Listerone: Penny and Clipper are doing quite well. The old Songbird, the Bamboo Bomber, just wore out, but the Cessna 310 is still flying.
Everyone is very happy on the Flying Crown Ranch. Yes I am old enough to have seen all the episodes starting in 1952.
Cheers

 

Just to add my experience - I've driven my 2011 E350 Bluetec 3200 miles so far and there has been absolutely no oil consumption. For the break in, I drove it hard right from the start as well as extended highway trips (I've had the car 10 days averaging 320+ miles a day so far.) I think oil consumption is an excellent indicator of how well a car is broken in. I've broken in other cars this same way and never had any issues.

 

3200 miles in 10 days? Yikes! If you keep that up indefinetly the figures will be staggering.I hope to keep my Bluetec for at least 6-7 years (if not more) and am likely to average about 12k miles a year.I'm gonna break my car in rather gently (I'm a pretty "sedate" driver as it is) and hope that by doing so my goal can be reached.But it's good to see that even a "spirited" break-in regimen seems to be going well.

 

Diesels like and need to be driven hard. Consider that they are producing maximum power just off idle. While I have never gone completely insane with a brand new diesel, I certainly do not baby them. With most modern engines having such tight manufacturing tolerances, there is very little traditional breaking in needed. Just do what you feel best doing and enjoy the ride. There is little you are going to do to harm anything.

 

Hmmm...interesting.Yours is not the first thing I've read suggesting that one needn't baby today's engines when new.Perhaps I'll baby it for the first 2K or so and then jjst do my usual thing.....driving the Interstate at 65-70mph.

 

you guys do realize that even if you are on a long trip you can still change engine speed but keep cruising speed the same, right??

It's called changing gears...drive in 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th.

 

You are going to baby it for the first 2K and then drive it 65-70mph ? How fast are you planning to go during the first 2K ? Below 65-70mph ? That's being too cautious. In a nutshell this is what MB recommends (page 148 in the manual):

• Vary vehicle and engine speed
• No full throttle accelerations
• No kickdowns
• Do not rev past 2/3 of your rev range

Notice how there is nothing mentioned in there about speed. There really is no good reason to baby the engine that much. Look how many MBs are still on the road from the 80s and 90s. Do you really think their original owners babied their cars ? And they are still running. My colleague's dad just had his W124 officially certified at 1,000,000 miles by MB not too long ago. He never even knew that an engine needed to be broken in. At this day and age the engine manufacturing technologies have advanced so far that breaking in an engine is not as important as it has been before. I've babied cars since day one and I've driven cars like I've stole them since day one and I can honestly say there has been no difference in the way the cars have performed. If you want to take away anything about engine breaking in and this thread remember this one thing because it is the most important good thing you can do to your engine. Never start stomping on the accelerator until the car has warmed up properly. I'm not just talking about the engine but also the fluids. Make sure your engine, oil and transmission fluid is up to temperature before you start your spirited drives. Driving a car hard while it is cold does significantly more damage then anything else.

Benz has been creating cars for the past 125 years. They had plenty of time to idiot proof the break-in procedures. They have thought of everything, and even more, that has been mentioned in this thread and they have taken it into consideration when rolling out new cars/engines. These cars are not fragile. They were designed and built with speed in mind. Just go and enjoy your car from day one. If you follow the US highway code you will be treating your new engine just fine.

 

Man, I'm an OCD paranoid about my car, and even I didn't get so worrisome during the break in period. Just keep the RPM's shifting relatively regularly (not jarringly, as that'll do more harm then good), don't haul a$$, but IMO a good spirited blast once or twice might be good for it (no evidence, just how I feel), to really "break it in", which I did maybe a few times in middle of my Grandma driving routines. Changing the oil may be good I guess () but since I don't DIY, if Mercedes doesn't say to do it, I'll save my money and DIY. I'm very gentle on motors naturally, so I figured by being myself I broke it in very well.

 

While I was getting my first service done (10K mi.) I was chatting with the service advisor and the technician that worked on my car. I asked how many engine problems they see that could be attributed to incorrect break-in procedures. There answer? None, zero, nada. Hope that makes everyone feel a bit better.