2004 Compact Wagons

Let's say you've got what it takes to go to college (money). For your high-school graduation present, your parents--who love you very much but are looking forward to some peace and quiet once you're safely ensconced in a dorm many hours away--have offered to buy you a set of wheels. The ground rules: It has to be cheap to buy and insure; it must carry a new-car warranty; it also has to have enough space for you to move your CD collection, Xbox, baggy-pants, and flat-screen computer the heck out of the newly christened guest room.

The short list of what to buy inevitably is peppered with cars built in Korea. Parts and labor are cheap there, and the Korean auto industry is in its adolescence, so it doesn't know how to build world-class cars capable of demanding top-dollar just yet. Kia offers the ovoid Rio Cinco (or five, as in the number of doors), starting at $11,905.

Ailing Korean automaker Daewoo recently was acquired by General Motors, so its offering is rebadged as the Chevy Aveo for U.S. consumption. It's a retune of the Eurasian-market Kalos, with a larger 1.6-liter Opel-designed engine, revised steering and suspension tuning, and upgraded equipment, priced at $9995 to start, without air-conditioning.

Kia's parent, Hyundai, isn't trolling these waters anymore, but mighty Toyota is making a big splash with its youth-oriented Scion sub-brand. The xA model, based on an Echo cousin that's sold as the ist in Japan, just barely limbos under our $13,000 base price bar at $12,965.