I have done my research (to the best of my ability) and I'm absolutely dead set on getting a Used Honda Fit LX. Seems to be the perfect car for me. Long lasting (If you maintain it) and Reasonably priced. I'm painfully frugal. I want to buy something that is at the perfect age to mileage ratio so that I'm losing the least amount of money in the purchase.

That being said I would love to hear what you folks would consider a ideal scenario (Based in reality of course) for purchasing a used Honda Fit LX (I need cruise control). Right now I'm looking mostly at 7 to 10 year old ones with reasonable mileage per year on them. 13,000 to 20,000 KM a year (I'm Canadian ).

What do you guys think about this? Should I be possibly looking for older? Or is 9 or 10 years too old? What mileage per year is too little and unhealthy for the car?

Also when I'm inspecting these guys what should I be on the look out for?

Most I've seen are anywhere from 6k to 8k Canadian. I'm willing to spend up to 10,000 if that's going to maximize the value I'm getting out of it.

 

My understanding is that the 3-6 year range is in fact the most economical option because the car has depreciated the most in that time frame, however it's usually still in great shape so that you're not going to be best friends with the mechanic.

As such, I'd recommend you focus on 2012 - 2014 models.
Also keep in mind those are the last years of production of the GE (2nd gen) which are typically the most reliable years after they're sorted out the bugs with the earlier production years.

If you're looking at the 7-10 year range, you're definitely getting into the time frame of a long series of repairs & maintenance, unless you find one with full records assuring you all those items have been replaced accordingly.

I wouldn't use mileage as the selection factor because low mileage usually means city driving, which is several times more destructive on a car versus highway driving.

If someone only drove 5 km to work each day, in the city, they would have to start a cold engine 20,000 times when reaching 100,000 km. This type of driving will wear the transmission, brakes, steering & suspension a lot more because of rush hour traffic, stop & go driving, idling at street lights, dealing with city potholes, curbs, etc.

If someone drove 50 km to work each day, on open roads, they would have started the engine only 2,000 times when reaching 100,000 km. This type of driving is very easy on a car and other than racking up the miles, and wearing tires, not much gets worn out.

Since most engine wear occurs right at start-up when the engine is cold, it's safe to assume that the city driven car has it's engine worn out more than 10 times that of the highway car from my example.

I would stick to cars that averaged out 20,000-30,000 km / year and don't even consider ones that averaged under 10,000 km / year.
The highway signs are lots of paint chips on the front grille, hood, roof & mirrors, and also some damage to the fins of the condenser & radiator. The interior should be in great shape.
City signs are mostly interior -> brake pedal looks worn out, any areas where people keep their elbows will be worn out, and ware sign on dash buttons. Also for the exterior if the rims & tires have lots of curb rash, or minor bumps in the car's body from hitting stuff in parking lots.