Nobody misses their last washing machine or even their last iphone.

Maybe, but I do miss my Scalextric.

One of the reasons why I loved cars from the late90s and especially the early 2000s - 2010: many great to look at and drive, with some really special ones, but above all so many affordable due to years of oversupply.

Even though I've really liked my (not exactly nippy, just fine) 1.6 petrol Mazda3 I bought (essentially) new for £10k in 2006, I occasionally kick myself for not paying £16k for a 3dr Civic Type R - new at the same time.

Less than half what you'd pay for a current one, which admitedly is much more powerful and quicker, but on actual roads (not a track), the difference would be nowhere near as great.

Even an S2000, many of which look and seeimngly go as good today as they did back then. Admietdly only a weekend / retirement car, but still.

More recently (2016-2017) I almost replaced my Mazda with either the Seat Leon SC FR or sister car the Golf 3dr GT in 1.4 TSI 150PS (ACT) form, both of which had a similar look to the 2005 Civic Type R but with a bit more compliant ride for normal everyday use.

Sadly no discounts on them (3dr versions), thought I could've easily got a 5dr of either for around £17k at Motorpoint when there was a brief period of oversupply again. Wasn't to be though. Oh well.

There’s a lot of motoring enthusiasts who want to actually drive a car. They want a slick manual gearbox to play with and they want to feel what’s going on through the front wheels,

Lots of motoring enthusiasts said things like that and Kia listened. They produced the Stinger for those guys and it flopped. The enthusiasts all said it was great but they bought SUVs not Stingers. It is a pity but people buy cars with their head not their heart.

I want a small lightweight hot/mild hatch (like a VW UP! GTi) or a two seater sports car that’s not overly endowed with power (it corrupts after all) such as a Mazda MX5, a normally aspirated Toyota engined Lotus Elise or perhaps a Toyota GT86. I

Sadly, the annual global sales figures for both the MX5 & GT86/BRZ combined together would probably be under ~70k even in their best years. The business case for their future replacement models can't be great unless you ascribe a high value to their halo effect formarketing.

For comparison Toyota sold over 1 million RAV4s last year & typically looks for 85k-100k sales per annum as the minimum level for a mainstream model.