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Comments
I take it easy for the first few times out or ~300 miles. This allows the engine to go through a few heat cycles and smooth any rough surfaces. Also, it is important to note that my approach is both heat cycle and miles based...it does much less good just to drive your vehicle on the highway for 300 miles than to let it warm up and then all the way down a few times.
The next 2-300 or so, I allow myself a few 5-10 second sprints to redline. This allows the rings to seat and lets the engine generate some heat, but not for an extended period of time. Extended temperatures of high heat is the real enemy.
The next 2-300 or so, I allow myself some progressively longer high RPM usage.
Change oil and filter, and let it rip. I know this is much earlier than recommended for the 1st oil change, and I'm NOT an oil change junkie by any stretch...but if you believe the 1st 1200 miles smoothes surfaces and lets the engine break in, where do you think the shaved particles go? In your oil and filter! Now, some argue that the filter should capture it all, I'm not sold on that based on post break in oil analyses I've seen. Yes, you can send your oil away for an analysis for pretty cheap.
If it is a leased car and you don't plan on keeping it for a long time or past warranty, does it really matter? Well, some argue that properly heat cycling seals the rings better and smoothes irregularties better, thus leading to better performance, and have dyno results to back that position up. Now, in the case of road race cycles, 1-2 HP can mean a lot in a Supersport class, and we dyno our engines regularly, sometimes dozens of times per season...does the same pursuit of break in perfection apply in road cars? You have to decide for yourself.
I believe what you say because the ICC has no way to anticipate curves and could easily detect a car in another lane around a curve as being in front of you. I saw this once when a car in front of me braked to take an exit ramp and the ICC slowed until the other car was a good 5 or 6 feet off to my right before resuming speed. The gas pedal does appear to override the ICC in these instances and in passing.
I think that if you took a long cross-country trip on typical highways and interstates you opinion of the ICC in that environment might be different.
In my opinion Liquid Platinum is simply a fancy name for silver. It is a bright metallic silver color.
They "upgraded " the optical bus and ended up losing that feature as of 2004. There have been many, many complaints on the Mercedes forums, but all the newer models continue to have the problem; even the newest CLS. It's really hard to imagine, but then again it's the kind of thing they've done many times done before.
Similar to keeping their CD changer in the trunk under the floor mats, for 10 years after competitors started offering in-dash changers; or many years of NAV with no street names on their maps.
As USA Today says, the M just doesn't have any of those German privations.
Pete
I mean in terms of room and power?
Is the Northstar V8 as powerful as the VQ in real world driving?
Thanks...
Overall love the car and I am soon to finish the 1,200 mile break-in period. I will have the oil changed and the "let it rip" as one other poster said so eloquently.
Thanks for two good laughs today.
Pete
1. Have a DVD-Audio disc in the drive and let it play for a while.
2. Then switch to the satellite radio or play a CD in the changer.
3. Press the speech recognition button on the steering wheel and wait for the voice prompt (unless it is switched off).
4. Say "DVD play track 2" and the system will repeat the command, and will say and even briefly display "DVD mode" as if switching to that source.
Nothing happens -- you are still listening to the radio or CD. Now in step #4 say "DVD play" instead and it does play the DVD where you left off. You can now say "DVD play track 2" and it will change to that track.
However:
2a. Press the Disc button and manually re-start the DVD playback.
3. and 4. Now these steps work as intended.
Is it a bug or a feature or am I doing something wrong? I would expect that switching between sources and selecting a particular track should be accomplished in one legal (because it is recognized and partially executed) command.
P.S. Have not tried it with a regular CD instead of the DVD because all of CDs I have in the changer are MP3, so the track number does not apply. Suspect a similar outcome.
Oh, and it's quite similar to what I do. Imagine that.
In regular highway driving the rpms are around 3k plus minus a few hundred almost all the time. My usual commute is approx. 9 miles one way, with about 2 miles in the city and the rest on the highway. Even taking the break-in period into account, 17.8 mpg on average was very low given that my first ~450 mile trip out the dealer yielded 24.8 mpg (both with A/C on). Now stepping a bit harder on the gas, say up to 4krpm but only during accelaration, lowers the mpg down to 17.1 or so.
Now compare the power/torque/efficiency specs to a similar 3.5L Toyota engine, say the one used in the Avalon or the new IS350 (yes, these cars are not AWD but AWD is not engaged all the time in the M35x--"rear bias"). How can the Nissan engine be touted as the "one of the best 10 engines ever" with such performance? Can a couple hundred pounds of car weight make such a big difference?
[Hope this will spawn a healthy discussion not just shooting me down as a "renegade" M owner. I admit I may not know/appreciate all design trade-offs that were made.:) ]
You're welcome and it's my pleasure.
Note: DVD commands are available while a DVD is being played. DVD [ON/PLAY/
PLAYER] and DVD HELP are available anytime.
Like Democracy, the M isn't perfect. It's just much, much better than any alternative.
Pete
Infiniti has made tuning decisions to offer more power and performance at the expense of fuel economy in their VQ offerings. Will more technology make it better? Yes, but the VQ is holding it's own 'as is' and still deserves its spot on the list of great engines.
FWIW, I think the biggest enemy of the M is weight. Getting back to Lexus GS, the weights are about 250 lbs, apples for apples, less than the Infiniti M. If memory serves (Iron Chef reference), the 5 series holds about the same weight advantage. I must be hungry right now, I would like to know, "Where's the beef?"
