Hi Guys. Newbie here. My Aqua Mica will be ready on coming Wednesday. Me, like louis198920, going to pick up my car from Penang, then will drive it back to KL on the next day. And, like louis, I'm concern on the engine breaking in issue.


I made some research through the net (the best auto advice source i have since I don't know any automotive engineer), and I found a few contradicting suggestions on the method:

1. low rev break-in: TREAT GENTLY - For a few hundred miles (500-2000 MILES, varies from sources) that the rev should be ranging from 3000 - 3500 rpm or not more than 1/4 throttle, or 75 % of max power (or blah blah blah... you got the idea). Keep the speed low.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_should_you_%...in%27_a_new_car
http://www.driverside.com/auto-library/bre...n_a_new_car-566

2. high rev break-in: ALL THE WAY OUT, NO WORRIES: this is the easiest, rev up and accelerate as much as possible (prefereably on racetracks, just be careful on streets) for 200 miles. This dude sounds like he has experience in cars.
http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

3. keep rev swinging, max rev not important: NO CONSTANT SPEED - this method says rpm and speed is not important, the most important point is to keep the engine swings between high and low revs.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive...article4180794/

4. long winded method: THIS SOUNDS LIKE A FACTORY METHOD - a long procedural way of breaking in engine, involving switching off the engine to complete cool downs. ** read yourself
http://www.ntnoa.org/enginebreakin.htm

5. choose either high or low rev, depending your future demand: FORGIVING METHOD - a dude in a forum claimed that is method is suggested by Ferarri (but I could not find this method in ferarri related sites)

6. no need to break in: YIPPEE, NO SWEATS! - the logic is modern construction of piston rings and break in has been done in the factory
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_should_you_%...in%27_a_new_car

7. follow the car's manual book: VERY DIPLOMATIC METHOD - despite all the above mentioned methods, most authors still advise to follow car manual (who knows, maybe to avoid possible lawsuit for misleading the audience). But the author of method #2 above disagrees and has his own opinion on this

Note that the opinions really vary in terms of:
Duration - some people say 20 min (or alike) of breaking in, others say nothing about duration
Mileage - some say 200 miles, others 1000 miles, or even 5k miles or a lifetime!

My Qs:
1. Which is the correct method?
2. What did the manual say about engine breaking in?
3. MOST IMPORTANTLY, do the above method applied to hybrids, since in hybrids the electronics is controlling the engine output with interference from the motor, not the driver? What i mean is, you wanna the swing to high rev by pressing on the accelerator, but the engine rev up lazily with the help from the electric motor, so ultimately you can't rev up the engine fast enough.

Thanks for the piece of info. Well, this is not my 1st car, just that it's my first new personal car since I've been using a 2nd hand car all the while, which engine breaking-in is not an issue at all! The reason I'm concerned is because many people in this forum mentioned it but I have never seen proper engine breaking-in done by anyone in my family. I do think that it's irrelevant for hybrid cars too since it's the ECU is the main determinant on the engine usage, not he driver.

Plus, my experience is that if you have too many different opinions on an issue without an obvious concensus, means none is reliable...

Woohoo! Collected my aqua mica! Had driven a number of cars, but driving a HSD is totally a whole new experience!

IMHO, unless the autolock locks when applying brake even before the car moves, habitual central locking manually once everyone is in the car is safer, compared to autolock only when the car starts moving @ low speed. Autolock @ low speed still provides the robbers a window period, in between of u in the car and autolock @ low speed (before the car hits eg 20 kmph)

1. Just ask the SA. Or, you can test drive it in a half foot flood. If the back cabin remains dry, means the water won't go into the battery (cause there's an air vent connecting both)

2. Definitely NO. And it's more stable in high speed that you would expect for such size.

3. Foot space is enough for outstation travel. Just don't carry Yao Ming...

4. By black and white 0-100 kmph, mazda2 10.2, mini cooper 10.4, PC 10.7, myvi 1.5 11.3. honda city 11.5, vios 11.8. Practically I feel enough for me, whatever it is, it is not slow in acceleration.

5. 2 big size fellas, or 3 small-medium size fellas.

I have a plastic man index finger. It's just over 3 inches long, and I can easily lock all doors by pressing one central locking button at the drive's door panel.

Yes. However good the conventional cars I have driven including golf and c-class, driving PC (and I supposed 1.8 prius too) is totally an exceptional experience that those cars won't provide

Hahar! Plastic man, those days... Kids nowadays have no idea who's that!

AQUA MICA METALLIC! Really love the colour, chose that. Car looks bigger, and the colour matches the interior's greeninsh-bluish lining, and the colour of the speedometer too

Hi Guys.
Out of 8 bars of battery power, I noticed that the max I could achieve with charging by engine is 6 bars. Then there was a few occasions it got from 8 to 9 bars when I applied on the brake. I have never achieve max of 8 bars of battery power. I checked with my SA, who is driving a prius 1.8, and he told me that he has only seen 80-90% battery charged so far for normal use (he will double check for me though)...
The Q:
The maximum power that the engine can charge the battery is up to 6 bars, and the final 2 bars can only be achieve with regenerative brake (e.g. coming down from Genting)? Or is it just that my particular car battery has problem?

Mine is Aqua mica, really love the colour. It looks more bluish under the sun and greenish under shades.
The colour is so unique that I myself seldom see the others on the roads (at this moment lah).
It fits the interior greenish lining and speedometer digit colour perfectly.
Have not snapped any photo yet. Will upload once taken.

