A new Honda Civic is $25k, so the same as the Slate. The average new car price in the US is $50k, so double the Slate base price and still significantly more than the upgraded Slate I built. As far as I can tell, the US market has only one sub-$20k car - the base Nissan Versa.
The versa is dead now. The Hyundai Venue is now the cheapest base model vehicle in America at nearly $22k.