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The main advantages of the VX and HX are that they have lean burn and tall gearing, which help a ton on the highway. Most Hondas with small engines can get 40+ in town, but these are 50+ or even 60+ cars on the highway.
To figure out why you can't get better economy, you need to consider where all of that energy is going. When you're rolling down the road, your engine can convert gasoline into usable mechanical energy at a certain efficiency, and the rest is lost as heat. Your drivetrain will turn a certain amount into heat as friction. Your brakes will turn some into heat as friction. Your tires will turn some into heat. Air resistance will turn forward motion into kinetic energy in the form of turbulence.
Mostly, you can get your economy up by reducing tire drag (low rolling resistance, high pressure), improving aero for highway speed driving (grille block, belly pan), reduce weight for city driving (takes less energy to get it up to speed, which you'll eventually waste in the form of heat in your brakes), and consider your routes very carefully so you're not having to accelerate and brake a lot.
Extended idling also takes its toll.
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