Top 5 Fun and Sporty Cars in the Under $30k in 2020
Affordable Sports Cars Aren’t Completely Dead
The 90’s affordable sports car era was perhaps the most exciting times in automotive history. Similar to that of the first ever Japanese Quartz watch, It opened doors to an extraordinary experience that enabled direct and transparent human interaction with its mechanical counterparts. The gears, engine, road tires can all be heard, felt, and controlled at the highest fidelity. The Acura Integra, Honda Civic, Nissan 240SX and Toyota Celica are only among the few to list.
Sadly, ultra cheap thriller sports care have been retired in favor of more practical and fuel efficient alternatives. But there are still a few within these alternatives that still offer that blast in the past fun and exciting driving experience and we’ve got a list of 5 to show you.
2020 Honda Civic Hatchback
Regarded as one of the most fun and affordable cars, the front-wheel drive Honda Civic continues its exciting spirit into 2020. Offered as a sedan or a sports hatchback in up to 5 trims to choose from, we highly favor the latter in the Sports trim that gets a 1.5L turbocharged four-cylinder that produces a 180 horsepower. It even comes standard with a 6-speed manual transmission – an unfortunate dying technology that brought many generations of joy and excitement in everyday driving. Still, the CVT transmission offers better fuel efficiency and the manual shift mode via steering-mounted paddle shifters shouldn’t be completely neglected as Honda engineers ensured the raw and manual manipulation of gears is still retained. Suspensions are kept stiff while keeping the overall vehicle light weight, resulting in a fun and peppy ride that’s quick to accelerate and fast in cornering.
The Honda Civic Sport Hatchback can be had for $27,890 and you’ll get a plethora of modern tech and gadgetries with it including blind spot monitoring, rear view camera, and a 7″ infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple Carplay for seamless Smartphone Connectivity.
2020 Mazda CX30 Sport
Mazda doesn’t advertise the “Zoom Zoom” slogan anymore as the calm and composed Kodo-inspired design language spoken by the Mazda 3 Sport doesn’t doesn’t quite fit the description here anymore. Rest be assured though, the fun and joyful driving experience is still there.
The Mazda 3 Sport gets a 2.5L Skyactiv-G four cylinder engine outputting 186 horsepower and 186 lb.ft of torque. Transmission is only offered in a 6-speed automatic, but our test drive notes confirm gear changes are quick and seamless across its torque band in an all-wheel-drive configuration.
The Mazda 3 Sport’s even got a trick up its sleeve to improve cornering using its G-Vector control system. Not to be confused with torque vectoring, but similar in concept where the ABS modules are used to slow the inside wheels slightly while turning, resulting in better handling and cornering capability offering similar behavior and performance of a limited slip differential.
While the higher GT trim can get pricey at $36,000, the base CX30 can be had for just $26,625 albeit a smaller 2.0L engine in front-wheel drive configuration. Still, we’re confident even the base trim will still deliver a smile on every turn you make.
2020 Acura IL-X
At a base price of $30,490, we’re breaking the rules here a bit, but we couldn’t resist mentioning how awesome the Acura IL-X was in our test drive. What you need to know here, is Acura knows how to make a car fun to drive, and the IL-X holds true to its words.
The front-wheel drive sedan is powered by a 2.0L i-VTEC four-cylinder engine netting 201 horsepower and 180 lbs.ft of torque. And yes, it’s got VTEC in it, essentially having the effect of pushing a turbo button, except that button is activated when you floor the pedal.
The best part of it all is the snappy 8-speed dual clutch transmission with our test drive notes proving its ability to switch gears seamlessly and almost instantaneously via its steering-mounted paddle shifter. And nothing in our books has made cornering as fun and organic as the Acura IL-X in its price point. While it will cost more compared to the above alternatives, the luxury branding and amenities and exceptional handling are well worth the added cost.
2020 Fiat 500
Let’s be clear here, a fun car does not need to be powerful, and that’s where small wheel hatchbacks come in. Although the last Fiat 500 we test drove was way back in 2014, the miniature 200 horsepower go-kart like 5-door hatchback broke our virgin experience of the fun and fast small-wheel car. The 17″ small wheel and ultra compact form factor made the overall driving experience an absolute blast completed with a 5-speed manual transmission and an engaging clutch. You even get an Italian design theme with a massive center-console tachometer and chrome dials that wraps it all up into a fun, small and cute package.
The Base Fiat 500 Cabrio model can be had for $26,495
2020 Mini Cooper
If you really want to get serious about small-wheel fun cars, there’s no better example than the British designed MINI Cooper with an actual successful auto-sport history.
Along with its cute looks, the MINI Cooper sports a ultra miniature 3-cylinder engine producing 134 horsepower that can be configured with a 6-speed manual shift transmission.
In essence, the experience is as raw as it gets, with every road bump, gear shift engagement and engine moan directly heard in the cabin space. Coupled with stiff-tuned suspensions in a small form factor, the MINI Cooper offers ultra quick and snappy cornering with no reserve. The base price of our tester can be had for just $25,390 with options included. But if small wheel fun factor is your cup of tea, we highly recommend shelling the extra bucks to buy you a seat into the MINI Cooper S or even the John Cooper Works fitted with a 2.0L turbocharged 4-cylinder that will significantly bump the horsepower output up to 189 and 228 horsepower respectively.