What changes in daily driving, when going from NA to Turbo?

[S2CorollaR]

I posted a thread in the comparison forum, and the general consensus is that I can't go wrong with Integra GSR, Prelude or Mazdaspeed Protege.

Almost everyone said to avoid the SRT4, as I noted that I wanted good gas milage and modest insurance.

The Protege is turbocharged though, and I have never owned a turbocharged car before, so I'm kind of wondering what precautions or changes in driving style I would have to commit if I purchased one.

[Sluttypatton]

Other than you, only one person said to avoid the SRT-4. The main reasons brought up for this where insurance cost, police attraction, and gas mileage. Sure this vehicle may have poorer gas mileage than other cars in it's price range, but other cars in it's price range are economy cars and can not really be compared on the same basis. If your afraid of police attention, don't drive like an idiot, besides the SRT-4 looks so much like the SX 2.0 that it wouldn't immediately stand out to many police. The insurance may be a sticking point, but on the other hand, any sports car will have a higher than average insurance cost. If you want cheap insurance, buy a Topaz and be done with the idea of having a sports car.

I am a turbo enthusiast so I am biased towards them, but I am biased towards them because they are better. If you want more information on turbocharged vehicles check out the forced induction forum. In terms of driveability and general durability, turbocharged vehicles do not differ much from a naturally aspirated one, but they do require punctual oil changes in order to last their entire lifetime. If you are looking for performance at a reasonable cost, with reasonable gas mileage there is just plain no beating a turbocharged vehicle.

[curtis73]

Basically, no changes need to take place. Depending on the design of the turbo, you could have a few concerns or no concerns.

There is always the cool-down debate. In general, with today's very mild turbos, little or no cooldown is required. If you use synthetic oil, don't even think about it unless that housing is screaming hot. Oil change intervals must be religiously observed, but for the average enthusiast anything other than 3000 is blasphemy, so it shouldn't change your methods at all.

Drive it hard, put it away wet, change the oil.

[bjdm151]

With the current class of stock turbocharged cars, reliability, and most of the time even gas mileage are pretty much a non issue. I personnaly would pick the protege simply because it is not a neon, but then i am not one of those guys who tries to memorize every single spec for these cars so i couldn't tell you which one is faster or whatever. I just think neons look a little gurly and any self respecting man wouldn't drive one unless forced to.

[drdisque]

the GSR is as expensive or more expensive to insure than the SRT4 because of its high theft rate

the SRT4 is about a second faster than the Mazdaspeed Protege in the 1/4 mile

[-Jayson-]

yes one thing changes, your foot gets heavier. I havent figured it out yet, but it seems like as soon as i touch my foot to the peddle, its like gravity increases by 100X and my foot pushes the peddle all the way down cause i cant hold it up. Also driving becomes alot more fun.