BEST CARS FOR BAD CREDIT

Best Car Research Sites

Portals

Autos.msn.com has excellent information on reliability, but autos.yahoo.com has information from Consumer Reports. We encourage everybody to look at the annual Consumer Reports auto issue; it's the Gold Standard when it comes to vehicle research.

Specialty Sites

Lots of competition about who's the best, so we'll list them in alphabetical order, including cars.com,, edmunds.com and traderonline.com.

Pure Fun

Take a moment to read Dan Neil's 50 Worst Cars Of All Time. He's a Pulitzer Prize winner and probably the funniest writer of which you've never heard.
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We'll Start With New Cars and Proceed To Used Car Deals

Welcome to our research on best cars for bad credit customers, cars in the $10,000, $12,000 or $15,000 range. We'll start with new cars first.

There's a race going on between the Nissan Versa and the Hyundai Accent for the lowest sticker-price car in America -- as both are offering 09s under $10,000. Now these are stripped down versions (and destination charges and air conditioning will add at least $1,500), but make no mistake. These are quality cars at probably a once-in-the-rest-of-your-lifetime price.

The Kia Rio has long been the best-rated subcompact by J.D. Power, and it's essentially the same car as the Accent (they are what's known as "platform cars," sharing the same chassis, engine, etc.) It used to fight it out with the Chevy Aveo (another around $11,000 car) for the cheapest car on the market.

Last year's surge in gas prices forced manufacturers to pay attention to gas-friendly vehicles, and the slump in auto sales has led to discounts, incentives, interest rates deals -- anything to move a car off the lot. That's created real bargains on cars such as the Toyota Yaris, Ford Focus, Honda Fit -- even the Smart Fortwo.

The reason we tout cars in this price range is simple. If you have bad credit, your chance of getting approved goes up if your price range goes down, and that's crucial in these credit-crunched times.Bottom line: You don't have to drive a hoopty to save money. Look at some of the deals available on used cars. >>