I agree, 18mph is quite low for a car. Even my friend's pickup truck gets 22-25. My little car gets 30 last time I kept track, which I consider only okay. I put just over $50 in it a couple of weeks ago; thankfully I don't drive it much.

I do think that car manufacturers are starting to finally offer higher mileage vehicles, although it's taken them way too long over here. Part of the reason is that people won't drive small cars here. My car is small here, and when I rented one just like it in Europe, it was considerably larger than many of the cars on the road. I would love a Peugeot 206 diesel, but there's no way to get one here.