ste

i was trying to find and after market turbo but was unable and then i was wondering how come turbos are not as popular with car manufacters as in the past. i remb nissan use to have the twin turbo Z and toyota had the twin turbo toyota supra. this was in the 90's so is there a reason why lexus doesnt use turbos on none of there cars. seem like if toyota have a history with using turbos then the GS, IS, SC should have turbos. or is there a down fall to having a turbo on ya car

flipside909

Turbos produce great power but it is expensive to maintain. Toyota/Lexus has been focused on maximizing fuel economy and performance all together. Direct Injection technology has given way to it. That would be awesome for Toyota/Lexus to produce a turbo application again, but hybrid power has been their main focus as of recent.

ste

thank u makes sense

Shmee

iTrader: (3)

turbo's are not expensive to maintain at all, at least no more than a factory NA or SC'ed car.
there is no extra maintenance required for a turbo car over any other.
assuming the design and execution of the setup is sound, there is no reliability issues.

as for why Lexus does not have a Turbo car from the factory, i'm not sure. but flipsides comment on fuel economy and Hybrid technology makes a lot of sense.

one of the major reasons why a lot of manufacturers have dropped the Turbo from their bag of tricks is the extra cost to build a reliable and strong engine to be able to support a Turbo.
Also, a lot of companies do not have an engine designed to support a Turbo or any FI that will fit into the space constraints of the current model line up in service.

Och

iTrader: (3)

Its also to keep the emissions levels low.

AlterZgo

I agree. I owned a 300ZX non-turbo and a twin turbo. The turbo was only more expensive because I changed the oil at 3,000 mile intervals instead of 7500 mile intervals for the non-turbo. Many people change their oil at short 3000 mi intervals anyway, so the difference in cost is negligible.

As for whether mfgs are turbocharging cars more or less often, I think turbos have made a significant come back recently. For example, the BMW 335i and 135i are turbocharged as well as the Acura RDX. The RDX is the first turbocharged production car produced by Honda. It's likely that the turbo RDX engine will find its way into the 2009 Acura TSX.

Then, there's the Nissan GTR as well as the twin turbocharged V12 Mercedes AMG and non-AMG models. Audi also just twin turbocharged their V10 motor for their RS6 Avant (Europe only at this time).

As more car mfgs start bringing their diesel engined models over to the US, there will be more and more turbocharged vehicles.

I think mfgs are going back to turbos to obtain good fuel economy while still providing a high level of HP. For my modded 300ZX TT which put out about 400 wheel hp, I routinely averaged about 22 mpg in congested Los Angeles traffic as long as I stayed out of boost. Of course, it would drop down to 10 mpg if I really abused the car.