For what it's worth I have seen over 40mpg on a manual prizm with the same engine at 70+ MPH. The car I did it in now belongs to a friend of mine who is habitually neglectful of it. He failed to change the oil for 10K miles and ran it down to about a quart and a half and kept driving on it for hundreds if not thousands of miles. It now has close to 210,000 miles on it and still runs. These are very well made cars.
Its a daily driver. My dad went about 6-7months without an oil change and when we did, the oils were very close to still looking like new. I was surprised. Especially at this age of a car. lol, and this thing cranks right up in about 4seconds at -25 degrees and my wrx was dead gone at about -15 degrees. The corolla's battery was bought in 03 and its still good as new, weird. Maybe the Corolla alternator is too good? anyways, bump