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Originally Posted by sdctcher
1. Break In - I think the whole break in thing about mileage getting better with age is an old wives tale. I think mileage gets better because we drivers begin to hue to our cars and learn to drive them to the best mileage by watching patterns. That said I am seeing increasing mileage under the same conditions as the car gets older, and the EV time increases. I think this pattern would be the same in any car.
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Actually, the break-in period is a definable concrete occurence.
What happens with new engines is that all the metal pieces do not PERFECTLY fit yet. And as the pistons move up and down and create metal on metal friction, microscopic pieces of metal are "shaven" off. This added friction slowly diminishes over the first couple of thousand miles. But it is also this "added friction" which causes mileage to suffer. The engine has to work harder to push the away metal against metal to make some "room" before the oil can get in there good.
What I have most often seen said is that with a new car, you should change the oil after only 1500 miles, to remove the metal slivers out of the oil and filter. Then change again at 5,000 miles to Synthetic oil to get the least friction possible.
Go to any overhauling site or engine rebuild forum and you can find out all about this phenomenon, which is definitely actually real.