Anyone else amazed at how many turbo cars there are?

[Stanley Rockafella]

A mere 10 years ago the only mainstream turbo passenger vehicles offered to the N/ American market were from Saab and Volvo.

Nowadays there's turbo 4's in EVERYTHING from Acura, to Buick, to many Fords and BMW.

The turbo 4 is quickly phasing out the 6, heck, for 2013, the base Mustang coupe is slated to having a turbo 4 over the currently very impressive V6. The BMW 328i for 2012 has a turbo 4 2.0 (I thought BMW's last 2 digits were supposed to indicate the engine's displacement??)

I guess this is what it was like in the 90's when V6's replaced the V8 in most passenger vehicles. But then again, most cars also switched from RWD to FWD too, making the switch to 2 less cylinders necessary due to the lack of room under the hood.

Anyone else find this interesting? I suppose it's all due to the ever-rising gas prices...

[e30trooper]

Stupid america is about 20 years late on the turbo phase.


And yea I live in the US but the BS automotive regulations is gay stuff.

[CrusherCurtis]

The only reason turbo's are so popular now are because manufactures have to get there fleet average up to like 50 mpg by like 2025 I think (not because of the price of gas, because of government mandate). The cheap route is a boosted 1.4 or so on. I can't stand it. There's nothing wrong with turbo's, I'm just a big fan engineering and excellent engine building. Turbo'ing is so easy even you guys do it.

[e30trooper]

This^ This is the reason why most European and Japanese cars came turbo and still got better gas mileage than any domestic cars here to this day. The US is just slow on stuff like this. This goes for headlights also. Plenty of early 90's cars came with projector type headlights but b4 88 the US had laws against stuff like that.

EX , the JDM 180sx ( 240 over here ) had projector beams and over here we had the lame pop up head lights. Anyways, its about time we have a good booming USDM with decent cars.

[Robotin]

becuase turbo

america is just slow on the trends....

but after driving a few of my friends turbo cars. like my buddies 300GT vr4.

AWD twin turbo. i needs tarbo.

[DisgustipatedAP1]

Turbo is alright/decent/good on factory cars.

But for aftermarket, all about dat twinscrew bby. Wish there was a good DIY twinscrew kit for E30 S50 swaps. :(

[e30trooper]

sigh .. the noobs burn down the roof

[naplesE30]

I dont know subi, eclipse, the old probe, 3000gt, neon, grand national, mr2, supra, celica, and im sure im missing a bunch of others.... but yeah fuel consumption mandates are the driving force behind the switch. I also think reliability/longevity played a role behind why the american fleet as a whole was n/a. Espc back then most people did not know or want to properly let their engine warm uup- or cool down, resulting in decreased turbo life.... Hell gm couldnt make a n/a engine last more than 120k miles.

[325ix]

I dont know subi, eclipse, the old probe, 3000gt, neon, grand national, mr2, supra, celica, and im sure im missing a bunch of others.... but yeah fuel consumption mandates are the driving force behind the switch. I also think reliability/longevity played a role behind why the american fleet as a whole was n/a. Espc back then most people did not know or want to properly let their engine warm uup- or cool down, resulting in decreased turbo life.... Hell gm couldnt make a n/a engine last more than 120k miles.

I was gonna say, there were quite a few turbo cars. They just weren't as popular as they are today.

[b*saint]

10 years ago my friend went to Turkey to marry his current wife. He said they had turbo Ford Rangers.

[rich4rdee]

I was gonna say, there were quite a few turbo cars. They just weren't as popular as they are today.

i think the OPs point is that they were mostly used in sports/sporty cars instead of mainstream DD commuters.

i like the idea of small cars with 3 and 4 cylinder turbo engines that are just as powerful as the econoboxes of 5 years ago.

[CabbE30]

I dont mind a turbo 4 in a nice, light RWD car.

[mikeedler]

10 years ago my friend went to Turkey to marry his current wife. He said they had turbo DIESEL Ford Rangers.

corrected.

[Kershaw]

i want a turbo diesel ranger. ;_;

[FunfGan]

i want a turbo diesel ranger. ;_;

This.