In Pictures: How Small is Too Small?

If you say the Smart ForTwo is too tiny, few will argue with you. It seats two, and holds up to 12 cubic feet of cargo. Although it’s a good commuter car for the city, it’s a different story on the open road. With a zero to 60 mph crawl at 12.8 seconds, you need nerves of steel to drive a Smart next to Mack trucks. If that isn’t enough to deter you, in a 2009 crash test performed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the Fortwo was crashed with a Mercedes-Benz C-Class, went airborne and spun 450 degrees.

Look at our affordable small car rankings to see how the ForTwo does.

The Fiat 500 is also tiny, but it’s big enough to carry friends or lap dog around – for a few minutes, anyway. Its 101-horsepower, inline-4 power plant is powerful enough for most reviewers, propelling the microcar from zero to 60 mph in 9.2 seconds in Car and Driver tests. The base model starts at $15,500, and the $4,510 price jump over the Smart ForTwo is money well spent. The 500 adds two backseats and has a maximum of 30.2 cubic feet of cargo space. The U.S. model comes with standard safety features comparable to those in the Smart Fortwo, including seven airbags, and electronic stability control with traction control.

When reviewers aren’t trying to come up with the best metaphor for describing the Juke, they’re trying to determine where it fits in the market: Is it a car or a crossover? Regardless of what you call it, the Juke can't hold its own. It has less headroom than subcompacts like the Honda Fit, and only spiteful drivers would cram passengers into the Juke’s almost nonexistent back seat. We’d even be willing to forgive some of these quirks if it weren’t for the Juke’s abysmal cargo space. It offers a mere 10.5 cubic feet with the rear seats up – less than the Smart ForTwo. Even after folding the rear seats down, you only get 35.9 cubic feet of space.

If you’re looking for funky styling, but are disappointed with the Juke’s uselessness, the Kia Soul should be on the top of your list. Reviewers say the Soul has plenty of back seat space, so you’ll be able to tote your friends around comfortably. With 19.3 cubic feet of cargo space with the rear seats in use, you can carry their stuff around too. After you kick your buddies out and fold the rear seats flat, you can stuff 53.4 cubic feet of gear into the back. That’s two carry-on suitcases more than the Juke can hold.

The Soul isn't a Best Car for the Money, but the Honda Fit is.

It bills itself as a fuel-efficient sports car, but the Honda CR-Z does neither well. Its hybrid powertrain gets 39 mpg on the highway – 4 mpg less than other gas-electric models like the Honda Insight. Probably the only things that the CR-Z has in common with true sports cars are a tiny cargo space and poor visibility. The CR-Z only seats two, and can only fit 25.1 cubic feet of stuff. That’s pitiful compared to other hatches. Plus, its sporty styling decreases rearward visibility to dangerous levels. Other cars offer a complete package, so you’ll want to pass on the CR-Z.

Check our hybrid rankings for cars with better fuel economy.

The Volkswagen Golf TDI is sporty, fuel efficient and roomy. Its diesel powertrain gets 42 mpg on the highway and 30 in the city with both manual and automatic transmissions. The two-door model seats five and has 15 cubic feet of cargo space behind the backseats. The Golf is one of the most powerful subcompact cars on the market, with its diesel engine making 140 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque, so you won’t feel like you’re driving a clown car in a world of gigantic SUVs. Plus, the TDI models have a sport suspension, which means it doesn’t handle like a golf cart.

Want even better performance? Check out the VW GTI.