6 Things You Should Never Do In a Brand New Car (Violate 'em at your own risk)

Introduction to Never To-Do's In Your New Car

Buying a new car is a big decision.

You waited such a long time for the moment and finally invested in a brand new car you've been researching for quite a bit of time. You are extremely cautious and sensitive if someone even gets near your vehicle.

Every time you get out of your vehicle, you check if there's any scratch or mark made while you were driving or parking. For some people they don't take out the stickers or films for good six months.

Unfortunately, many new car owners focus on what's visible on the exterior. But where you have to give utmost care is the inside where it's not easy to check with your eyes.

Make sure you don't violate the six things because if you do, you are up for some serious damage to your new born child.

Let's get on to it.

Whether it's the new shoes or new skateboard you bought last week, everything requires some sort of break-in process. This becomes even more true for machines, hence, your car.

So, how long should the break-in period be? In general, it's the first 1,000 miles. There might be a slight difference by model and make. This is specifically stated in your driver's manual so make sure to check it out. Anyways, this guideline will be on the basis of first 1,000 miles (1,540km).

Obviously, the most vital part in your car is the heart, the engine. You want to make sure it's broken in well so it's operating at optimal state minimizing damage in the long run.

When you start your engine, pistons in the cylinder of engine goes through cyclical motion. We know that the strokes are what ultimately rotate the wheels, so the main focus should be breaking-in the cylinder bore.

*If you're interested in finding how pistons work in an engine, check out our previous post, HERE

There are imperfect areas in the inner wall of cylinder; pistons need to "gradually smooth" it out and seal it through motion. If the piston go through abrupt motion in the beginning phase, it would eventually damage the cylinder wall. So on that note, it leads to our first rule.

1. Do not floor it. (No full throttle)

You never want to step on the pedal all the way. The most damage on the wall occurs in the combustion phase of piston strokes. Combustion of air and fuel creates gas that may force the piston rings to expand out. These protruding rings can really wear out the walls. So, this automatically leads us to the second rule

2. Don't shift at redline

For manual drivers, you never want to reach the highest RPM (redline) before shifting to a new gear. Some people might say, you need to go through "hard break-in" process. But, this is not true. By observing what high performance car manufacturers recommend, we can clearly see that "hard breaking" is not the way. For instance, for Nissan GT-R, it's recommended for the first 300 miles, not to exceed 3,500 RPM with no more than 50% of throttle. For Acura NSX, they actually do the break-in process before it's handed to their customers to prevent unknowledgeable customers from making poor decision. They don't exceed 4,000 RPM. Similarly, it is recommended that Corvette owners do not exceed 4k RPM in the break period.

3. Keep your hands away from cruise control

In the break-in period, it's imperative to have your engine running in varying RPM. If you are on cruise control, your vehicle is set on one constant RPM. You need to constantly change the speed of your vehicle, not put it on constant speed.

4. Avoid short distance travel

What this means is that you want to give the brand new car to properly warm up once it's started. Just like our body needs proper blood circulation, what you are targeting is proper oil flow all through out the engine.

5. Avoid towing

This connects to the first rule. Higher load to engine inevitably causes full throttle application. This does us no good. Additionally, your tires and brakes are not broken-in at its birth. There's film covering each parts and it requires certain molding process. Most likely, you'll need to do hard braking (not breaking, just for confusion) when you have a huge load attached to your back. You won't be able to attain full grip and you can run into some serious collision or other safety issues.

Finally, having these 5 rules in mind, make sure you do all you can to keep the next and final rule #6.

6. Never let your friend drive your brand new car

This includes your wife, husband, mom, dad, son, or daughter. They probably don't give a sh*t about the 5 rules discussed in the above. Especially, if you've just purchased a sports car, you are guaranteed that your friend would floor it all the way. Say your child is just born, would you leave baby to the hand of others? You are the only one who is going to take a good care of your car.

Before, we wrap up for today, I just want to say, adhering to the 6 things are important but keep in mind that your safety far outweighs the rules. If you are in a situation where you have a car tailing you and need to accelerate in short spurts, otherwise can never merge to a highway, please do me a favor. Go for it. Never get into collision because you were not going fast enough.

Enjoy your new car! You've earned it.

On to the next one.

One Take Away

Never go on full throttle and let your friend drive your new car, EVER!!