Vtec isnt fuel economy. its making a complete package out of a motor....

The old integras before VTEC had plenty of economy and VTEC didnt change that..

The old racing integras (and tons of other 4cyls) had 8K RPM's and 200HP and Vtec didnt change that.

VTEC allowed a fully warranteed street production car to have the charastics of BOTH the previous racing models and econoboxes. Power and MPG, was quite the feat back in the early 1990's.