Is there anyplace left in America where i can get a new car for $12,000 or less?

NEW is NOT always the BEST WAY TO GO! I bought TWO used BENZ CARS from CARGURUS and they were BOTH WINNERS at about $3,000 EACH! They  had NO FRILLS like GPS but they BOTH had BOSE stereo and GREAT engineering you can FEEL! You can get a SUPERCHARGED BENZ convertible for about $8K if you SHOP THERE from 2002 or so! There are MANY GREAT USED AUDI turbo quattro cars as WELL and many GREAT used BMW xDrive cars as well! And GREAT used FORD CARS that are NOW as good as EUROPEAN makes! NEW CARS now for 12K are NOT worth buying! USED EURO CARS always are WORTH BUYING! They were MADE to go on the AUTOBAHN all day long and NOT even get HOT!  Use CONSUMER REPORTS for their USED CAR RATINGS and take Most of it SERIOUSLY! Most GM cars are NOT worth buying!  FORD CAR like the TAURUS are MOSTLy worth buying and same for the FUSION ( that is HALF MAZDA) and the EDGE ( that is HALF FORD and HALF AUDI)

Sure: The same place where you can buy a freestanding house for $30,000.

That place is called 1993.

Check Ebay, they carry an ok warrantee on cars sold on their website. Don't be tempted to buy directly with the many dealers on it since the Ebay warrantee will not protect you. 

New entry level cars that are that cheap are not worth buying. I'll go with a used car any day over something like a Nissan Micra.

You would have to find some "hail damaged" car some place to get one that cheap and maybe not even then.

"Surprisingly"????  The car companies will charge what they can get . . . . $70,000 trucks and Jeeps?  Crazy.  But then, there are few "basic" vehicles left - everything has power windows, AC, stereos, electronic aids, etc.

There are still some miserable little cheap models - but having shopped recently, the least expensive I would be able to live with is the Kia Soul . . . even the cheapo is well equipped, but list price under $18,000 and deals are available.  The Soul is highly rated by the car testers and has reasonable safety scores for it's size.  It is quickly becoming what the VW Beetle was in the past.

BTW:  MSRP  (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price), dealer cost, invoice, etc.  are fairly uniform across the country - no areas with lower prices than others.

But right now, many makes/models are in short supply with many factories shut down due to the shortage of chips.

When Plan A is not working, go to Plan B.  Buy a decent used car that you can afford.

NOPE.  The cheapest RIGHT NOW is a Chevrolet Spark LS at $14,395 MSRP.

The new kia k5 looks good 

LOL!  Welcome to reality.

My last car cost me 2 times more than my first house.