So I happened to notice some prices of cars like Hyundai and VW Jetta are like 14k, at least on the internet ad posted by the dealer. Is it really possible to go in there and actually buy the car for that much or does that include every unobtainable incentive and rebate possible? The ads are vague.

If you are just curious about such things, there's always discussions like these popping up on Bob Is The Oil Guy (BITOG). I think the most recent jaw-dropper was a slew of leftover 2016 Mitsubishi compacts priced around $9k at the end of MY17.

If you are actually shopping for a vehicle on that budget, I would guess that bang for your buck and reliability due to budgetary limits are some of your main concerns. If that's the case, I'd steer you toward a Toyota Certified Pre-Owned much before I'd recommend any brand new car that is super cheap.

Around here the Nissan dealer has Versas advertised for 10K at least once a year. Almost hard to justify a used car if you can fit in one of the new little cars.

Don't forget destination, tax, title, and license.

Have seen a few times this year could buy a chevy spark or ford fiesta and get it out the door for under $15k realistically.

Yes you can. I heard an ad here for a Buick dealer with 2016's new on the lot. Here are brand new 2 year old cars. Years ago a friend of mine bought the new Nissan truck from the low priced ad. It was a 4 cylinder 5 speed truck and he still has it.

Just my $.02, but I'd much rather own a 2-3 year old nicer car than brand new cheapo.

I'm just curious, the thought of doing business with a car dealership alone is enough to steer me clear. I have always bought used and paid cash, but these are used car prices for brand new.

The problem is that in my experience there is still a big gap. Something like a Camry or the like won't be around 10 grand till it's about done.

Maybe a base ford fiesta

A quick search of my local Toyota dealer's site showed numerous 2014-2016 Camrys for less than the $15K price the OP mentioned. Imho, that's a better investment than a brand new base-model Hyundai or Ford Fiesta.

Bought a left over new base Focus for under 12k couple years back, out the door. Put 100k on it in 3 years no issues.
Buddy bought same last fall, leftover 16 for about 13k.

Justt saw 2017 stripped Fiestas for $8995. Same place we picked up the Focus few years back.

I remember seeing Daewoos being sold by me at Buy one get one free! they wouldn't do anything longer than 1 year financing though, because none of them lasted that long...

I'm seeing 10k here in DFW. it's stripped down and small but if that's what you're looking for, seems good to me. with a 10 year bumper to bumper warrantee it seems like you'd pay $1000/year or like $80 a month for a decent little running car. shit my cell phone is twice that.

Any of those ads come with strings attached - they're just used for getting you in the door.
Once you get there you don't qualify for a bunch of the discounts & then you're forced to take their financing at a ridiculous rate.
(Low principal with high interest is only more desirable if the loan doesn't have a prepayment penalty in the fine print & you have the means to pay it off quickly.)

In April of 2015 I purchased a new 2014 Focus SE for $14,000 + TTL that had an MSRP of $21,xxx. This was right after the 2015's hit the lot, and there were solid incentives, I think $4500 or so in cash back. I found a bunch of dealers that would get close to $6,000 off MSRP, but on the last day of the month one reached back out and said they'd do it for $7,000 off. They had apparently hit the number of cars they needed to sell for volume based incentives already, but wanted to clear the 2014's out of inventory and were willing to take the hit to move it.

In hindsight, I should have paid more for a Mazda 3 with the bigger motor, as the DCT in the Focus is probably the worst transmission ever developed, but I digress.

The best part of my shopping ordeal was that one dealer didn't even want to give me all of the rebates. I asked for their best price, and they said they could do $3,000 under MSRP. I said "so wait, you're trying to tell me you not only expect to sell an old model year Focus for full MSRP, but you also want to keep $1,500 in factory cash back that I clearly qualify for? Are you out of your mind????" I asked for the sales manager to call me, as I figured the salesman was just confused or something, but no, that guy said the same thing. I have no idea how they sell a single car.

I bought a new Chevy Cruz the first or second year they were out for $15,600.

It was a great commuter car and was a much better deal than buying something used at the time.

My wife totaled it when it was three years old with 65k on the odometer.  Our AAA policy had replacement coverage so they cut us a check for $17k.

I have seen them priced as low as $13k recently.