I have never had a new car with auto gearbox, so how do I run in my new vRS when it arrives?

I assume it's a question of being very light footed, or perhaps using the manual mode.

As far as I am aware, running in an auto is the same as running in a manual. I have heard lots of opinions on how to run in new cars and whether you even need to but the one that I follow is to not hold constant revs for long periods. In practice this means not using cruise control for the first thousand miles and swapping between 6th and 7th gear on a motorway / fast road.

What this is supposed to do is avoid "glazing" components which can happen when they are run at constant speeds and pressures. I am no expert though so I'm happy to stand corrected by those more in the know! Most importantly, just enjoy your car, it's what it's there for!

We've never run a car in..Never had any problems.

Modern cars dont really need it

Good mix of speeds, give it a bit after 50 miles or so but dont redline. Mine has used 0.5ltrs in 18k miles. Other people have nursed the engine when new and drink up to 5 ltrs in only 7k miles!!

Hi, congratulations on your purchase. Hope you enjoy this fantastic little car.

I had never had a new car prior to my vRS mK2 and I too was unsure of how to 'run in'. I was advised by the dealership to just drive it normally as new cars these days have been designed to take more punishment. However, this does not mean you can go thrash the hell out of it straight away!

What I did was to go easy for the first 1000 miles but putting my foot down every now and again. After 2000 miles I did notice the engine 'loosening up' a bit and I was beginning to realise that the DSG learns how you drive and reacts accordingly when you want some oomph!

I only started to use sports mode after 3000 miles and I'm more than happy with the performance.

In my opinion, I think I adopted the right approach. Some may argue I was too soft on it, but I felt comfortable doing so.....to date I've done 3500 miles and it's running fantastic and use sports mode when I fancy some fun at the lights

Oh and never redline, it's not worth it. 6000 revs I get up to once in a blue moon, 5k-6k is plenty fun enough

Edited 9 December, 201015 yr by bingo765

Modern today's cars have better tolerances in engine components etc, compared to my youthful days of having to run-in the engine at 50mph for approx the first 5,000miles, as well as avoiding/allowing engine to labour or over-rev, with an oil change at 500miles, then every 5,000 miles/ 12 month's (with a service) followed by 12 monthly afterwards.

In practice running the car-in for the first 5,000 miles would certainly not do any harm, and allow all metal components to bed gradually, then gradually increase speed's in accruements.

I did this when I bought my 2005 Fabia VRS from new.

With the standard 180map its completely pointless to take it to 6k rpm.

Check out the powercurve, not much point taking it past 5k. Remap however

We've never run a car in..Never had any problems.

Modern cars dont really need it

agreed. I have never run in my new cars, I would advise you drive it "normally" as you would every day.

didn't run in the fiat, had it remapped at 4k I'm now up to 103,000 miles and it still drives "as new" original engine/clutch/gearbox/fly/turbo ect ect... never had to put a drop of oil in it either (and its 18k between services)

just drive normally