Small used car shopping

[balki]

Parking is an issue and I rarely use more than two seats so I'm looking to downgrade. The car will have 10-20 short trips (1-5 miles) a week, will rarely see 40+ mph
First two cars to come to mind (with say a sub 5k USD budget) are the Fit and Smart Fortwo (2009-2012)

Fit: can seat 4-5 people or two and a bunch of cargo area. Honda reliability and available in a manual gearbox
Smart: can park just about anywhere, less expensive, RR-layout
??? the other small cars I've come across are less space efficient and more expense then the Fit, but I've haven't look into all of then

Is the Smart anything like a Benz (or any other used German car)? Expensive upkeep/parts/labor/failing electro-gizmos?
Thoughts, suggestions, Smart jokes

[Yw-slayer]

Bicycle?

[Cam]

Bicycle?

Bicycle.

[Kchrpm]

Would a little electric thing, like a Chevy Spark EV, be doable? I presume charging at home would not be possible.

[Alan P]

Would a little electric thing, like a Chevy Spark EV, be doable? I presume charging at home would not be possible.

I would have thought a proper electric car would have been ideal for this sort of usage? Money may be an issue I guess. Honda Insight? CR-Z?

[novicius]

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/cto/6156866997.html
https://sacramento.craigslist.org/cto/6159591991.html
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/cto/6133817999.html

[Phil_SS]

Holy depreciation batman!

And, IMO, a Smart is a useless car in America. You can get a bigger car for the same price that will be much much better in all aspects.

[novicius]

Yeah for that money & miles, that makes the 500 a serious fun car contender.

[Kchrpm]

When your only parking is on the street, a short-range, slow charge electric car becomes a liability.

[thesameguy]

Unless you happen to live in a place that has curb-side charging you're hosed in that situation.

I like the 500 in general and as a used buy it's pretty amazing. Don't get a 2012 - the '13s (and it may be late '13s) are much improved... just check out the NHTSA ratings. For this application, a '13+ Fiat would get my vote.