Nissan knew that Z's were going to be daily driven as well as tracked, so I'm pretty sure they would test the engine extensively under every condition. I wouldn't worry about it, just drive it and enjoy.

 

Don't bother following the owners manual. Don't bother checking your oil or your tire pressure. Use the oil pressure gauge to judge oil changes. Don't bother following the scheduled maintenance, don't bother using the correct oil, and for that matter don't even bother servicing the car.

Just drive the car... because that's what the mechanically challenged people do.

 

thats hillarious

lol, that is awesome!! what kind of performance gains will expect to see on the dyno from this kind of driving? (insert sarcasim here)

It is a car drive it where you need to go!

 

Depends on if he follows motomans break in procedure... meaning beating the **** out of the car right off the dealer lot. Do a burnout pronto to break those tires in as well... the clutch is broke in best from reving to at least 6k and dropping the clutch... repeatedly. The brakes should be bedded in by accelerating as fast as possible and then slamming on the brakes repeatedly... at least 10 times...on the last time the rotors should be nice and red hot.... come to a complete stop and hold the brake pedal to the floor for as long as possible while sitting there. This mates the pad to the rotor very nicely. Low octane gas is best because it's more volatile and there is more energy available per volume which means the engine produces way more torque and you go way faster as a result. Diesel fuel is great and basically anything with lead is also great for emissions... C16 race fuel is the only exception to the low octane rule since it is leaded....it will blow you away.

If one does all these things correctly you can expect the most out of your daily driven car. I'd say 50 horsepower easy.

Yep... just get in and GO!!!

 

^+1

 

thanks to those with constructive comments.

to the others w/ useless comments, i'm not crying about the issue. it's certainly in the back of my head, but i'm simply just wondering to what extend does it harm the car. i enjoy the Z a lot so it gives me more reason to make sure i'm treating it the way i should be. now what's wrong with that?

 

So you end up only getting 100k miles out of your car instead of 140k miles.... I wouldn't worry about it...

 

I agree! It's kinda like drag racers. I have been drag racing since my first car in 1967. It is funny how many people will build a car, take it to the track and then worry about breaking it. Hell yes it's gonna break; its just a question of when. Same for a street car. Don't worry. Drive it and enjoy it. Life is too short!

 

Have you ever heard the term, "freeway miles"? It is a selling tactic to describe some used cars with high mileage, where most of the mileage was accumulated at a high constant speed (freeways). A car with 100,000 "freeway miles" is preferable to a car with 100,000 miles in stop-and-go commuter traffic or city driving. Stop-and-go, or city driving, means more action on every aspect of your car, as others have indicated in this thread. More action = more wear and tear. Pot holes and driveways disrupt your suspension and weaken the chassis rigidity, obviously more wear on the whole brake system, more action on your whole steering mechanism, everything already said about starting and stopping your engine repeatedly and between short distances, and so forth. Compare this with mileage spent at a high speed for a long distance, on a smooth freeway, with little action on brakes and steering and you can start to see why "freeway miles" really are preferable to a city car.

Engines like to go fast and run long, it's healthy for them.

 

Good excuse to get out and go for a longer drive once in awhile.

I also let my car idle 30-90 seconds to warm up upon intial startup to let the oil heat up a little bit and lubricate the engine some.

Oh and don't drive aggressively right away.

 

Grab a newspaper, start up your car, let it idle for a good 3-4 minutes until it reaches operating temp, drive to work. Yes, it probably does cause more wear and tear but its car. Meant to get you to point a and b. Whats the point of getting a Z if your not going to drive it? Follow the "extreme conditions" maintenance schedule and you will be fine. These things are built to last. My last Z had 160k miles with no problems, just routine maintenance.

 

A car is a machine; things will always break and things can always be fixed.

If you are that worried about prolonging the life of your car, park it and never start it. That way nothing can go wrong. Life is too short to worry about the little things like a car.

 

+1 sir.

 

The short answer, yes, it's bad for the car. On a per mile basis you are wearing it out faster than if you took longer trips. But having said that, you aren't going to explode anything, you are just going to get less miles out of it before you have to replace things like brakes, clutch, exhaust system, etc.

 

Wow, you guys bumped a 5 year old thread. Awesome

 

this is why this site needs a "like" button

 

we have had to send our company work truck to the shop twice (i work in a chemical plant) all it does is drive slowly around the plant and idle. It would not get over 40 mph

 

I didn't even notice that...

 

+1 Granted I just got the Z, Ive had my nismo frontier since 2006 and do 6-7 short drives a day for work... had to replace battery and wearing a hole in seat, but the engine is a work horse and I do regular maintenance... to date not a single problem with it

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this last night.

Just because it's a Z doesn't mean that it's a special car that will break due to short trips. If you had a similar year Maxima, would you worry about that? As most everyone in this thread has said, just drive it and love every mile.