well, apparently the guys at the loading stations that load the cars into the US off the ships from japan don't.

I had a nice business trip to one of the sea ports...and they were unloading hyundai's/mistubishis (incl evo), and loading escalades and cadillac CTS's.

6 out of 10 people floored the cars out of the ship into the parking lot on a constant basis. about 3 redlined the things all the way to the lot. the other 3 beat on them pretty bad ...so bad my coworkers with me looked at me with a evil gasping face. the distance between ship and lot varies from 1.2 miles to 1.6 miles. (depending which deck of the ship the car was shipped on.) one of my coworkers even said "so much for the myth of an easy break in..."

After the day had gone by, i spoke to the manager ...who's been there for 14 years working at the same location. Turns out they also ship for honda and acura, and he recalls the yellow and black integras being brought into the port

oh well. I figure I'd share this tidbit with everyone on h-t who wasnt as fortunate enough to go to a port before.

wonder if this news surprises anyone here... Why this matters to you: These ships carry new cars and stops at the following ports:

Los Angeles,
Dallas (nearby)
St Louis
Baltimore
Newark
Tampa

...basically nation wide.

BTW, i also found out today that BMW does not use protective pieecs of plastic to protect the body panels from scratches, etc. They actually use a silicon/rubber agent that goes on the entire car. windows, wheels, plastic, paint...anything on the exterior. and when the car is ready for delivery, they use kerosene to eat the coating away.

So next time someone tells you to break in a car easy, or dont drive it in the rain...it's safe to say the car probably has been abused before it reached your hands....atleast if its an import.

I took plenty of pictures and lots of video...will post it when i am done editing, if anyone shows interest.

Asides that fact, being on a carrier ship was pretty cool! lots of contraband, "interesting" gallys and walks of life....saw a black velvet pallette with a bunch of gold watches (probably fake), and a nice blow up doll. Atleast some of the crew members are still straight...the others....they looked at us with the look of rabid wolfes going through heat ... damned strange people they pick up from the phillipines atleast pick out the normal ones

 

i always wondered what they do for the first few miles on the car, i know they test drive it, but who's going to watch how they drive it.. honda should install some rev limiter/some type of program - where the car can not be driven hard until warmed up and driven for few hundred miles, if not a thousand.

 

Haha, damn! Anyone burnin oil?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rodrez &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Haha, damn! Anyone burnin oil? </TD></TR></TABLE>

me

 

This is nothing new to me.

 

Yet another reason why the break in myth is BS.

Modern cars are built to such high tolerances, I don't think it matters how you drive them when they are new.

 

Taken from acura.com:

When each finished NSX rolls off the end of the assembly line, it's taken around the 500-meter indoor test track to make sure the controls are in order. Then a highly trained driver/evaluator takes it out on the 2.5-mile high-banked oval test track, checking for everything from shift points right down to wind noise. Components are tested and evaluated against rigorous standards.

 

That's nice - if you drive an NSX...
Still doesn't talk about the idiots who are driving the cars off the boats
(I always wondered how my car was driven during the 7 miles that were on the odo before I got her - now I know )

 

that just sucks...

 

Mine had about 7 miles on it too.

Atleast we didn't have people test driving our cars. I beat the **** out of all the cars I've test driven.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by skafia &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Taken from acura.com:

When each finished NSX rolls off the end of the assembly line, it's taken around the 500-meter indoor test track to make sure the controls are in order. Then a highly trained driver/evaluator takes it out on the 2.5-mile high-banked oval test track, checking for everything from shift points right down to wind noise. Components are tested and evaluated against rigorous standards.</TD></TR></TABLE>

but we don't drive NSX's..

 

A WRX STi (first of 15 in canada) came into my friends hands a few days ago. It is his job to "break" it in before it goes to the press for tests/tv. With hardly any milage on it the thing has been laying 4 wheel drifts, rev limiter launches, and been taken for a top speed run.

They gave the car to them basically to wail on before the wheels section of The Star steals it from him.

 

Mirai....happy that his car was never placed on a boat and saw his car delivered to the lot with only 300 meters on the ticker

 

Not surprisingly, I've heard of many ITR's that burn oil despite "proper break-ins." I know mine burned oil, no doubt in part due to the 12 hard miles it had by the time I picked it up. Do I think it is entirely because of that? No. Do I think that helped the situation? Absolutely not. Oh well, I solved that problem w/ CTR .25 over pistons .

 

What can you expect from them (the guy who take our car off the ship)......A "new" car is nothing in their eye. They see and drive them everyday.....they don't give a ****

 

When i worked at Dodge back in the days,i use to be the p.d.i tech(prep,delivery,inspecton).We would surley break in cars alright,at the time my friend was working at Acura and we would do our own motortrend test.Anyhow we would rape thie **** out of them.It was always fun getting the 1st 10 miles on them.

 

Yeah, there needs to be a way to prevent someone from abusing your car before you take delivery. Maybe some sort of key that the transporters use to move cars that will only allow partial throttle or something.

Of course, if it was such a big deal, maybe they would have done something about it already.

 

dock races!!! nothing new don't forget the guys at the dealership

 

It seems like a moot point now.

I mean I thank Soup **** for sharing this piece of information but there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. Isn't it up to the manufacturer to see that nothing happens to the car while it's being transported? It seems the only thing you could do is have the dealer warranty anything that goes wrong as a possible result of abuse by transporters.

 

Los Angeles,
Dallas (nearby)
St Louis
Baltimore
Newark
Tampa

...basically nation wide.


My ITR's port was Honolulu HI, It probably got doged too

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ITRbroham &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It seems like a moot point now.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I wouldn't say that. If we send the honda execs video footage, and have a few hundred ITR owners say their cars burn oil, who knows what will happen.

I doubt any serious damage was done though. Look how many cars get 30-50 miles of test drives on them before being bought. Thats probably 10x worse.

 

This is not news to me; although some may be hearing this for the first time. We have had to fix cars that came off the boat and had mysterious ailments; like an 89 Civic with 6 miles on the odometer and a toasted clutch. It sucks, but there is not much we as consumers can do about it. Dock workers who thrash on new cars

 

East Coast (at least south east) honda/acura/toyota/mazda and maybe others all come in through jacksonville, florida..

but anyways, it's no doubt they've been beat to **** but that isn't a valid excuse to do so yourself with 13 miles on it.

 

NOTHING NEW TO ME. I HEARD EVERY EMPLOYEE THAT WANTED TO IN THE DEALERSHIP GOT A TEST DRIVE OF MY CAR SINCE IT WAS THE FIRST IN 2 YEARS.

ISN'T ONE OF THE PDI TEST AT THE DEALER IS TO GET IT INTO VTEC?

 

a lot of cars come in through Norfolk, VA too...large shipping port there.