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Another point is that fuel injection can be shut off for downshifting, and this saves fuel. The mixture can be adjusted for elevation/atmosphere pressure change. The mixture can be adjusted for air/engine/exhaust temperature. What about detonation? What about tuneups? Most modern cars can go 100,000 miles without a tuneup. It doesn't really matter how dirty the air filter gets (within reason).
I can tell when I'm driving behind an old car, without even seeing it -- the smell of raw gas/rich exhaust is pretty obvious on lots of old cars. Most of these around here anyway, are very well maintained/fully restored "classic" cars, so it isn't that. Most carbureted cars are not designed for economy/efficiency -- gas was 29 cents for about 25 years, right?
The last carbureted car that I owned was a 1970 Volvo (twin Strombergs) and by the end of the car's life, it was burning up the paper air filters (by backfiring) and I never heard it. It had a manual choke, that you had to learn how to use.
The next car I owned was a 1987 VW Golf, which had EFI. The engine was virtually flawless, and lasted a lot longer than the Volvo.
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