Why did the small car die back in the early '90s?

[deebrown]

Interesting article on the MSN site talking about how fuel economy actually has gotten worse in the last 15 years as the cars have gotten bigger:

http://autos.msn.com/advice/article....tentid=4024682

The question I ask is - why did these cars get bigger in the first place?

My own hypothesis would be that the smallest of cars HAD to get bigger otherwise they were quite literally death traps on the highway if hit by a monster SUV (another reason how the SUV helped ruin the American car industry/environment)

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?