In September 2012, I will get the above new car. I understand that the running-in process can affect the life and oil consumption of the engine. Naturally, I am keen to look after it as carefully as possible.

1. How should I drive it for the first 200 miles, then the next 500, and so on.

2. When should the oil and filter be changed?

If you drive a new engine too gently the rings will not bed in (its called bore glazing) and you will always have high oil consumption. No way to sort it short of an engine rebuild.

1 Just drive it normally from day one but avoid max revs and full throttle for the first 500 miles or so.

2 The oil and filter will be changed at the first service and that will depend on the oil the factory fill it with. Your dealer will advise. Normally 10,000 or 20,000 miles approx.

I'd agree with Thunderbird and be tempted to give it full throttle-but short shift. Lock it in manual to avoid kickdown. Oil consumption can be a problem on diesels-and you don't want high oil consumption with DPF, so I'd be inclined to be wary of bore glazing.

The handbook doesn't recommend a specific bedding in procedure, but then again the handbook considers oil conbsumption of 1 litre/1000 miles as acceptable. I don't.

As said above, the key thing is NOT to baby the car. Give it work to do straight from the off, literally in the first 50 miles. That doesn't mean red-lining it, but firm acceleration. As Unthrottled suggests, hold it in manual mode so you can take the revs from, say, 2,000 to 3,000 in 3rd gear.

It's worth driving the long way home and finding a good section of open road where you can open the taps a bit.

A powerful, torquey motor like that has the fault of its quality -- it's hard to work the motor hard without exceeding the speed limit!

Enjoy it, don't baby it :)

As said above, the key thing is NOT to baby the car. Give it work to do straight from the off, literally in the first 50 miles. That doesn't mean red-lining it, but firm acceleration. As Unthrottled suggests, hold it in manual mode so you can take the revs from, say, 2,000 to 3,000 in 3rd gear.

It's worth driving the long way home and finding a good section of open road where you can open the taps a bit.

A powerful, torquey motor like that has the fault of its quality -- it's hard to work the motor hard without exceeding the speed limit!

Enjoy it, don't baby it :)

As said above, the key thing is NOT to baby the car. Give it work to do straight from the off, literally in the first 50 miles. That doesn't mean red-lining it, but firm acceleration. As Unthrottled suggests, hold it in manual mode so you can take the revs from, say, 2,000 to 3,000 in 3rd gear.

It's worth driving the long way home and finding a good section of open road where you can open the taps a bit.

A powerful, torquey motor like that has the fault of its quality -- it's hard to work the motor hard without exceeding the speed limit!

Enjoy it, don't baby it :)

Rental cars have a very hard life from day one. No-one babys them, but they seem to cope with different drivers each day or week quite well and people who have bought ex-rental cars seem to think that they drive very well.

The moral is......Don't baby the car!