldn’t sell. We want air conditioning and heated seats.
In 2008, Hyundai also sold one of the cheapest new cars in Canada – back then, the MSRP was $9,995. The three-door Hyundai Accent L cost $13,610 out-the-door once fees and Ontario taxes were included – that’s less than half the price of today’s most basic new car. The Kia Rio and Chevrolet Aveo sedans both trimmed their starting prices that year to match the Accent.
Mark Richardson hauled some lumber with the Hyundai Accent he was testing in 2008. The Accent's starting price that year was less than $10,000.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
The Hyundai Venue comes with 15-inch steel rims.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
To come in with a four-figure price, the Accent was available with a five-speed manual transmission, individual door locks and no air conditioning. Its 1.6-litre engine was good for 110 horsepower and 106 lb-ft of torque, which is not so different from the 121 horsepower and 113 lb-ft of torque in today’s Venue.
I remember that Accent well. I wrote for another publication at the time and we persuaded Hyundai to give us an Accent L for a long-term test, and then a weekly succession of drivers abused the little car ruthlessly for 23,000 kilometres. It never put a wheel wrong – that year, J.D. Power and Associates named the Accent to be North America’s most dependable sub-compact vehicle.
“It has been flawless – not a single rattle, untoward noise or bump in the night,” wrote Jim Kenzie, a hard-to-please tester. Even Shark Tank judge Robert Herjavec drove it for a week, despite it costing less than the wheels on any of his Lamborghinis, and called it “one of the greatest automotive bargains of all time.”
In fact, the only person unimpressed was Darren McGee, the publication’s assistant editor, who got a speeding ticket on St. Clair Avenue East in Toronto and declared, “Gawd, how I hate this car.”
The point is, the 2008 Hyundai Accent was a good little car at a great price, sold as a sedan or a hatchback, and with five doors or three. In its first three months on sale, Hyundai Canada sold 8,000 base hatchbacks, and half of those were bare-bones models, built with manual transmissions and no air-conditioning.
The rear seats on the 2026 Hyundai Venue.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
The trunk space is decent for a small car.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
It was replaced in 2020 by the Venue, but Hyundai’s marketers clearly don’t believe such a basic car would sell well in Canada now. If they did, they could import a Venue with the same specifications as the entry-level models sold in India. There, the Venue is in its second generation and is built on a new platform, but the HX2 trim level can be bought with a 1.2-litre four-cylinder engine that produces 82 horsepower, with a five-speed manual transmission and wind-up windows. Its final price after taxes is just less than $12,000. That includes air conditioning, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
The Venue is not even Hyundai’s cheapest offering in India; six other models are less expensive, with the lowest price out the door being $8,350 for the tiny i10 Nios. These cars are built to different standards, of course, and the Venue is also made in India, where there are 13 variations available.
The most direct mechanical comparison to Canada’s car may be the automatic Venue HX6 with a one-litre turbocharged three-cylinder engine good for 118 horsepower. It costs $18,465 out the door. The most expensive Indian Venue – outfitted with a diesel engine, leather seats and all the driver’s safety assistance features we get here – costs $23,640 all-in, or less than what we’re paying for our most basic version, even in Alberta.
The Venue has a 1.6-litre, four-cylinder engine that makes 121 horsepower and 113 lb-ft of torque.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
When the current Venue debuted in Canada for the 2020 model year, its MSRP was $17,099 and, for that, the Essential trim offered a six-speed manual transmission and omitted cruise control. Few people bought it, though, and the manual option was dropped within a couple of years. Today, the price has climbed by almost $5,000 and everyone gets cruise control. It’s selling well, with almost 8,000 units of all three trims sold in Canada this year, up 6 per cent over last year. Larger Konas and Elantras sold better though, and the Tucson SUV sold more than 25,000 units; it starts at $38,600 before taxes.
Clearly, our tastes have changed over the years. It’s not that new cars cost twice as much as they used to, it’s that we expect more from them as a basic minimum. The next cheapest vehicles in Canada don’t even come close to the Venue’s entry point. Before taxes, a base-model Hyundai Elantra costs $26,341 followed by the Kia K4 at $27,075. Only five other cars, in their most basic trims, currently cost less than $30,000 before taxes.
The average price for a new car in Canada now hovers around $65,000. For those of us who are more frugal – or less picky – buying used remains an option, though even those pre-owned prices sit higher than they used to. One thing is certain: average car prices aren’t dropping anytime soon. They could if we were collectively willing to settle for fewer features of comfort and convenience. But clearly, we are not prepared to do that. Wireless charging for everyone!
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