Looking at cars from the 1970s and 1980s, most were designed for best performance and efficiency going 50-80mph down the highway, had relatively large cargo capacity, and generally were much closer to ideal for a car light lifestyle; you take the car on long trips or when you have a lot to haul.

I remember reading a review of the late-90s model of a car I had a 1985 model of, and the main focus of the review was that it had been designed as a 60% car; trunk space was about 60% of the '85, and overall performance about the same as it was redesigned for short trips in the city, where average speeds would be 40 and under, smaller shopping runs, etc. Right down to tuning the engine to maximize efficiency at about 45mph.

It leads me to wonder if there are any cars still designed with the primarily highway-and-cargo mindset. I know CAFE regulations pretty much killed station wagons, which is unfortunate; combining enough space to easily carry a couple bikes (or a lot of other stuff) with the more car-like feel than a typical SUV or truck seems ideal for driving the longer distances and then biking shorter errands on the same trip.