cyccommute 

More like a smack down.

I have nearly 20,000 (mostly) commuting miles on a "plastic" fork over the last decade and I weigh more than a 4'11" person of any gender weighs. I put a lot more stress on the fork than they would and I'm not worried about my old, well used "plastic" fork breaking at any time in the near or distant future.

And, while I agree that it has limited room for fenders, I personally think that the need for fenders is highly overrated. If you ride in the rain, you are going to get wet so you will likely be wearing rain protection anyway. The bike won't melt if it gets wet so it doesn't care. There are also way of fitting fenders to bikes with limited fender clearance.

However, you seem to be missing the forest for the trees. The point is not to have the "perfect" bike for commuting, especially considering the limitations that the rider has. The point it getting thetiniestbike on a bicycle that can be ridden by a person of small stature. That's far more difficult than most people realize. One shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Every new bike is a possible magnet for thieves. You rolls your dice and you moves your mice.

Several problems with your idea. First, the bike you've posted is 34 years old. Peugot bicycles were rare to begin with in the US and finding a used 24" wheel mixte bike is something of a fools errand. It's not like they are making them anymore. I see literally thousands of used bikes come into my local bike co-op (about 3000 bikes per year in donations and I've been working for them for 5 years). We seldom see a regular sized Peugot much less a petite one like the M46 you are suggesting.

Secondly, the claimed 24.5 lb weight of the M46 should be taken with a grain of salt equivalent to the entire annual output of fluer de sel for France. I've seen way too many bikes to believe that a mixte framed bike with extra steel tubing, steel rims, steel cranks, steel handlebars, steel seatpost and only the smallest touch of aluminum parts would weigh anywhere within a country mile of 24 lbs. What I don't believe is how someone could look at a bike with enough steel on it to make a French battleship could believe that it would weigh that little.

I could, however, believe a translation error. I would suspect that the bike weighs closer to 24.5 kilograms than pounds, although that's a bit too high but still more believable than 24 lbs.

There is the issue of size. Look closely at the brochure page you posted. The "size" is listed as an 18". Yes, it has small wheels but that seatpost is way up in the air and I'm not sure that it could be pushed down far enough for a small person to ride.