I just bought a 2009 Honda Fit MT. So far I love it.

The owners manual was not specific about the break in period. I figured if I kept it under 4500 RPM with no hard take offs I'd be ok. After I took my friend for a ride he mentioned that I was beating on the Fit for it being a new car.

Typically I shift at 4K and use 75% of the gas peddle during some accelerations. Am I being too hard on the car?

 

The break in period of a new fit, according to my dealer was 600 miles. Traditionally, my break in periods were around 500 for the two other new cars I owned. It seemed short to me, but that didn't blow my mind nearly as much as the annual oil change!

 

try to go easy if you can, but i wouldn't worry too much about it. these engines like to rev, but i'd recommend taking it a little easy till the first oil change.

 

Yeah, but the first oil change won't be due for 7,000-10,000 miles if you listen to the oil life meter!

I absolutely HATE breaking in an engine. I never know if I'm being too rough or too easy on the engine. Unfortunately, I probably won't know for another 80,000 miles or so. I took it fairly easy until about 1000 miles, and I've been progressively driving the car harder since then. At 1400 miles I can feel the engine beginning to loosen up, and my mileage seems to be improving as well.

 

meh, i changed the oil at 5K and kept it under 4K RPMs. the thing about breaking an engine in is that you don't want to maintain a constant RPM. so keep off the cruise and vary your speed

 

as long as you dont take it to redline by WOT you're not really
doing much hard driving, imho. and yes, as noted above,
variable RPM is best!

and there are different views on how to break-in a car.. the
quiet way and the aggressive way (the way you'd drive the
car) so you're ok, i thinks.

 

Revving high is not only fine, but good for break in, as long as you rev up slowly. IOW, avoid putting load on the engine. Rev it to redline if you like. Varying your revs during break in is recommended.

The way I do it is I drive progressively "harder" as the break in period dissolves. And just for good measure I wait until 1,000 miles to start driving it to my heart's content.

 

what i was told when i got my '08 dont drive long distances keeping the revs the same, i.e. highway from NYC to Boston with cruise control on.... and not full throttle launches and you will be fine.

 

i did much of the same as everyone else: kept the rpm below 4k, variable speed/rpm on the freeway, except i waited till after 1000 miles to start having "fun"

BTW, congrats on the purchase! i hope you'll love your Fit as much as the next FitFreak