Back in the day, they were quirky. The technology has come a long way. Turbo lag is a thing of the past. 8,9,10... speed transmissions keep them in a boast mode when necessary.
Back when I unfortunately owned a Merkur XR4Ti for seven trouble-filled years, the standard thing was to sit in your car and let it idle for a minute or two, to circulate
somewhat cooler oil through the turbo so the bearings wouldn't "coke" up. That was also early on in the days of synthetic oil, and I used Mobil 1 almost exclusively. The turbo was one of the few things on that car that
didn't give me trouble. It did have a little lag, and I held back on adding an intercooler since that would have added even more lag to it. But when that sucker pulled...it
pulled. Sometimes boost would register near 16psi on the gauge.
Back in early August this year, I drove a brand new Civic EX-T for a day--this is the 1.5L turbo with the CVT transmission. I know most everyone hates CVTs, but I'll tell ya what--that computer knew exactly which ratios to hit when I would bury the throttle, and that thing took off like a rocket, shifting only when it needed to. Even punching it on I-25 when at freeway speed, it leaped up to 90+ MPH way too quickly. I found out how to change the dash to display the boost gauge so of course I had a little fun with that.
But out on Antelope Island and some of the hills out there, it had no trouble whatsoever climbing any of them. I wouldn't hesitate to own one of the newer turbo/CVT models.