Which reliable and economical small car?

Hostage

Thanks for the comments. Sorry to be slow at replying. Here are my workings:

I bought 25.56 litres before I went on my journey. The needle seemed pretty close to empty. I would have expected the fuel light to go on soon.

I travelled: 146 miles. At the end of my journey, the needle was back in a similar position.

If I divide the miles by litres of petrol, that's 5.71 miles per litre

5.71 times 4.5 (the amount of litres per gallon), makes 26 mpg.

But I will have a look at fuelly.com. I appreciate that I'm being rather vague about the needle position here!

I could add that the guy who sold me the car has said that fuel economy was specifically the reason for selling. I only wanted a banger for weekends at the time and the price was only half a grand, so I didn't worry about the economy. You can tell that I'm a badly lapsed member of the MSE community on the basis of that transaction alone!