In most of Europe, before the advent of the car, the countryside was more densely populated than it is now. But people and stuff travelled much less.

A giant gas-guzzler is far greener than a new high-tech economical car because it already exists and you aren't burning up resources to make a new one. No matter what its fuel consumption, its energy footprint from continued use will be tiny compared with that of manufacturing one in Korea, shipping it to the UK, and shipping the old one to China or Bangladesh to be stripped down, melted and the electronic scrap worked over by gangs of women over open tanks of acid.