What are our thoughts on break in periods?

Never had a new car before. We’ve been keeping the revs low, but we are coming up on 500 miles. Do we do an oil change at 500 miles? Or is that pointless? 

2017 Kia Sedona, 3.3 GDI

Keep the revs down to 2/3 of redline or less, but don't baby it.  The rings need load to seat. 

I dunno if Kia puts anything special in their initial fill of oil, but I'd be tempted to run it a bit further, probably 1000 miles and then change it.  Most don't recommend the early change anymore (and of course, most cars don't get it as a result). 

What does Kia say in the owner's manual?

Nothing abnormal needed.  Just drive it.

Drive it and then change the oil on the early interval not the severe. Monitor oil consumption. Enjoy

Warning Opinion incoming:

Don't maintain a steady engine speed. Vary it. Don't redline. Don't baby it, either. Do this for the manufacturer's recommended break in interval. 

In reply to mtn : Have you ever been to an assembly line?  Watch the guys jump in the car and take off chirping tires?  They really hustle those cars out to the lot shut them off and never once baby them.  

The truck driver/ train loader loads them with the same lack of concern.  The same thing happens at the dealership.  Periodically they may be driven through the wash bay with the only point they are babied is while the wash is going on. 

Then some salesmen take them out for a demo-  well, some demo’s are very hard on the car.  

My point is it may have 10-20 miles of that sort of treatment so you aren’t back in the 30’s anymore.  Tolerances and clearances are designed in. Just drive it. Change the oil on schedule.  

It’s a car it doesn’t have feelings.  Treat it like the object it is.  

Says the guy guy who pats the dash of his race car at the end of a well run race.  ; ) 

Modern materials and design make break in completely unnecessary.

Engines come "broken in" from the factory.  Once someone figured out what changed in the engine during break in, and a process was developed and included in manufacturing to make sure all engines were broken in.  That was at lest 20 years ago.

So, just drive.  Change the oil at 5k, 7k, 10k, wherever Kia tells you to.

Awesome. Will just drive it as normal then!

For a point of reference, the last time we had a brand new car in my family was when my parents got a 99 Oddity. Huh. I guess the only new vehicles we get are minivans. 

I always followed the "Drive it the way you want it to run" theory.

The day I picked up my Ninja, about 100 years ago, I was looking at the break in instructions on the tach and speedo when I noticed that there was no one in front or behind me in sight.

I hit it hard and looked down to see the needle going past 155mph in about 1/2 a mile.

God, I miss that bike!

In reply to SaltyDog :

You might have something there.

Every typical cheap used car I've had blow an engine (presumably from me beating the crap out them) were big cruisers that probably weren't opened up very often. The ones that lasted were all manual trans crapcans that probably spent a good chunk of their lives more than halfway to redline.

That's more keeping it broken in than breaking it in though, as mentioned they build them that way now, cylinder wall surface finish is right from the start, tolerances are tight enough nothing is inadvertently tight and needing to wear into a reasonable clearance, etc.

Aren't the break-in threads supposed to start in January or is that the oil threads?

My $0.02: I go by the way aircraft engines are broken in. Run it hard under varying load for a short time. Change the oil. The drive it like you're going to drive it. I haven't had an engine I've bought new or built myself burn any oil since doing this. YMMV...

As far as i know, the only thing that actually 'breaks in' on a typical engine is the piston rings abrade down the peaks of the ridges in the cylinder  surface. This depends on pressure in the cylinder to force the rings out, which is highest at peak torque (typically middle rpms) and generates some metal debris. So, if i thought it even NEEDED a break in, i would run it at high throttle for relatively short time, change the oil, and then if it performed normally i'd call it a done deal and never worry about it again. And even this whole paragraph would only apply if the cylinders have actually been bored or honed and doesn't apply to factory-fresh engine as i'm pretty sure their cylinder finish is correct from the get-go vs having been established with some wobbly grinding stones on sticks swinging around on a hand drill being controlled by a meatsack human. 

I’d change the oil..... it’s cheap and can only help.  

And I’ve heard the same about run it pretty normal.

I run an engine hard, on and off the throttle way up into the revs and back down again all in about 15 minutes of driving.  This seats the rings.  Then I change the oil and move on; it's done.

My thoughts on new car engine break-in is that you should probably drive it home so you can change the brake pads and fluid before you take it to the track. :)

I have had several new cars.   Never bothered changing the oil till it was due.  

57K on current Fiesta.  Ran it first 10K miles with factory oil.  Never have to add between 9/10k changes.