I don't know about that. Know they exist sure. But how many people have actually driven turbo's. Specially ones not gear at the performance buyers like a wrx or evo. I mean go through the top 20 cars in the US each of the last 20 years. I bet maybe 1% are non diesel turbo. Besides the reliability and maintenance changes, you also have a different mindset than 20 years ago where gas cost didn't factor in and getting 15mpg on premium didn't matter as much as the performance.
The average Fusion, Sebring, Malibu, Celica, civic, driver isn't completely ready and you can read it in the reviews. Specially the car ones, like the Fusion. I think that you give the masses to much credit for knowing things that would seem like common sense. As an IT guy I have to catch myself doing the same things with my users. If someone doesn't care about something, when they go to get a product they look at the sticker for best stats and lowest price with an eye to known quantities for reliability concerns. For cars its performance (in HP only), MPG, and price. Then it needs their options.
So yeah if they haven't driven a Turbo, they have no idea what to expect. In the US that's a total of part of one generation and a few outliers that have.