I personally think the fuel consumption issue is caused by the way the consumption figures are advertised. While it is possible to achieve the advertised figures it is impossible when driving in the city. If you look at the Honda United Kingdom site you will see they advertise seperate figures for city and highway. Here are there advertised figures for the 1.8 ltr engine.......
Manual......City = 8.2L / 100km.......highway = 5.4L / 100km........................
Auto.........City = 9.0L / 100km.......highway = 5.4L / 100km........................
Type R......City = 12.7L / 100km......highway = 7.0L /100km.........................
From reading this site the city figures seem much closer to what most people are achieving, as for highway figures i will know soon