I think what it all comes down to, is as follows:

people are with they're cars the way they are with eveything else, different. A lot of stuff around the topic of cars, is all based off of belief and opinion. Some people let the car sit and warm up, like myself, some just start it and go.

Everytime I hear about simple things like this, there's always mixed opinion. So I guess you just pick and choose who you're gonna listen to. lol.

Yeah but plenty of those beliefs and opinions are wrong or based on misunderstanding, like not understanding the benefits of water-cooled turbos (common around here). If you can't offer a proper explanation for your belief and opinion, it's not worth much in a technical discussion. A lot of people just don't seem to get that. :(

Bottom line: Let it warm up for like five minutes and then drive. That's the safe and smart thing to do.

I sometimes do that in the morning (daily driver) simply because I have the time, and it's only so I don't have to wait as long to drive it hard. But there's no way I'm going to sit in a carpark and wait five minutes before driving. That's just a pointless waste of time.

Think about it this way; my engine's lasted 18 years without any special warming up techniques (or a turbo timer for that matter). That's longer than most, so I don't see how adding five minutes to every trip is going to make the engine last longer.

i'm out of the bedroom at 6:45. I go outside, and start my car. Then I go in and spend about 5 minutes grabbing lunch, etc. By the time I walk outside, the car is all warmed up. 6:50, slap on the seatbelt, turn the music up, and zoom zoom zoom. lol. This is especially nice on cold mornings, cause I don't have to wait for the coolant to warm up to get some heat in the cabin.

Although I know that if you run an engine cold, but keep the rpm's down, it technically should be fine, but I'm certain that running up in the rpm's idling is a little different than when you're pushing 3000 lbs of a load. The engine is cold, the metal has not expanded to NOT. This is especially something to think about on an iron piston block with an aluminum head, but yes, I know, that doesn't really apply here.

I'm not an expert, I don't know everything. But I'm convinced that it's POSSIBLE to hurt the engine running it cold. While, warming it up every morning might be a waste of gas and time, I know that it's not gonna hurt my engine to let it warm up for a minuite or two in the morning. On a cold day, I let it warm up, too, before leaving work. But on a hot day, I just give it a sec to let the oil circulate, then usually go. On the hot days, I notice that the needles reads heat often before i'm even out of the parking lot.

One thing i have noticed is that shifting is a lot more difficult if I jsut take off on a cold car. the exhaust and engine warm the tranny up too, without forcing the gears to run on cold oil. I can't help but imagine this would help the longevity of these fragile trannys.

What is your direct and indisputable proof for this? :)

lol, yeah dude, at least I play it safe and explain that "this is what I think" and not just lay it down like it's factualy law. I thought that was funny.

Bottom line, period, HAIL HEETLA!