I retested the Alpine White sport w/ beige 545i that felt rough during my intial roadtest. Felt okay this time. The salesperson told me to open her up and, well, before you know it the wheels are wailing in tight turns and the tach is moving decidely right of center. The car has been on the dealer's lot for the last five months and I can only assume its been through this before. Any negative impacts on break in, I'm sure this worry has crept into the heads of people buying off the lot? I will follow recommended procedures if I buy it.

Advice?




CVT Benhogan

 

I would never buy a dealer demo. If you are only going to keep it two or three years, OK. But if you keep them a long time like I do, it is better to break them in by the book, IMO.

 

I presume that they're made to tolerate at least some abuse. If you get a good deal, and don't want to keep it past the warranty period, buy it. The problems it may (but probably doesn't) have probably won't show up until later anyway. If you want to keep it a long time, buy a new one.

 

I am far from being an expert on this, but I know that it is a subject of much contention. Generally, I have always broken in a new engine by running it hard, varying the rpms and load as much as possible. I sincerely doubt that redlining the car during a demo drive would harm it at all. As a matter of fact, babying the motor during break-in is probably the opposite of what you want to do.

 

I remember you posted the hardcore break-in link somewhere, right?

 

I had a chance to buy the general manager's 545 (the only one they had at the time; and he probaby ragged it out) for a few thousand bucks less than a new one, and I declined. It had a couple thousand miles, and I probably would have bought it anyway, if it wouldn't have been black on black. Too damn hot here.

 

it is getting late with the 545's, but...my situation was that a friendly dealer did a dealer locate that can do a database search for the car you want (nationwide) and show when the dealer received it (or if on order)...if it is specd the way you want it (as mine was) and is in the pipeline, you get the advantage that it is in their "inventory" but not on the lot for anyone to drive - so the day I bought mine, it was still at the dock and they drove it to the dealer...had 3 miles on it. Again, can't count on that...but it can happen.

thanks,
edl

 

Not to hijack this thread, but have any of you folks seen how the cars are driven off the ships while at the VPC? Cars are basically abused (read: redlined). Just food for thought.

 

Many Germans I know have told me that babying a car during the break-in period is not good for the car. These cars are now made to such great tolerances and with great metals and materials, that break-in is not the rigid critical thing it used to be years ago.

In fact, driving somewhat like you would normally will prove out that there aren't any inherant problems with the engine from the beginning. I was told that babying could let problems slip by that could emerge later when driven 'normally' anyway.

So you should really have no problem with modest redlining of the engine. And besides, the car is under warranty for years. That warranty is more for the problem that would arise from bad production, rather than a problem that you would 'put into' the car by driving it hard.

Hard driving will simply 'uncover' a problem that it had anyway.

Don't worry, and buy it anyway.

 

I was a BMW salesperson until 2001 and, while red lining cars when they were new was discouraged, it did happen from time to time and I've never heard of anything bad resulting from it. I will say, however, I suppose it could have some long term impact on the car if the red lining happened repeatedly or for prolonged amounts of time. Our general advice to customers at delivery was to "avoid full throtle starts and prolonged high RPMs for the first several thousand kilometers (or miles), especially when the engine hasn't warmed up first."

I wouldn't lose any sleep over the red lining incident on the car you're looking at. BMW tests their engines in the lab at full throtle for days on end to study the effect. I'm sure the car you're looking at is fine.