Ramifications of driving brand new car on couple hundred mile drive?

[Tarostar]

I've heard that the WRX needs to be coddled for the first thousand miles. I found one a couple states away that matches what I've been looking for, but I don't want to screw the car up on the first day I get it. It would cost $700 to have it delivered. What would you guys recommend?

[michaelwfox]

You can drive it normally, just vary the speed a little and try not to go over 4000 rpms too often. Other than that you're fine.

[Callahan]

Don't get hung up on this break in stuff. Your engine turns thousands of rpms. Just drive sensibly and don't race it around for a few thousand miles. Enjoy your car.

[Emphasis]

I agree with what's already been said. It would be a huge engineering failure to have a car sustain a failure over using the vehicle for its intended purpose.

Used and abused is a different story.

[Tarostar]

Thanks for the advice. I think I will go for it. I'll be gentle, I swear.

[gandalfthewhite]

I drove to Virginia to get mine on Thursday. 500 mile drive from Cincinnati, and she's still doing fine!

[mastercaster]

just vary your speeds. i always get a big kick out of all this break in stuff. i have owned more new cars, trucks and motorcycles than it seems is the average age of a nasioc forum member. i drive hard and with a heavy foot from day one with all of my vehicles. i've never had problem with a single vehicle that could be related to break in period. my father bought a new Carrera S a few months ago. he was asking the salesman (has sold porsches for decades) about the break in period. he said run the crap out it and don't use the cruise control for about 1k.

[Ruh Roh]

You can drive it normally, just vary the speed a little and try not to go over 4000 rpms too often. Other than that you're fine.

^^this, make the trip and enjoy your newwwwwww car

[jgardiner]

When they say vary the speed, they mean engine speed. You can do this by just changing gear every couple of minutes between 4th and 5th and back again while tooling down the interstate.

[mastercaster]

yes, or just accelerating or decelerating in the same gear to a higher lower speed changes the rpm. no need to change gears.

[teflon_jones]

You will definitely cause long-term issues and will likely cause your motor to blow up during or shortly after the drive. Don't do it!

[wrx1234]

Find a light near by and stalk it... race the first chance you get. It's not broken in until you win your first race. It's in the manual i read it.

[MOTION]

Broke my 2011 wrx 4 door in in the smokey mountains for a weekend driving as hard as possible, that was a year ago, and still no ramifications related to that.

[Mf645]

hmmm, I've rebuilt motors, run them for 15-20 minutes to make sure everything is ok, then tune on a dyno under full power to redline. Just get out and drive it, you'll be fine