The Ecoboost is a fine engine, if you are daily driving it empty and need it for towing duty on the weekend. It's not an engine designed to pull hard all the time, brake specific fuel consumption climbs dramatically when the engine starts operating with boost. There's a reason the ecoboost or even 5.0 aren't offered in the F250 and larger trucks, the 6.2 and 7.3 gas have better longevity when heavily loaded and better fuel economy at higher power outputs.
The 2.3 Ecoboost was marinized for use in pleasure boats a few years back, its a 4 cylinder motor capable of producing 300hp. A few builders around here have been putting them in mid-sized jetboats for use on the rivers. The engine works, but marine use is totally out of the realm of what it was designed to do, they get decent fuel economy if run slow at low loads, but at high loads the fuel burn increases. In addition, a 2.3 Eco in a car or ranger uses 5w-30 engine oil, in marine use full synthetic 15w-50 oil is required and must be changed at 50 hour intervals, the manual for the marine engine also states "oil consumption is the natural of the beast". For comparison the GM 6.2 V8 Direct Injected engine is also commonly used in jet boats and uses standard 5w-20 oil changed at 100hr intervals, and gets better fuel economy than the ecoboost in the same boat at the same speed.
Small turbo engines like the ecoboost have their place, and their higher fuel consumption at high loads is far offset by the fuel savings of a small engine predominantly cruising lightly loaded on the highway. But for pulling large loads the big N/A gas engines are still relevant, as are large turbocharged diesel engines.
