Plan on driving a new car on a 3000mile highway trip. Bad idea?

I was planning on taking my soon to take possession RX350 on a trip which will consist mostly of highway driving of about 3000mile drive and been told that that's not such a good idea because you don't want to drive a brand new car on the highway for any extended amount if you can help before the car's properly broken in.

The seals, rings and the machine just needs to set in properly, which happens during the break in period and before that, I was told you should avoid any long highway trip.

What do you guys think? If this was your car, would you do it or put off the trip until after the car's broken in properly? Thanks.

Reply to
Bow Wow
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I would combine highway and B-road ( secondary roads) mileage, alternating between high and low rev engine use and avoiding constant speed for extended periods. I broke in the engine of my previous s Lexus doing precisely that, and the engine really came into its own compared to other cars of the same brand, which felt sluggish. Also, short bursts of acceleration up to 100 mph , and cruising at variable speeds in the 50 to 85 mph range helped me loosen up the engine during the first 4000 miles, plus, of course, some city driving. If you do not want to incur the wrath of the law by driving at 100 mph, downshift to 3d or 4th speed , thus revving up the engine and achieving the same effect . Contrary to what manufacturers claim, break in periods are still required for new cars. Good luck.

Reply to
Enrique Quijano

Going 100 mph isn't as important to good break-in as the full-throttle acceleration to get there. Just do the occasional full throttle bursts, and don't worry about going 100.

Reply to
St. John Smythe

I've taken 50 or 60 new cars and driven them for roughly 12,000 miles of mostly highway driving with no problems. The nature of our business was most of the people in our office also had to drive mostly highway miles. Figure 30 people get 4 new cars a year for 120 new cars a year, x my 15 years experience for 18,000 cars with no ill effects of driving mostly highway miles from the time they are put into service. Many of those cars were bought by employees, relatives, and friends afterwards and they did not experience any problems related to how the vehicles were broken in.

Enjoy your trip in your new ride!

Reply to
Ray O

You sure buy a lot of cars!

From alt.auto.bmw:

I was planning on taking my soon to take possession X5 on a trip which will consist mostly of highway driving of about 3000mile drive and been told that that's not such a good idea because you don't want to drive a brand new car on the highway for any extended amount if you can help before the car's properly broken in.

The seals, rings and the machine just needs to set in properly, which happens during the break in period and before that, I was told you should avoid any long highway trip.

What do you guys think? If this was your car, would you do it or put off the trip until after the car's broken in properly? Thanks.

Reply to
wtrplnet

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