I have a 91 Toyota Camry wagon, 2.0 litre manual, it still gets good fuel economy even when compared to more recent cars of about the same size. It's a great car and very useful and practical, I also find it fun to drive and handles well. It's approaching a half million kms at the moment.
I have other cars, they're all mini's, mokes, or morris 1100s all with engines smaller than 1.3 litres and down to 998cc.
I'd recommend my model Camry to anyone provided they aren't 4wding or towing every weekend, even though some of our caves require a 4wd to get to there is mostly someone who has a 4wd and can help out.
I reckon if you drive a manual you can get a lot more out of the engine you've got, so you don't need a gas guzzler, also I'd be lost for things to do if I wasn't changing gears.
PS: I think manuals might be a lot more common here than in the US, AFAIK most of our cars are manuals but there are still a large amount of autos.
PPS: fuel here is nudging AU$1.50 a litre, which makes it (1.5 x 3.78 = AU$5.67/gallon) which as far as I can see makes us about $2 a gallon dearer than you guys are paying (the AU$ is about 90 ish US cents ) so not a huge difference there...there was talk of fuel going above $3 a litre within the next couple of years
with that prospect in sight I won't be buying a full on 4wd that's for sure, I might even end up buying a motorbike instead.
<EDIT> I worked out fuel economy figures my camry gets
up to 7.87L / 100km I just looked up the new camry gets 8.9L / 100km for combined driving from a 2.4L so they probably come out pretty close to being on par.