Ok I am going to be honest, I use sport+ mode 90% of the time I am driving just to hear the crackle and pops. I live with my fiancé in DC and we are semi-close to downtown. It kind of intoxicating to hear the noise with windows down and to see the looks on people's faces when I am giving a little more throttle. Are any of you driving in sport+ mode even before the break-in period? Is there even a break-in period? I heard nothing from the dealer or sales associate about break-in period and in fact, my dealer associate said to keep it in sport mode if I wanted to experience the GLC. Currently, I had my GLC43 for a month and got about 300 miles on it. I love the sound but worried that the sport+ mode that I keep it in will be bad for break-in and high mileage use down the line.

 

I drove it hard from the time I got it (11 miles on it) I now have 6,500 miles and still drive it like it's stolen.

I spoke with the head of service department just after I bought it, and asked him about this. He said those who baby it, are always in for service, and those who drive it rough are never in for service. Drive it like you will drive it throughout it's life.

When I turn the car on, I switch modes. I honestly think that the Comfort mode is too mild. I feel the lag in the turbo, and hate waiting a second when I need to move. I also drove in Sport Plus for much of it's life. However, I've found that Sport mode is also very responsive, without the roughness. Starting at about 6,000 miles, I've mainly been using the Sport mode. You don't get the crackle, but the shifting isn't as harsh either. I switch back to Plus when I need a bit more umph.

This is, of course, my opinion, but seems to be backed by the service guy.

I say, drive it like you stole it.

-John

 

With the technology we have in today's vehicles, my personal opinion is that breaking in a vehicle has become more of a personal preference on how one chooses to drive off the lot. A good reference would be the owners manual of the vehicle you are driving. According to the Mercedes owners manual for a 2017 GLC SUV (all I have access to since I am sitting here waiting on my car to be built and delivered) it states that you should vary your driving habits for the first 1,000 miles. The notes are as follows:

"-Drive at varying vehicle and engine speeds for the first 1,000 miles
-Avoid heavy loads during this period (i.e. full throttle, or, like it's stolen)
-When changing gears manually, change up in good time, before the tach needle reaches 2/3 of redline
-Do not manually shift to lower gear to brake the vehicle
-Try to avoid depressing the accelerator beyond the pressure point

After 1,000 miles, you can increase the engine speed gradually and accelerate the vehicle to full speed."

Do I think these are a little extreme? Probably a little bit. Would I baby the car? Probably not. Would I drive like it's stolen? Probably not. The problem with this question on a forum is that there are many who believe you should drive it hard off the lot, and many who think you should baby it. Personally, on delivery of new vehicles, I drive with a range of styles from harder to softer for the first 1,000 miles before I start driving it like a stolen race car. Putting it into Sport + I'm sure is fine. As with most things, I think the answer is, keep it realistic and use common sense.. these aren't 1990's cars. I think you could see issues at both extremes (babying it or stressing it).. but I think you're fine having fun with it. There's my two cents, I'm sure others will chime in with different views.

 

Tbro:

I think you make some great points. While I may say to "drive it like it's stolen" you certainly couldn't do that at all times.

I, for the most part, drive fairly mild, but there are many times I am pretty hard on it from stoplight to stoplight. I've gotten it up into the triple digits for speed.

A varying approach to driving style is probably best. It is much more real world. I simply don't baby it for the sake of the break-in. I drive without worry.

-John

 

I know there will be mix opinions on the forums that's why I asked on a public forum. I wanted to hear about people's driving habits.

The problem I see with vehicles sitting on the lot is that you don't know what the porters, sales associates, potential car buyers and others have done with the car before you have actually purchased it. I can definitely tell you that if there was supposed to be a break-in period for some of the AMG vehicles, that my dealer's associate definitely didn't hold back on my test drives of various models. More like encouraging me to floor it in Sport+ to get a feel of the power. Most of the GLC, GLE, E and C 43 models were in a separate lot off of the dealership's property. My dealer sales guy had to move the cars to bring them to me and I can tell you that sitting in the passenger seat, he was showing me sport + mode and flooring each of the vehicles before I got behind the wheel.

Now if this was a special order vehicle, I would probably baby it, but my truck had 9 miles on it. Not sure what happened in those 9 miles of driving. I will probably keep driving like I am doing until newness wears off. Sport mode is a must in the city to move in and out of traffic. That slight hesitation in eco/comfort mode is dangerous when trying to maneuver quickly.

 

I think you're fine driving it as you are. Now, how your car was driven prior to your purchasing it is a different concern than how you should be breaking it in. I agree, you don't know how the sales people or customers test drove it prior to you. When I test drove the 43 the guy told me to floor it everywhere. His purpose is to sell the car. I can be snobby when it comes to the thought of how a car was driven prior to my purchase, too. It's one of the reasons I like to order where I can apart from also knowing I'm getting exactly what I want. With that, even if I purchased a car with 30 miles on it, I would still probably drive the first thousand miles as if I had bought the car with 1 mile. Break in period is still break in period even if the guy before you floored it a couple times on a test drive. Either way, I'd say you're good.

 

I have also heard both sides of break in procedure techniques...hard as hell, or baby it. My two cents is this....the motor is fine these days to rail on it out the door. The tolerances that used to be a bit loose in motors is now spot on and so tight there is little need to worry. Plus, right off the bat they run it up to red line off the assembly line to test it on a dyno anyway. The real break in is for other moving parts of the car. The transmission, front and rear diffs, brakes and anything else with fluid in them. I plan on leaving it in C mode since it limits rpm to 4500 and I will go up and down the gears a bit for about 700 miles or so and then get on it. I am a bit concerned if something goes horribly wrong and they look at the computer data and see I did not honor the break in procedures and then in turn they do not honor the warranty. Slight concern....since I plan on putting a dinan elite tune on it asap anyway!

 

1000 miles break in period is only for real AMG. Does not apply for 43 series...

 

I am waiting for my 2018 GLC43 (late November delivery) - build date Oct 11th. The 2018 manual has the following regarding AMG vehicle break-in (in addition to the details mentioned by others):

Additional breaking-in notes for Mercedes-AMG vehicles:
Do not drive faster than 85 mph (140 km/h) for the first 1,000 miles (1,500 km).
Only briefly allow the engine to reach a max- imum engine speed of 4,500 rpm briefly.
Change gear in good time.
Ideally, for the first 1,000 miles (1,500 km) drive in program C.

Like other AMG 63 vehicles, for the GLC 63 you are required to change the oil in the rear locking differential

Your vehicle is equipped with a self-locking dif- ferential on the rear axle.
Change the oil to improve protection of the rear axle differential after a breaking-in period of 1850 miles (3000 km)

 

This was an old post. I since then beat the snot out of my truck lol. I got it tuned way before the break-in period and I drive most of the time in Sport+ and Manual mode. No issues to report or transmission jerking problems. I am at 2400 miles 7 months of ownership in DC () stop and go traffic.