Miles/gallon: Newer vs Older Cars

Old Dodge colt/plymouth champ. 50 mpg. Vw diesel rabbit (old one) 50 mpg. Colt did it on a carb! There is a BMW diesel in Europe that got 64 mpg when pitted against a prius. Beat it flat out. Vw got huge numbers with its "cheater" tdi fuel management at the cost of NOx emissions. Now they are ' fixed' they get about 34 mpg..about a 36% reduction over old published numbers. It's now evident that many manufacturers were cooking the books when it came to emissions reporting. Look at a slant, long stroke. Low compression. Poor flowing head..maybe 100 hp net out of 3.7l. Then look at a new 1.6 direct injection 11:1 pump gas modern marvel. Over 2x the horsepower, half the displacement, loads of torque and practically zero emissions. We're not running flat heads anymore. It's just evolution.