Cars.com/USA TODAY/MotorWeek $16,000 Subcompact Shootout

ARCADIA, Calif. -- As rising fuel prices spotlight the value of good gas mileage, low-price subcompact cars are leaving showrooms at a rate of three for every two that dealers were selling a year ago.

Many recession-battered buyers who can't afford $30,000 for 50-mpg hybrids, are looking to small cars priced half that for relief from $4 gasoline.

It's still a niche of the new car market: Despite 49% higher sales through February this year vs. a year ago, cars classed "lower small" by tracker Autodata — essentially all subcompacts — still account for just three of every 100 new vehicles sold.

Subcompacts are the cheapest new car alternative, though the average transaction price of $16,287 this year is up 14% from two years ago, J.D. Power and Associates data show. For perspective, the average out-the-door price for the next size up, compacts, is $19,462, Power says, and for all vehicles it's $28,080.

Inspired by the increasing interest in subcompacts, our latest head-to-auto competition — the Cars.com/USA TODAY/MotorWeek $16,000 Subcompact Shootout — aimed to see where you can get the most for your money in an entry-level small car. It pitted seven of the small cars with stickers of $16,000 or less (before shipping) against each other in three days of testing.

The results can help you sort through the flood of information available — even help you decide if you'd be happier with a nearly new used car, or maybe spending a bit more for a compact with more room and features.

You can find more online at cars.usatoday.com and Cars.com. MotorWeek will air its Shootout coverage starting this week.

Surprises: The best-selling subcompact, the redesigned Nissan Versa, came in last. And the oldest design among the contenders, Honda Fit, came in first.

More than fuel prices have driven showroom traffic for subcompacts. There are new models, redesigns of existing nameplates and more advertising. Six of the seven Shootout contenders are new or significantly redesigned.

"These are the new-generation subcompacts," says Thomas King, senior director at J.D. Power and Associates. "They have a lot of equipment and a lot of technology and electronic features you didn't see in the past. People want fuel economy, but they want the features, too."

The Shootout found some models riding the crest of this "new-generation" curve, others lagging.

To make the field, a car's window-sticker price had to be $16,000 or less, while having four doors, seating for four, an automatic transmission and a government gas mileage rating of at least 35 mpg on the highway.

The last may not seem a high bar. Nowadays, many bigger cars have mileage ratings that good. Hyundai's Sonata and Toyota's Camry midsize sedans, for example, have 35 mpg highway ratings.

Subcompacts tend to be less aerodynamic, which hurts their highway mileage, but their lighter weight can give them an mpg edge on city and suburban streets, the most common driving.

Sticker price can grow

One thing to watch out for: You might have to work to get one at the low sticker price. Dealers have less profit margin than on bigger vehicles and sometimes are tempted to pad the sticker with "dealer-installed" furbelows.