20 MPG considered bad? That sounds so strange to me.

As for the Metro, it just seems like the "standard" when it comes to econboxes. No one wants to be seen in them (although there are quite a few out there) Do you even have the whole "status symbol" thing in Europe? I mean do people buy a car because they "want to look good"? It seems like they just buy them for purely practical reasons like cargo space and fuel economy.
As for European quality, I've seen some absolutely atrocious reliability reports for Volkswagen and Mercedes in the last few years
I'm not judging your cars, it just what I've read. And I know reliability is not the only aspect of "quality"
By the way, what car do you have? I apologize if it's a Geo Metro