Someone was thinking of purchasing a Volvo 740. I suggested to him to stay away from turbos as they can be expensive to maintain. I was merely echoing what Paul Grimshaw said in here:

http://www3.telus.net/Volvo_Books/turbo1.html


Then I was flamed by other forummers who obviously loves Turbos. Here is what I wrote:

faith68,

Are you concerned about fuel economy as well? If you are, my advice is not to get the turbo model as it consumes slightly more gas than the NA engine.

On the other hand, after years of driving normal Jap. car, you may feel that the Volvo is underpowered. The turbo boost helps in terms of pick up and speed. Turbos, need religious synthetic oil changes. I say religious here because, owners often trash their turbo cars and these turbo units may get coked up with old oil(as a result of neglected oil changes) and they fail to function.

The headgasket on turbo engines tend to fail earlier than the NA engines as turbo engines are more subjected to intense pressure from the boost.Keep this in mind when shopping for Volvo turbos.

I'm sorry if I sounded like a spoilsport, but those are facts.


The reply:

h4ntu "Are you concerned about fuel economy as well? If you are, my advice is not to get the turbo model as it consumes slightly more gas than the NA engine"
==========================================================================

Nope... for big bulky car having less power to push the car requires more petrol.... I've driven all 940 (NA, LPT & Turbo), the NA consume most petrol in urban driving.


h4ntu "On the other hand, after years of driving normal Jap. car, you may feel that the Volvo is underpowered. The turbo boost helps in terms of pick up and speed. Turbos, need religious synthetic oil changes. I say religious here because, owners often trash their turbo cars and these turbo units may get coked up with old oil(as a result of neglected oil changes) and they fail to function"
========================================================================

Nope, I've driven turbo for the last 7 years coupled with hard driving and none of my turbo ever failed on me...



h4ntu "The headgasket on turbo engines tend to fail earlier than the NA engines as turbo engines are more subjected to intense pressure from the boost.Keep this in mind when shopping for Volvo turbos."
==========================================================================

It will depend on how you maintain the car... it can happen to even NA cars... Again my 7 years driving Turbo cars up to more than 250k mileage but yet to give up on me... mind you with hard driving too... BTW, Turbo has the intercooler etc to address the issue...



h4ntu "I'm sorry if I sounded like a spoilsport, but those are facts"
=========================================================================

facts? from where? I'm talking about my own personal experience plus experience of more than 100 volvo turbo owners cars in malaysia that I ever met....



For the experts out there, which one generally lasts longer and consume less gas? I need some hard evidence.

Thank you!!