Small cars have gotten a lot nicer. Things like the Mazda 3 drive very well indeed.
They are still incapable of safe and convenient portage of 4X8 sheets of plywood and other lumber. They cannot transport a family of four and their camping equipment at all, let alone comfortably.
If we assume that we must become a Nation of do-nothing couch potatoes, then these small cars are great. Anyone with any imagination at all can't use them.