I'm the exact opposite. I love small cars to death.
But I think we also need to think about the definition of a "small" car.
A Ford Focus/VW Golf/Vauxhall - Opel - Holden Astra is not a "small" car.
Small to me is anything smaller than the ones I stated above.
For the record, I drive an Opel Astra
To Americans, it's a compact car, which in all seriousness, it isnt.
It carries 4 or even 5 people, and their luggage in comfort. I'm 6ft tall and can sit in the drivers seat with 3 6 ft passengers and drive for hundrends of kms without backache or anything. It also has a relatively large engine so it has enough hp to deal with highway overtakings and high speed driving.
I would class it as family car or midsize.
A small car, in which I mean something like this :
Citroen C1.
In all seriousness, this car would be enough for me.
I drive 35 kms to work and back every day. I am alone for 90% of the time.
It's mainly heavy traffic jams. I hardly go to the store and buy tons of crap that wouldn't fit in it.
These kinds of cars are SUPER handy around town, it weighs nothingit gets 70 mpg so you almost never have to fill it up, it costs next to nothing to buy, run and insure, and if you can live with a slightly cheaper interior, is the same to drive since you're stationary most of the time. Parking also becomes the easiest thing evah...
And, if we are to believe current crash tests, they are safer than older cars. Plus I think they look cutesy and funky.
The only area where I think this car loses to the Astra, is performance. Of course, it won't be as quick. But for the % of time I'm able to use all that power, I don't care. Of course, it won't be able to carry 4 adults with luggage.
Again, at this point in my life I don't care. It can carry myself, the wife, and our dogs + luggage with ease.
Small cars for the win. Period. (At least where I live, and what I do with my cars. Of course the situation is a little different if you are a lumberjack and live in the ass end of Canada, where you need to haul trees + 3 big co-workers for hundreds of miles every day)
but still, small cars rule. Smallness and lightness for the win