1 litre turbo charged petrol engines

Anyone any experience of these in larger cars? Surely something that stressed is not going to go for 100,000+ miles, no matter how well engineered. 

I recently learned something about turbo units that explains quite a bit on the question of why have I had to replace so many turbos over the years...

Did you know that most turbo failure comes from wear and tear caused by the differential materials from which a turbo unit is comprised? This means that in the cool down the different parts can misalign quite easily - you get bearing failure and pressure issues due to leakage. They can develop some interesting warps etc. The solution, apparently, is to maintain them by running the engine in idle once you stop, allowing the fan to cool more gradually. It puts life on the unit.  Or to put it another way, just switching your car off dead after a significant amount of demand for power is life shortening for the unit.

 

I have discovered that the cars on motability scheme include some rather swift numbers.  Been pondering swapping the cash they give me in exchange for a free new car every 2 years.  

Turbo charged in the low CC range not as bad as supercharged.  Not good on a small diesel engine in any event as the pressure in the manifold is higher and generally a lot more strain on the engine as a result.  Better off going for a 1.4 or 1.6.  There's some very good stuff in that range out there now.

There’s a nice two door 1 series bmw sports thing on motability.  They insure it and everything, I’d just need to put fuel in.  Kinda tempted given the state of the buses at the moment, and I’m off the “thou shalt not drive” drugs.

If you want something with turbo speed why not get an electric car already ?  

Stunning acceleration and top speed very much not useable in Blighty.  

No real maintenance worries and almost zero maintenance expense. 

Cuts your fuel bill by 85%.