Phoenix and I probably have to replace his car soon. Like, it could be two months, or it could be a year or two, if we’re lucky, but soon it will have some catastrophic breakdown that will be more expensive than it’s worth to fix.
So of course we’re considering taking the money from the CARS program. But we don’t have tons of cash on hand, and we’d rather not go into debt.
So, taking into account base price, CARS money, and special dealer incentives, what comes out to the best deal? We don’t really care what we get, as long as Phoenix fits in* it and it gets him to work and back.
*So, OK, maybe we need to know the cheapest few, in case his head mashes into the ceiling on the cheapest one. 
If you go to Edmunds, you can look at all new cars and sort by retail price. The cheapest car I can find is a 2009 Nissan Versa, at $9,900 MSRP, but it doesn’t appear there are any manufacturer incentives (dealers may or may not have their own incentives, but let’s get real, they aren’t going to give you $2 grand off a car that doesn’t even cost five digits).
In this area, Kia dealers are making amazing offers to clear their lots. New, fuel efficient cars in the $6,000 range. Check Kia dealers in your area.
Our Kia dealers were advertising doubling your CARS money for your trade-in (as in, giving you up to $9000 instead of $4500). They also often want to give you 2 cars for the price of one.
Cheapest deal I’ve seen around here is for a Chevy Aveo. Something like $4,999 or $5,499 after the clunker rebate and all the GM programs kick in.