So many people don't grasp that building a small car is in many ways harder than building a big one. Crumple zones are much harder to fit in, 3 cylinder engines are a real challenge in terms of NVH, you still have to fit ABS, ESP, catalytic converters, fuel injection systems etc just to pass the regulatory hurdles.

Small cars were cheap to produce in the old dys because they were flimsy and mechanically simple. Single barrel carburettor in lieu of fuel injection etc. Not an option any more.

New cars are a bargain when you consider what you're actually getting. If you can't stump up £10k+ for a new car then you can't afford a new car-it's your fiscal problem, not the OEM's problem. If you don't like it, try setting up your own car manufacturing company and see if you can do a better job. Ha ha!

A couple of years ago cars were regularly being sold for less than cost price. An untenable situation that meant that taxpayers ended up subsidising vanity purchases. I don't wish to see a repeat of that fiasco.

Car manufacturers have finally woken up to the fact that they are better off making 30,000 examples of a car at a decent profit per unit rather than 100,000 with no or minus profit.

They've cut capacity and many now build far more cars to order rather than building up huge unwanted stocks.

As a result, prices have gone up, there aren't the massive discounts and mad lease deals there used to be (well, there are some, but not anywhere near the old amount) and although sales have fallen many car manufacturers are doing very well.

A knock on effect has been that (despite lower demand) used car prices are generally higher than 2-3 years ago with some models and specs very hard to find and there isn't the same glut of give away prices 6 month old cars.