Tom Seim wrote:

European turbo diesels are very performant compared to their size (for tax
and petrol price reasons)

You should NEVER use a turbo for towing. Turbos are only ment for
intermittent operation - towing puts them into near continuous
operation, leading to premature failure.

Of course there will be those that disregard this claiming they have
never had a problem (you never do until you do).

This doesn't match my experience, nor what I heard about that. I owned 10-15
years ago a Renault R11 with a turbo (petrol), the turbo died after about
75000 km, the nest one survived a little longer (~ 100000 km) then I replaced
the car rather than the turbo. The man who replaced the first turbo said I
was lucky as they rather fail after 50000 km. I used the car mostly at maximum
speed since most of my usage was on highways and almost never in towns. Somebody
explained to me that what kills turbos is stopping and starting the car rather
than using it. This, according to this person, is due to the way they are
lubricated. No oil can stand the temperature found in a working turbo, so
the only way to keep them lubricated is to make a constant flow of oil trough
them which is cooled outside so the temperature never reach the temperature
of the turbo. But when you stop it the temperature is still high and there is
no more flow, so the remaining oil is cooked and produces a solid residue. This
residue is broken at the next start, causing friction and wear at this time.
I don't kown if this is a valid explanation, but it is consistent with the
life time of my both turbos, as well as the way they died, i.e. wear of the
bearings.