Aqua in partial shade


Under the sun


Indoor


Exterior vs interior colour comparison
Got the perfect matching rubbish bin!

My PC came with a bluetooth radio (the one without GPS). I think the later batch came with it. The test drive units are those of the older batches, which came with those radios exactly shown in the official PC website. If you look carefully the photo I upload "Exterior vs interior colour comparison", you will notice the radio is different from the one shown in the official website.

Date of import is somewhere in mid Sept, think is 15 Sep kut (poor handwriting in the kastam form).

Since you're using ron97, do you mind sharing the difference of ron97, in terms of FC and power, etc? Curious if the difference is obvious in hybrids. Thanks!

Jazz hybrid has no spare tyre. Tyre puncture repair kit is not good enough as the only way to identify puncture spots is to take out the tyre and dip the whole tyre into water to look for bubbles coming out from the puncture spots. I have had encountered a few flat tyre occasions (own cars and also friends' cars) which required me to change them. The main reason I didn't get a jazz hybrid was because I can't accept a car without a spare tyre.

My 2 cents on performance of PC vs Vios.

Vios 1.5 L engine, max output 109 PS, max torque 141 Nm. Easy, just engine.
PC is more complicated because the engine and motor interact with each other to produce total performance.

PC's max output
Although PC is using 1.5 L engine, it's running on Atkinson cycle, producing only 73 PS max output, which is way below Vios' max output (+1 to Kiding). Thus, hypothetically, if PC's motor or battery MATI, Vios will definitely outrun PC.
But with combination of the motor with appropriate battery level, the max output rises to 101 PS.

PC's max torque
This is lagi complicated, due to the eCVT compared to Vios' AT. Anyhow, the PC's electric motor generates more torque than Vios' engine - 169 Nm vs 141, not to mention the influence of engine's 111 Nm. Even the PC is heavier, the torque:car weight ratio still beats Vios (+1 to jscyl1980).

So,
PC max torque > Vios
Vios max output > PC

Which means, PC ACCELERATES faster than Vios (0-100 - 10.7 sec vs >11 sec); eCVT makes NO jerking acceleration, therefore smoother acceleration which leads to MISPERCEPTION of "no power to accelerate" (+1 to jscyl1980).
Vios' top speed higher than PC (this is theoretical, I dare not to experiment on my own in real life), thanks to PC's eCVT, PC's max 2nd motor generator RPM = wheel RPM, that's what some people say PC has 1 gear only.

BY theory, you can make use of PC's excessive max torque to increase the top speed by changing to bigger tyre, but this will sacrifice your acceleration. IF any of you know how to do the calculation, maybe you can switch the tyre size to tune PC to higher top speed and at the same time keeping faster acceleration than a Vios.

Conclusion, as a normal street user, I'll still say PC performs better than Vios because faster acceleration is more practical than top speed.

You're welcome. Wanna brain wash you into our gang
But seriously, since you do travel frequently on North-south and east-west highways, I think safety is the utmost priority, which means PC beats Vios hands down (VSC is super important for that, plus 7 air bags). I would say handling, noise insulation, etc comes later than safety. Anyhow, the sharp cornering, sound insulation and comfort are very satisfactory to me. Power? Getting up hill needs torque more than horsepower.


+1. Now I remembered I came across that somewhere...



Guys, most of you recommended BHP and caltex over shell and petronas. What about ESSO Mobil? I'm using that because of smile points , but are BHP and caltex better than ESSO Mobil?

Front passenger door frame. Open the front passenger door, and you will find a black plate stating your colour code, engine number, chasis number etc

Boys, airbags are useless without seatbelts. Seatbelt holds you in position so that airbag can absorb your impact efficiently. SRS = SUPPLEMENTAL restraint system, means seatbelt is still the primary.
Means, driving a PC without buckling up is more dangerous than driving a Proton Wira buckled in unavoidable accidents.

http://www.freakonomics.com/2005/07/18/whi...-or-an-air-bag/

"wearing a seat belt reduces the likelihood of death by
roughly 60%, and air bags reduce the probability of death by
approximately 16% in direct-frontal impacts and 9% in
partial-frontal impacts. Based on our estimates, seat belts
are more effective than is generally thought, whereas air
bags are less effective. If our estimates are correct, roughly
15,000 lives were saved by seat belt usage in 1997, along
with roughly 550 lives saved by air bags."
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Pap...tPorter2001.pdf

Still think this is theoretical? Go to any government hospitals and interview those car crash patients with multiple injuries (especially those with hip dislocation or brain bleed) if they habitually buckle up.

Yep, you're right. Airbag is useful, ONLY when your seatbelts buckled up. Noticed that the crach test dummy is being buckled up?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1TBvXoOJjw
Check this out, showing you with and without seatbelt, both with airbags @ 0:19 sec. Airbag alone without seatbelt is not enough to protect the head crashing on the windshield, and some more it's a Volvo!

DO you think the insurance company will compensate if they found this dummy buckles in the accident car?

Don't be too worried. It's quite difficult for a driver to run-in PC's engine like in any petrol cars for following reasons (my 0.02):
1. PC's engine RPM stays low at high speed, so engine won't heat up easily like other cars
2. You can't control the rev of the engine, it's decided by the computer
3. Depends on the terrain and the battery level, the engine RPM will change even at a constant speed (but not too high though) - this is an advantage in terms of running in an engine