Been driving 45 years and never had to drive a rental, only my own!

 

good observation. Two ot6her possibilities are the lighter weight of the Cobalt and the rather famous characteristic of the Ecotech engine that they take tens of thousaands of miles to fully break in.

 

I hadn't heard that the Ecotec takes 20,000 or more miles to fully break-in. The 1.9 liter TDI diesel in my wife's VW is notorious for not reaching optimum cylinder compression (full break-in) until around 60,000 miles, but I have not heard anything similar about the Ecotec. In hope its true, though, because my HHR only has 4300 (forty three hundred) miles on it and its already running pretty strong for a 2.2

 

Whip sechedule is a term I learned from forum member Snoopy, which describes, more or less a method of engine break-in where when still brand new you run the engine hard with a lot of strong acceleration in order to seat the piston rings optimally. You just need to let off when the rpm's reach 75% of tachometer redline, but after 1000 miles are up you can go to redline if you want.

I was just saying in the title of this thread that rental cars probably get flogged from the first customer rental of their new life, and most other customers from then on do the same, i.e. the engine gets run hard from brand new.

 

Same with me. Only time I drove a rental was back in the early-70s when I drove some visitors from back East up to Vegas and back. They rented the car, not me. Some mid-size Ford model whose name I can't recall. Next size up from the Pinto anyway. Never occurred to me to beat it up.

 

When I was acquiring competitive vehicles for the comparative tests for GM, my major sources were 3 of the largest rental companies. Had contacts in each, who would research and deliver the vehicle fitting the exact spec.'s we required.

Other sources, depending on the test, were auto dealers. Always purchased spare parts to duplicate what we were specifically testing their vehicle for.

Technicians testers, drove the cars very hard.....on more than one occassion I had to buy the vehicle from the rental agency or dealer, because of the abuse . But alot went back.

All the vehicle manufacturers did the same.

If anyone is interested in the "whip" schedule used by GM, I can try and get a copy of the exact procedure.....I don't believe it's a "trade secret"

 

The way I was always taught was to run it from the beginning how you plan on running it as long as you own it...HARD!!! I've never babied a new engine after proper warm-up, & they have all treated me well (all GM, can't speak for the other brands) and given many years of dependable service.

 

The one engine that I babied ended up being replaced under warranty within 24,000 miles....go figure.

 

I came to that conclusion from years of hanging out in the Saturn forums. Many reports of gas mileage improving bast the 10-20,000 mile mark. By the way many reports there of trouble free service to the 250,000 mile mark.

 

The more I hear about the Ecotec, the more I like my HHR!