Here's my Volkswagen story: In 1972, I bought a 1967 Beetle. It had about 70,000 miles showing on the odometer. After about a year, it burnt a valve, so I carried it to the VW dealer.
They did a valve job, put in a new clutch while they had the engine out, gave it an oil change and a tune-up, and charged me $190 counting sales tax.
In that era, comparing it to my other cars with V-8 engines, I thought the fuel economy was great. Driven carefully, I recollect getting about 27 mpg around town; Once, on an interstate highway trip over to Nashville (200 miles), I got 30.5 mpg.