Driving "normally" with the occasional sharp acceleration for overtake etc my 58 Gti generally gives 30mpg on short runs which gets up nearer 35 for a decent motorway jaunt. Compared to 15mpg from a G-Wagen petrol I ran for a while it's completely fine as a compromise of car cost versus fuel cost, newer cars are more frugal or you go for a grunty deisel and get even better for your dosh, BMW 530d for instance. Every car is a compromise in some fashion, need to decide on which compromises you can live with I suppose.