friedgreencorrado wrote: Agree on the conspiracy theorists. Still gonna waste my money every 3K on dino juice and about twice that on the synthetics, tho. Cheaper than my insurance bill..or even an "extended warranty". But I agree again on the "warmup". Motoring slowly until the temp comes up also warms up the gearbox, etc. IMO. I usually have to park on the bottom floor of our underground parking garage at work, it kinda gives me an excuse to just play "no wake zone" long enough to get the temps up.
Pet peeve: Comparing "dino juice" and "synthetic". Synthetic is petroleum based too, some of it from crude but usually natural gas. The difference is that it isn't refined from, but rather is assembled to, so you can dictate exactly what is in it. Requires less additives in it that way.
I firmly believe in letting the vehicle warm up in the winter, because while it is not the best thing for the engine, it's even worse for the engine when the car gets totalled out because you hit a parked car or a tree because you can't see where you're going because there's no heat and the windshield ices over when you start moving in the damp air.
Barring severe acts of mechanical negligence (like, say, not changing your oil very often), engines by FAR will outlast the car, anyway. At least 'round here. By the time the engine has 150k on it, there isn't any car left around it. Worrying about engine longevity seems a little pointless, no? That'd be like popping the hood every night so the little popper spring doesn't spend all of its life in compression...
I note with great interest and approval that many new vehicles have resistor grids over the heater core for instant heat.
