Unless you own a country estate or farm, how many people actually need a 4x4 in the UK?
A bit different somewhere like Australia where half the country is wilderness and many country roads are inaccessible to low suspension two wheel drive vehicles. You can also drive at the speed limit on the beach in places which is fun but quite dangerous at high speeds.
Most of the new compact SUVs don't even have much boot space so not great for long trips away or chucking large dogs in the back. Remember looking at a CX-5 and the boot was tiny.
We bought an old Nissan X-Trail which isn't particularly attractive but it does the job and combines a relatively small footprint with a large boot. Spends most of its time in the garage during the week.
Feeling nostalgic
Me to. Especially with the XR2's. Had a look on Ebay and seems there is still quite a lot of them on the go.
This one is an absolute peach:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-Fies...oAAOSwUZNawTSP
This is why the marketing types brought back Minis, Beetles, Fiat 500s etc - to appeal to the 'character' market. Except the original versions were cheapish cars for the masses - now they're the upper-mid to luxury end of the market, which sucks out most of the character they're trying to create.
To make matters worse, a lot of the hipsters buying them have realised they need something bigger, so we now have abominations like the Fiat 500 xl and Minis the size of a house. Modern car makers don't seem to do irony