) ... 54 not much better. You'd be as well to get a 1.3 Spi with the five speed as anything. You could pull down some major economy with that (better than the 1.0, probably) and it would motor quite nicely, outperforming the golfs even if loaded up to match their kerb weight.Then again 40mpg at 70-75 doesn't sound so bad for the age of the car, with a carb and the close-set gearing. It's possibly the carburettor that's making your consumption say consistently "low" (try comparing it to an american 4x4, i suppose
) the rest of the time as well - consider that after 15 minutes it won't have long warmed up, so you'll have been on the choke and, figuratively speaking, throwing fuel away for at least half of the trip.(this is why commuting by road is so inefficient, costly, and polluting a lot of the time, if you're not going far... and why widespread hybridisation / adoption of electric power could be a very cool thing)
(I dread to think what my economy is on the morning home->station dash in the astra, even though it's injection... coming back all chilled and not even exceeding 30mph probably isnt much better. It helps that it's only about a mile if not less..... so even if it's all of 10mpg, that's only about a gallon a week, which beats being late - and even though its 100% cold all the way, its not going far, so it wont be hurting much)
50.4mpg at 56mph though? I've gotta try that... doesn't seem terribly realistic to me..
I nearly bought a black N reg 1.1 forte for my first car. Really nippy and good on petrol. had leccy windows and an alarm and a load of other stuff. not sure I could fit in it properly though. 
lol