@ Steve

Yes, thanks for the info.. though on the last question - what pointers or calculations would you use to identify that a vehicle is fuel cost economical ?

Take for example, you are shopping to import a car on a japanese website - and you are comparing an old RAV4 model 2001-2005 that has 2 litre engine  VS a latter generation model that has 2.4 litre engine [both are 4 cylinders]

To take it further - logically, one would assume that as the years go by, the fuel economy is increasing as research puts forth more powerful vehicle for the same amount of fuel...

But the latest models are now using 2.5 litre engines.... going higher, but consuming more or less ?

I would also assume that a model permanently on 4 wheel consumes more that the one you can switch btn 2 and 4 wheel -

But what about a manual vs automatic gear drive ? One would assume that automatic gears should be more fuel cost efficient because - well, they are automatic, they are supposed to know what they are doing -- but ooh no, this is sadly not the case.