OHChris

The salesman just called and said the 2012 Q5 2.0T PP will be delivered to the dealer on June 25 to be ready for pickup on June 26th. We leave on a family beach vacation on June 28th which will entail a 500 mile each way drive in a fully loaded car over the Appalachian Mountains. Does anyone have any opinions on whether we should hold off on picking up the Q5 until we return and breaking it in easy? Or taking it on the trip? Any worries about being so far away from the dealer during the first couple of weeks when you sometimes see manufacturing issues arise? I am leaning towards taking the 2005 Highlander on this one last trip, but I value your opinions!

tomaszp72

Get it and have fun.

alatsacto

Sorry I don't have answers, I actually have a very similar question. We hope to pickup a Q5 for European Delivery. I was hoping to hit the Autobahn (no speed limits) and drive up the mountains in the Swiss Alps. Would this be a bad idea for the new car? Are there concerns for breaking it in? Thanks.

justdanorm

Break it in like you are going to be driving it for years to come...don't baby it. Of course flooring and running to redline constantly during "break-in" isn't going to be great, but babying the car is just as bad.

These motors are made to run.

gat821

There is a 2/3 full rpm (about 4600 rpm) limit that you need to watch out for in the first 600 miles. I don't think this is in the manual, but folks also say vary engine speed during break in. Going through mountains will help that. Since you also need to go easy on the brakes, engine braking can be used more, which also contributes to varying rpm.

We took our new Q5 (under 500 miles at the time) from Ohio to the Smoky Mountains and loved it. I'd say go for it!

Rupesh

Alatsacto and OHChris,

You should both go forward with your plans... We picked up our Q5 in early April in Germany and drove 700 miles before returning it to be brought back to the States. We were 4 people plus 2 large suitcases and 2 smaller ones. The car handled marvelously on Autobahn and all other roads. We drove from Munich to Salzburg to Fussen to Lucerne to Zurich. The lady at Ingolstadt told us to keep the engine at less than 4000 rpm for the first 1,000 miles. Even with the full load and combination of high/low altitude driving on a 2T engine, we never needed the engine to exceed 4k rpm. Obviously, I wasn't trying to validate the 0-60 performance numbers. So that probably helped.

TIME89

+1!

jeff968

We downsized from an 02 MB ML320 to the Q5. We definately liked the additional room in the ML but the Q5 works for the task and we certainly like the big bump in MPGs, the improved performance, and the much better car-like driving experience. We also have a Thule container which transfered fine from the ML to the Q5 luggage racks to carry some extra items. We have had no reliability issues with the Q5 so if the space works for you I would take it. We've done a couple of family trips.

HaveBullDogWillTravel

This is the PERFECT way to break in your new Q. As previously stated, make sure you vary engine speeds as much as possible. Meaning putting it in cruise and holding it at 77MPH on I77 for more than 10-15 minutes is a no-no

D_Frost

Just drive it as if you would normally, and like what justdanorm says... try not to redline it