da mayor you are comparing apples and oranges. clothes do not require a "break in", they strech since you can't model anything after a single human and it fit everyone perfectly. Does a computer require a break-in? How about that spoon you just bought? Break in is something started so that failures will not be huge, if you are comfortable in the fact that it will fail regardless of how you baby it or drive it hard there is no reason to drive it soft. In fact driving it harder during the break-in will seal everything better and in some studies later in the car's life will allow it do have more HP and fuel economy.

What about extended warranty for electronics? Unless you are very rough with equipment you shouldn't waste your money on extended warranty since the regular manf warranty will cover it if it does break.

The link below explains the bathtub effect.

http://www.weibull.com/hotwire/issue21/hottopics21.htm

just my engineering 2cents (what 4 years taught me ha!)

 

These days, I don't think you need to baby new cars so much. The engineering and tolerances are much more exact than they used to be. I'm sure it's fine if you gun it from the start. You might shorten the life of the motor by a few thousand miles but cars last so long these days, you will probably sell the car before the motor gives out. For me, I figure it doesn't hurt to take it easy for the first 1200 miles.

 

exactly. its all personal preference but do you really think you will have this car in 10 years? probably not since 10 years hopefully we will have a new fuel source (crossing my fingers) so everything is obsolete :-D

As for my car I still havent hit 1200 miles yet, but I think I will change the oil soon to get the hydralock*sp* out and then change the oil again in 5k miles.