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It's a complete fallacy to say that the growth of <every car model ever built> in physical size means that the largest possible car is what everyone wants, and that there's no demand for a smaller car.
It's an incrementalism arms race.
When you shop for an entry-level luxury car, you say "okay, do I want an A4 or 3er or C-class, or IS/GS?" The buyer compares the cars on the various metrics (features, price, drive, size, etc), and their favorite wins. Now here's the rub: All things being equal, the buyer will typically opt for the one with slightly more space. Here we're talking about an inch of legroom here or there. The slight perception of "roominess" which may, in some cases, even come down to the interior color of the particular model they tested. And sometimes the roomiest car in a class has the biggest external dimensions, but do you really notice that a car is 1" longer when you drive it? I think not.
So there's this arms race, where each automaker is trying to make their car "largest in class" without putting it in a whole new class. Eventually every car in a given class is larger than it's predecessors in the *larger* class, and they have to bring out a new model to fill the hole left behind. It's a slippery slope/incrementalist thing, and it absolutely creates a demand for a smaller car -- after awhile. Drive an E30 and an F30 back to back, and you can absolutely tell. Of course, for the same price, anyone in their right mine would choose the F30 over the E30.
But that doesn't mean there's no market for a smaller car than the F30. There clearly is -- it's called the 1 series. (which, to be fair, is where people should be griping about the lack of a 1 series sedan, because there's no way in hell BMW is going to make the F30 smaller than the E90 while all of the competition is getting larger).
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