Nonsense. My family owned 5 A-F body 225's when I was growing up, all bought new, and the '68 with auto trans got 18-22 mpg on the interstates, the 2 3 speed manual Sports were 20-23 mpg, the '76 Dart Lite OD manual got an honest 28 mpg and the last one, an '80 Aspen auto trans Super 6, got 24 mpg on the interstate. The in-town mpg was less of course, and a lot of cold winter starts will do that too, but not ever down in the 12-15 mpg range.
My dad used to document every car related thing in little books that he bought at a book store. A few months ago I came across the one for the low mileage 61 Valiant Hardtop that he bought used when it was a few years old. 61 Val 2 door hardtop, white with red interior, 170 C.I with pushbutton trans. Unfortunately he seemed to almost never fill the tank but bought gas by the dollar. For instance $3, not a fillup. I know where he was working and the daily commute was probably only 5 miles or so each way. I tried to do a quick calculation and was surprised that it only seemed to be in the 17 MPG range or so. Really I thought at would be better than that.
To the original poster all I can say is make sure the car is in tune and drive carefully. Cold weather has a bad effect on mileage and today's fuel isn't so good.There are people out there known as hyper-milers. Google it and you'll be amazed at what these people do to maximize their MPG. Some of their tricks are wacky but I use some of them. My favorite is drafting trucks, I don't do it much but it works.
