What Classifies as Abuse?
 

This is my first new car. I got the car with 144 miles already on the clock, and with an average mpg of 19, I know that the car was driven hard. I'm trying to take good care of my car and make it last as long as possible. Everything from the interior to exterior to the motor.

What would you guys classify as "abusing" your vehicle and possibly cutting off some life of the car.

Cars are meant to be driven. If you spend the rest of the car's life babying it so that it lasts longer, why bother even driving a sporty car?

Just make sure you pay attention to the maintenance schedule, don't ride the clutch, don't drive it too hard while the engine is still warming up, and don't drift into any guard rails. I think you'll be fine :)

Abuse is more about driving a car incompetently than in a spirited manner.

Just make sure you change the oil regularly and keep up with the maintenance schedule . Also, constant trips to redline will shorten engine life. Lots of stress on the transmission (hard shifts, burnouts, clutch dumps) will shorten not only clutch life but will cause premature wear on the gears and diff.

In terms of cosmetics-- don't park near others in a parking lot.

Remember that it's just as likely a lot of those miles were low speed, tooling around the parking lot, ferry driving types of things. When I first sat in mine it had 7 miles on it, and the MPG average was 15MPG.

Honestly, I think people are overthinking this "early damage" thing a little bit. Yes, it's very possible that some sales guy or parking lot dweeb raced your car around some. That's possible with any car you buy.

Chances are, it will have little effect on a modern car over the long run, and in the short run, there really isn't much you can prove or do about it. I'm willing to bet that your driving will have much more impact on the car's longivity than anything done to the car before you get it.

Did you at least get it for cheaper with 144 miles on it already?

Fack i must be a criminal to you then, my car is about to get striped and used @ the track almost 85% of the time lol.

Ready for it.... I tracked mine at 500 miles lol there i said it

Not driving your car and enjoying it is like not banging your hot girlfriend so the next guy gets all the fun....

:word:

Not necessarily. If someome let the thing sit and idle for an hour that would drag the average waaaay down. So will taking it for 100 trips around the block at cold temps.

Totally agree!!:)

I have heard of "a" proper way to break in an engine is full throttle runs. That was for motor cycle engines. It is a different way of thinking about how engines work.

Not to Hijack your thread but you seem to have the same issue i have, i have yet to receive mine however the sales doc state that the milage on it is 188. 188!!! i haven't even seen the thing and it's got 188!? should i be worried? should i be walking alway? what did u do? and what was done for you?

Mine had only 5 miles. I would definitely walk away and wait for a "new" one.