That said, I have zero regrets trading the LS for the M. The LS is flawless, but bland. The M is so much more fun to drive and has a number of other features that outperform the LS. I'm just suprised I lost 2 MPG in the deal. And $3 a gallon isn't helping that.
1. Is that true?
2. Is anything else integrated in addition to the radio and climate controls (admittedly, I can't think of what else could be integrated)?
I, too, am hoping to hear from people driving the V6. Has your mileage suffered?
Your CD player also responds to voice command as well.
The V6 can run quite well on regular. Infiniti only "recommends" premium in the V6.
As with any grade of gasoline, if you hear the slightest knocking noise from the engine, first try another brand of gas, and if that doesn't work, move up one grade to mid-grade.
Hope this helps
If you do the math, let's say you drive 15K miles/year and premium is 20 cents/gal higher and you are getting 18mpg, you save $167 year with the regular unleaded, and not even really that since theoretically your car gets better gas mileage with the good stuff.
Not worth it in my book, and if $167/year is worth it, I'd make another sacrifice and re-evaluate my debt-income ratio.
The "is there really a difference" debate has gone on since internet auto blogs, search google to find them, and almost all independent testing I've seen shows that yes there is a difference. Here is one such test that concluded that buying cheap gas in an engine designed for premium reduced fuel economy by about the same amount as the difference in price: http://www.baileycar.com/gasoline_html.html
I own the 6 cylinder M35x so perhaps it is less an issue to use the regular than the v8 owners, but I wanted to see what others were doing. So far I've kept my car "virgin" by only using the premium stuff. It's interesting to see by the responses so far with the V6 engine that they're using regular unleaded.
I'm sure the debate will continue.
1. Climate Controls (can tell it to set driver and passenger temps different also!)
2. Bluetooth telephone interface
3. Audio system ("play disk 3, track 5" for example)
4. Almost anything that can be controlled manually from the center control panel.
Very powerful system, but can be a little tricky sometimes. My wife is from Kentucky and the system has problems with her accent. And for some reason I cannot get the Bluetooth system voice tag to work for "call home." But, other than these minor things it works very well. Great demo to show your friends.
If I'm going to worry about saving 50 cents/gallon I shouldn't be driving a $40 - $55K car. Period. :shades:
Bart: I agree about the relative cost of gas to the cost of the car, but if there is no penalty from an mpg or performance standpoint (for the V6 at least), why pay the equivalent of an extra latte every week?
P.S. I have yet to put regular into my M35x...
3.5L engines:
M35: 280hp @ 6,200rpm; 270lb-ft @4,800rpm; 18(sticker) or 17(brochure) / 24mpg
Avalon: 268hp @6,200rpm; 248lb-ft @4,700rpm; 22/31mpg
IS350: 306hp; 277lb-ft (@rpm and mpg not available) [yes, direct injection and dual VVTi]
With an estimated combined city/highway fuel economy in the high twenties, the IS 350's fuel efficiency is similar to the EPA average for compact cars with 2.0-liter four-cylinder engines. Low-friction engine design and carefully matched drivetrains also make significant contributions to fuel efficiency. And all of the new IS models are expected to carry the ULEV-II emissions rating.
Avalon = 3545 lbs 22/31 268/248
Maxima = 3467 lbs 20/28 265/255
Now the IS350 in the high 20's average, with that power output, if true, would be sweet. Are they still vaporware, or can you actually get one yet?
I traded a 740IL BMW. The M45 is a very nice car, but it's not there yet.
Full disclosure: I work for Bose ... specifically in the division responsible for the M's audio system. Previously, I worked for one of the most well respected audio consultancies in the worlds (concert hall design, noise control, sound quality, etc.). Some days I actually think I know something about sound. One of my home systems is built up around Aerial 10T's so some days I actually think I know what good sound might be. The opinions in this post are entirely mine, and are in no way meant as an "official" representation of the position of Bose Corporation.
I sympathize with your "issue" regarding Bose's lack of specs.
Back when I was a younger man, I "needed" specs for my audio equipment.
By the time I earned a PhD studying how humans perceive sound, I'd realized that most of the specs used in the audio industry are meaningless or worse yet misleading.
Take frequency response. What degree of spectral smoothing was applied? How often do you see the acoustic parameters of the room in which the FR was measured? Anechoic room ... that's nothing like your listening room. And so forth .... Without this additional info, two systems with the same published FR can sound signficantly different in their tonal balance. The same is true of specs like distortion, SNR, and so forth.
So, are there important and useful audio specs? Absolutely. Can the average consumer interpret them correctly and use them wisely ... rarely. Given this situation, Bose could either join the largely meaningless specification wars or say to everyone, "listen and judge based on what you hear." After all, all the specs in the world won't make a bad system sound good or vica versa (well, specs CAN bias your perference and satisfaction ... so maybe this is another reason we should close our eyes and just listen).
Cheers,
B
to "dial home"
Here's my take. 100watts with an inefficient speaker is not as good as 50 watts with a speaker that has triple the efficiency. I'm saying watts don't matter as much as how loud it plays cleanly.
Go listen, and if it plays loud enough then don't worry about the watts.
B
(Bose employee).
Well unlike some people the only way I can afford a $40K car is to be wise with my money. I have always been wise and prudent with my resources and do not believe in tossing money away frivolously even when I can afford to. Period! :shades: