> But there were small cars, like the Nissan Sentra and friends.

IIRC, a Sentra was Civic-sized. I drove a Civic before my Metro, and it was literally twice as powerful and much more fun to drive.

The Metro took smallness/cheapness/fuel efficiency to the maximum extreme (for the US at least). It was not fun to drive, and I was constantly reminded about how under-powered it was. IIRC, the thing struggled with hills and couldn't even make it to 80 or 85 on perfectly flat, level ground.

The problem with the Metro (and similar sized cars) is nobody wants to buy them new - the entire market is people who want a tiny used car.

Because if you have $10-15k for a Metro you just buy a used better car.