(G) Who Has The Highest Mileage 500?

GET OUT MORE!!!!!

LOL,
but it might get dirty

Jon, all those registrations have a prefix whereas Mark says his is only 3 letters and 3 numbers (if I have interpreted his post correctly) so making it ageless, ergo, more expensive.

Mark, if this is the case I think you have got a bargain, I retained my old registration number 606 KPO and have had it valued at £1000 and mine has no significance to anything.

Jon,
There are loads of prefix style plates cheaper than £450. This one has no prefix, for example, 500 XXX.

Grimwau, you are right, seems four figures is the starting point for no-prefixes so I was quite pleased ! Seems that if the plate is late on in the 3 day auctions the DVLA do every couple of months then the prices are lower, reckon the trade go home early !

Where does this advice come from? All it said in the manual about running in my last brand new car (An 02 Astra) was that I shouldn't tow a trailer for the first 1000 miles. In fact, I seem to recall it specifically saying that running in wasn't necessary with modern engines.

Koksy, I am not aware of any specific running-in details. It is said that modern engines do not require any such procedure, for example, Ferrari bench test all their engines at prolonged maximum RPM before they go to customers.
However,I just kept the revs below 3500RPM for the first 2000 miles and keep the revs low when the oil is cold throughout the engine life, can't say this process has helped or hindered though.
My only experience is I ran in a Kawasaki really carefully from new some years ago and when I had it dynoed, the power was 4bhp up on any of the other comparable bikes they had dynoed at the time, so I have just taken it carefully from new on anything I have run since that time.
Hope this helps !

There has been a great deal of information posted on the Fiat Forum regarding running-in, much of it contradictory. I am sure that if you do a search on the topic you will find more than you wanted.

Nonetheless, the owner of a new car or motorcycle is faced with something of a dilemma. On the one hand, we have the manufacturers and salesmen stating that modern engines do not require 'running-in' - and certainly not in the old sense, where we would come up behind an Austin A35 doing 25 mph with a sign on the rear saying "Running In - Please Pass".

However, if we compare my Fiat 500 at 2,000 miles with the way it was at 27 miles when I took delivery, what do we find?

• The engine revs more eagerly, delivers more power, uses less fuel, and runs cooler.
• The gearchange is smoother and lighter.
• The brakes are smoother and more progressive.

So running-in certainly does still happen. The question is, does the way we drive during the first 1,000 miles affect the process for good or bad? Being a cautious sort of soul, I presume it does. Having built many engines myself with new bores, pistons, bearings and so forth I suppose I have a certain amount of mechanical empathy. My method, for what it is worth (and it seems to have worked for me in the past), was to restrict my rpms and throttle demands for the first 500 miles, and then to progressively increase them to the maxima by 1,000 miles.

On the other hand, if I hadn't bothered with any of that, and had nailed the throttle to the carpet from mile one, would anything awful have happened? These days, probably not.

John

i'm up to 1700 after my first week!

We've done that too Beep - but in TEN weeks!!! We have got a rather BIG trip planned for later this year though ...

awesome. what's the big trip? i'm intrigued now!

I hope you don't need to take a lot of luggage

It's a SECRET at the moment ... I'll keep you posted

As for luggage - we have had Minis and Smarts, so are the masters of packing! The Fiat is positively HUGE in comparison! This trip will be FUN

4,300 miles here, since Jan 28th.

Still just as exciting as it was on day 1

that's miles of smiles! lol