I'm starting to think no car manufacturer makes the car that I really want.

I'm pretty fascinated by the prospect of using a turbo kit (like the Edelbrock kit for the 6th gen EX) to make real power at the higher end (when you drive it that way), with the stock economy/reliability/smoothness when you don't rev it up.

No car manufacturer makes a car with this goal. They assume if you want a turbo, then you want power all around, so they build the engine (mostly determined by the cams, port size, and stroke) for more performance. That's not my goal. I want to use technology to span the tradeoff gap between economy and performance. No, I don't get the best economy or the best performance. I don't care. But I want to reach into both as much as possible.

So my question, since I buy my car new and keep it for at least 100k miles:

- what do I have to expect with a turbo from a longevity and maintenance standpoint?
- how long do turbos last before needing servicing? and what does that involve?
- does it increase breakdown of the piston rings or any other internals? (compared to just VTECing instead)
- with more mechanical parts and a more complicated system, how much more often does something break? (assuming the same driving conditions if you didn't have the turbo)
- etc?