Hey guys, I don't own an outboard but Powerboat Reports did a test on March 2005 on most 250hp engines and the Verado did very well against the rest until WOT where it gulped fuel like there's no tomorrow. Since most people seldom use WOT I'd say the fuel efficiency ain't bad, in fact, they rated it the best of the lot, Yamaha came in second. Since PR doesn't accept advertising I tend to trust their findings as non-biased.
Here's a copy of the test pages, hope they're legible.
Hope this helps out.