Piston Slap: The Commoditization of Turbocharging

Sajeev Mehta
by Sajeev Mehta


TTAC commentator BeyondxB writes:

Hi Sajeev!

Long term lurker here.. been seeing a lot of Turbo products lately and I wonder is turbo truly making its way to the mainstream? Will we see Corollas with 1.8 turbo engines go on sale anytime soon, and being well received by the automatic-driving masses? I still hold the idea that some Subaru turbos will explode after 3 years (some things you learn in highschool are hard to forget) , is that still true these days?



More and more articles are coming up in support of the Turbos , but in my mind I’d wait until either Honda or Toyota comes out with a standard equipment turbo engine economy car (not niche produts), and then wait another 5 years for the guinea pig phrase to be over.

Do I worry too much? Or is life too short to worry about potential engine life decerase between 100,000 to 200,000 miles?

I’ve been looking online for a used fun ride (RWD, turbo, or AWD..) , and everything turbo just screams ” timebomb” to me.. what year vintage Japanese turbo would last in your opinion?

Thanks for reading!

Sajeev answers:

Ground rule: let’s focus on gasoline engines, as diesels sans turbo must stay in the history books. Hmm-kay?

I admire your skepticism. We know auto manufacturers love being the Tail that Wags the Dog. Hell, it’s one of the reasons why this website got so damn popular. To wit: the last Piston Slap on this subject and something I wrote many moons ago, riffed on by Csaba Csere in a Car and Driver editorial the following month. Or at least I think it was, 2008 was a looong time ago in the Internet era.

So I’ve spilled plenty of digital ink on the matter. And while EcoBoost may not be an SVO re-do to the extent I once believed, this claimed commoditization of turbocharging is getting out of hand. I considered your query while playing drums during a bad rainstorm over the weekend, remembering what my 7th grade jazz drum instructor once said:

“The only way you’ll be a better Jazz musician is by working on the basics, not showing off your technique. Do you know what K.I.S.S. means? It means keep it simple, stupid!

The KISS principle has validity in the auto world too, if one takes a long-term (i.e. at least a decade) view on the reputation, customer perception and ultimate sustainability of a brand. All that turbo plumbing, the intercooler/cooling system upgrades, computer tweaks and the turbo itself sure as hell aren’t free. There’s a reason people buy solid-axle, naturally aspirated Corollas, and why Toyota dumps them for stupid cheap money. Conversely, there’s a reason why Subaru is an affordable niche manufacturer with plenty of turbo goodness in their portfolio…who is now owned by the Masters of Supply Chain and Cost Management, Toyota.

And if these tail-dog-wagging, news hungry, Turbo Fanbois lived in my brain, their response would include the advancements in technology, lower cost of production thanks to outsourcing, better fuel economy in EPA tests and the likelihood that the first owner (at least) shall experience zero problems. And they’ll shoot down my 7th grade drum instructor with, “What does he know? He’s a creepy old perv with a canary yellow Coupe DeVille.” Truth.


And perhaps both sides are right. Much like cars were 100 years ago, turbos were once relegated to people with more money than sense. Those days are long gone, thankfully. But will we see standard, across the board turbocharging by all auto manufacturers? I seriously doubt it. It’s still more expensive, takes a lot more energy to produce (parts don’t just fall from trees) and for the (majority?) of drivers who couldn’t possibly emulate the EPA’s fuel economy testing, well, they will be spinning the turbo far too often when they could be lazily lugging around a larger non-turbo four-banger, a modest V6 or a truly ree-laxed V8.

Time will tell, but don’t buy stock in the Turbos just yet.

Send your queries to sajeev@thetruthaboutcars.com. Spare no details and ask for a speedy resolution if you’re in a hurry…but be realistic, and use your make/model specific forums instead of TTAC for more timely advice.

Sajeev Mehta
Sajeev Mehta

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  • Type44 Type44 on Sep 25, 2013

    My anecdotal evidence means nothing... But never having a turbo issue on 15 different cars in 22 years of driving seems to indicate that such worries are overblown. I have had considerably more issues with windshield washer pumps than with turbos. And I drive hard. generally, I think of a turbo as an expensive muffler that adds 100 hp. Have never needed a muffler on a turbo engine. On Audi 5s, in fact, it usually made it louder to add a muffler! No replacement for displacement, except turbo'd big displacement. That's the path I really like- having enough cubes to be really quite punchy by itself, then about 15 psi on top of that for the OMFG warp drive effect on the freeway, regardless of uphill grade. This is where I'm going with my 635CSi. Knock sensing ignition works wonders when you're dealing with old school parts such as this. Tis a pity we all have to concern ourselves with EPA mileage testing. As I thought aloud while whistling past traffic in the HOV lane on my $1500 BMW K75, getting 58 observed MPG... "If you were serious about MPG' you would get a bike. But you're not. You're serious about showing the neighbors that you get good MPG, even if it costs you $500/mo to do it!"

    • Tim_Turbo Tim_Turbo on Sep 25, 2013

      "But never having a turbo issue on 15 different cars in 22 years of driving seems to indicate that such worries are overblown" Haha-overblown! Good one!

  • Toy Maker Toy Maker on Sep 26, 2013

    Thanks for the reply Sajeev! (This was actually my question, but I gave you the wrong username in email..) Nice Roc-N-Soc! Gotta get one of those myself one day, but for now the standard issue DW throne is holding up fine for home use. Clear pinstripes!... interesting choice. For those that care, my question was actually twofolds.. partly to ask about the path of the new surge of turbo engines, partly to ask about a eventual(fantasy?) toy purchase.

  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
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