Car revs question

[diy_fun_uk]

I've never been one to take my car to higher revs when driving. By higher I mean venturing anywhere near the red line.

However have bought a 2015 1.8 Honda Civic auto petrol (10 years old, 140bhp, 142ps at 6500 revs). Whilst the car is totally fine when pulling away from junctions and for daily driving, I'm having to virtually floor it (kickdown) to get any decent acceleration e.g. when entering a dual carriageway or when wanting to increase speed to overtake. Even then it's not great. Having said that I came from a 2.0tdi Seat Leon that had great lower torque. I miss it for that.

The rev counter on my dash goes to 8k with the red zone starting just after 6.5k. If I take the car to 4k revs and then ease off, that's giving me good enough acceleration.

I don't want to be hard on the engine, I want this car to last me a good few years. Given it's 10 years old, do you reckon I'm ok taking it to 4k under kickdown conditions on a regular-ish basis?

 

[Mottie]

It’ll be plenty fine. Try giving it a couple of k more though, you won’t do it any harm.

 

[Avocet]

You'll be fine. Do what you have to do to achieve what you need to achieve. Different engines have different "characters". Some give their best at low revs, others at high. Hondas are notoriously "revvy". You won't hurt it as long as you stay blow the redline. My old Italian car is 37 years old with over 150,000 miles on it and still gets "redlined" pretty much every time I go out in it. Doesn't seem to have done it any harm so far!

 

[johnny2007]

I was always told that running a car at low revs for years is not good for the engine.
Engines are designed to go up in revs.
Not constantly of course, but a blast near the red line sometimes, doesn't do any harm, in fact it helps.
I used my sister's fiat Punto last summer.
Slow and without any guts.
By the end of the holiday, it felt more alive and quick.
Even my sister noticed it.

 

[Mottie]

By the end of the holiday, it felt more alive and quick.
Even my sister noticed it.

That’s known in the trade as an Italian tune up.