I am thinking about taking the prius on a highway trip of about 250 miles (and return after a couple of days) in a few days. Will it really hurt anything since I have only about 160 miles on it so far? I think I can resist the temptation to go over 65mph. But there may not be a lot of variation on speed. Any suggestions?
You will be OK!! I bought mine new last July. 2 weeks later took it cross country to San Francisco and back. Stopped in Chicago, Omaha , Wyoming, Salt Lake, Reno NV and SF. Had the oil change and tire rotation done in Salt Lake on the way back. The car ran fine and I got 51 MPG for the entire trip. Hope This Helps!
Personally, I would not worry about it. Just watch your speed and you can vary speed limit between 55 to 65 mph. I rarely go over 70 mph on my Prius on the interstate to maximize mpg. Enjoy the trip.
Well, personally I would be worried about doing anything in a 'break it' period. But a long trip in the 'break in' period would be fine Remember that the engine isn't tied directly to the drive shaft, like a normal car. The engine speed will vary independently of the wheel speed, since power is mixed with battery power/charging, depending on hills, engine temperature, battery level, etc. (assuming a constant vehicle speed). So it doesn't really matter, even if it ever did. My wife's '96 Sentra has well over 100K miles on it (sold to her cousin a couple years back), and the engine is going strong. The first week we had it, we went on a 5-hour drive to Ohio (and back) using the cruise control, then we read the manual where it said we shouldn't do that kind of thing during the break in period. Oops.
When my Prius had just 200 miles on the odo I set off on a 2800 mile trip. I drove it normally, it being my perception that, as nerfer pointed out, the car varies the engine rpms depending on the conditions, and that actual wheel speed is only one of those variables. Watch the energy screen and current mpg readings while on cruise-control if you don't believe me. I didn't have a ScanGauge at the time and that might be a good indicator as well since the car doesn't have a tachometer. But I've always heard, often from mechanics and "car guys", that a long trip early in a car's service-life is a good thing.
I always get a kick out of people being concerned about breakin. The object is not to "overheat" the surface of the metal parts that are being "final machined" by running. You -can- overheat parts of the surfaces by applying too much power in a continuous fashion. These days with high tech machining in the factory it isn't that much of a concern, as there is very little final machining to do during breakin. You also are breaking in the brakes (no pun intended). Again, you want to wear the pads (or seat the pads) slowly so as to not overheat the disks/drums. Also the gear teeth are machining themselves to a perfect fit. In the case of the Prius there are only a few "gears" to machine. When I finally changed the breakin oil at 8000 km (5000 mi) I couldn't see any "metal flake" in the oil, like cars used to have. So that backs up the statement that there is very little machining going on. Heck, last year I went to the Royal Tyrrell Museum in south central Alberta (from Edmonton) when Pearl was brand new. I took secondary highways. One descends into a deep valley and back out without switchbacks. On the way back out Pearl hit 5000 RPM (about 500 km on the odo). Contrary to the manual and common advice, but I wasn't worried as it was a short burst and the parts had lots of time to cool off again. As long as you're not unreasonable (like running miles at top speed) it's unlikely you would ever cause problems.
Re: Long drive during break in period? Toyota's recommendation summarizes as "don't drive like a maniac in the first 600 miles". Don't slam on the brakes (unless you have to, of course), don't floor the gas, and you'll be fine. The engine will vary its own RPMs purely by the nature of the drive system; nothing special needs be done and indeed you could not prevent it if you tried.
