Do New cars still need to be 'Run in'?

[Freemo]

Years ago when ever you had a new car you were supposed to run the engine in - meaning you could not go faster than 50mph for the first few hundred miles. Does this still apply to new cars or are you ok to run them as normal. I need to go down to sussex in it and i don't fancy a 400 mile round trip at 50 mph.

[charlesthetog]

It is highly recommended to! if its a diesel its low rpm high torque. When i bought the Golf i picked it up and drove strait to the Nurburgring (900 odd miles) then gave it death around the track. 15000 miles later and 12000 miles on a stage 1 DNA Tuning remap it runs like a dream

[mjogreen]

I wouldn't say keep it under 50 mph. I'd say it's more don't be redlining every gear constantly and giving the car hell

[lfcrule1972]

I'm sure I read on here that it's not required anymore, just sensible driving as suggested by mjogreen above. With diesels I've also read that there is a school of thought that recommends driving hard from the off

[Freemo]

Thanks for the advice. I am not into ragging the engine anyway so will just stick to normal driving.

[RichardL]

Well considering the very first thing I did when I picked mine up was drive 70 odd miles down the motorway to the Isle of Sheppey and 15,000 miles later it's still ticking over perfectly I think you'll be just fine!

[Bigfeet]

It is advisable to be gentle with a car from the off for a few hundred miles to allow everything to bed nicely, speed is not too much an issue but rather high revs. The other point of note is that the brakes will be fresh as well and they also need a few miles to bed in as well.

Also while I'm at it don't run your stereo at full blast or with heavy bass the first few times, the speaker rubbers also need a chance to settle correctly, hit the volume to hard and you will stretch the rubbers giving you noisy speaker rattle.

[THP]

I was going to post the same question.

I've only done about 80 miles since I got my new one and haven't gone much over 3000rpm.

I can't remember from my last cars but will the mpg improve over time too? It doesn't seem to be great.

[Hyperkev]

80 miles it can't of moved of full lol

[StevenRB45]

80 miles it can't of moved of full lol

That.

I wouldn't draw any conclusions about the economy until it's at least had a chance to run in slightly it'll be very tight at the moment.

[THP]

80 miles used 1/4 of a tank. In my THP150, that would've done about 120miles.

That's the question I was asking, StevenRB45...will the economy improve after the engine has run in a bit.

[StevenRB45]

80 miles used 1/4 of a tank. In my THP150, that would've done about 120miles.

That's the question I was asking, StevenRB45...will the economy improve after the engine has run in a bit.

Most engines do improve with time as everything loosens up, it's far too soon to be doing any comparisons yet. We don't have a THP so not sure what figures you'll be looking at and how it would compare to a 150. Maybe track it for the first few K on fuelly?