New Car, not to go over 50mph for 1st 1000 miles?

[plum93]

Is it true that you shouldn't drive a car over 50mph for the first 1000 miles or so? Will it really do any damage to the car? This is my first time driving a brand new car and just wondering what to do.

[Jojo Versa]

Is it true that you shouldn't drive a car over 50mph for the first 1000 miles or so? Will it really do any damage to the car? This is my first time driving a brand new car and just wondering what to do.

Is that written in your manual ?

[Demonspawn]

i just avoided jack rabbit starts and kept the rpm's low. i always tried to vary the rpm's and just tried to keep in the posted speed limit.this is my 6th new car and i have done this with all my cars!

[lain]

nah your cool. their not like the old engines where you had to break them in first. so have all the fun you want with your new toy. just dont be pushing the car all the time...

[matt_a]

There is a "break-in" period on a new motor of around 1000 miles. All that means is to avoid hard accelerations and you shouldn't maintain a constant speed for long periods of time (like using cruise control on a long trip). There is no reason to worry about going over any certain speed, because the main concern is high RPMs. Our Versa with the CVT is only turning something like 2,200 RPMs at 70 MPH. And remember...you only need to think about this stuff for the first 1,000 miles.

[rainerng]

the owner's manual says you "should not maintain high speeds for the first 1200miles"

Having said that, my car had only 300 miles and I had to take a 180 mile road trip last week. I traveled about 80mph....so i guess i totally violated the service manual...but oh well I had no choice.

[matt_a]

the owner's manual says you "should not maintain high speeds for the first 1200miles"

Having said that, my car had only 300 miles and I had to take a 180 mile road trip last week. I traveled about 80mph....so i guess i totally violated the service manual...but oh well I had no choice.

The key word there is "maintain". It's ok to do 80MPH in a new car. It's just not a great idea to do 80 MPH for an hour straight. Even if you did, I doubt it hurt anything.

[rainerng]

I definitely maintained 80mph for at least an hr on the freeway. But yeah, i agree, i don't think the car will deteriorate because of this.

[Vahagn23]

Dont trust many of the things you read lol, if it would break before 1200miles it would break after that too in that case.

[Ever Victorious]

You're confusing "break" with "breaking in".

It's doubtful you could "break" a new engine in 1000 miles, unless you were doing the 24 hours of LeMans or something stupid like that.

However, "breaking in" an engine is a process where you drive a certain way for the first 1000 miles to make sure everything in the engine gets seated correctly, etc... Older engines you had to be VERY careful with during the first 1000 miles, or you would dramatically shorten their life. It's not so bad these days, but you still want to follow whatever reccommendations the manual has.

[Vahagn23]

guess I ****ed up lol, I hit the break really hard twice already, mostly every stoped I have to run the engine hard, cuz its crazy driving in NYC.

That been said, what is a Quick Start? and accelerating into full throtle in any gear I guess it means just hitting the gas pedal really hard on start that throws the RPM way high??
Modified by Vahagn23 at 4:04 PM 8/27/2007

[boxcarbill]

the manual says no full throttle or maintained speeds but when you test drive the salesperson encourages you to open it up. Had 38 miles on mine when I got it. Red line gear banging miles?