I wouldn't say that the gearing of the 4AT was awful. It's just that with only 4 gears to play with, you don't have much flexibility. Put the ratios too close like a city car, and your highway performance and economy will suffer.

Definitely, the facelift made the Altis so much better, across all of its variants. A part of me has always regretted getting a 2.0V over a 2.0S-L FD, but if it was the 2.0V with the fuel-efficient CVT and more useful features (1.1M and no AUX on the old 2.0V!), I wouldn't feel so bad.

On your 10 km/L city run, is that a 1.5E? I have a friend who's got a 1.3S AT that also gets just 10 km/L on her city runs.