The thing is when someone recalls something that someone said, it may not be very accurate. You know input/output. At any rate my Acuras, and maybe other cars or small engines, (I just can’t recall but read the owners manual) have said that they contain “break in oil” and not to change it until the specified time. I don’t know what is in the mix of oil from the factory, but that may have been what the guy meant. I always do my first oil change earlier to get that stuff out of there but I usually check with the service department before changing out the break-in oil. My pressure washer for example is two years old but still doesn’t have the required run time to change the original oil. Maybe I should check for grit when I change it.
The so called break in for this Ford Fiesta is like a lot of many new vehicles these days. It says in the manual to not drive like an idiot for the first 1000 miles ( well maybe not in those words ) and to vary your speed . All that means if you get on the turnpike use cruise and just lower your speed or increase every so often . Not really a big deal anymore.
I’ve read that in manuals for small engines also. We bought my son one of those off brand Chinese four wheelers and the manual stated when to change the oil, but not to change it early because of the special break in oil.
Chinese grits.
The new car break-in lore here in San Jose is the first drive for a brand new car should be to San Francisco and back along the King’s Highway, also known as El Camino Real. It’s a 35 mph road that goes city center to city center all the way, with lots and lots of stoplights along the entire 45 mile route. When I bought my Corolla I didn’t follow that lore. I just drove to where I wanted to go and back, some days it was freeway, some days was city, worked out ok.
I like shrimp and grits. With cheese.
I had new plugs and points done but the idle issue continued, which is one reason why I wanted get out of it along with continual condensation on passenger headlight, poor gas milage and the leather seats.
Heck yeah!
The manual on this 2019 says oil change at 10000 miles, which to me seems kinda high. Also it appears like this also has a sealed transmission of which I hate
I have about a 1000 Mile trip coming up in October to the Smokey mountains and back and have a rental car reserved but now wondering if taking the new car would be ok.
It is 1 year or 10000 miles which is pretty much normal these days. But you can change as often as you like. There is also a severe service time that may be 7500 miles.
Has oil gotten more advanced or better engines?
Your kidding aren’t you ? You have 5 year roadside service on this new car .
True but if something happens I’m stuck till it’s fix while with a rental you just get a replacement car or in this rental a truck as that is the cheapest item with Alamo
Good Grief , Bertrand how did you get so paranoid ? We took our 8 year old vehicle through 7 states last year and our 2018 Fiesta through 4 just last month .
Your engine is broken in within 10 miles. High end cars like Porsches are actually run on a dyno at full bore before they’re even shipped to the dealers.
New Harleys, performance crate engines, and so on are also run up on a dyno at wide open throttle before sale.
Buy a new car and then rent one for a little road trip?
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Nobody mention the transmission maladies that Ford had with that Fiesta and Focus. Did they get that fixed (that issue with the automatics that resulted in class action)?
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I’ve had a history of car issues when you can least need it… 
All reports I found prior to purchase gave this car good marks thus why I went with it.
I’ve always liked the looks of the Fiesta, even since it was first offered in the late 70’s. Here’s another story: I was driving down the city road to get a slice of pizza – this happened a couple of years ago – and what do you know? It’s an early model Fiesta , right next to me at the stoplight. Four big guys inside, the look like football players, but I think they were actually construction workers. It’s a well worn version, needs a good rinsing off with a garden hose to rid it of months of dust, but most of the paint appears to still sticking to the steel, and it’s configured completely stock as far as I can tell. So I roll down my window, say “cool car, what year is it?” These guys start smiling, I think they have never heard anyone say their car is cool, so they yell back the vintage, 1979 I think it was. So I give them the thumbs up, and away they go, all agog about the interest in their 1979 Fiesta… lol … it really was a cool looking car though. And another visual interest, bordering on comedic, the four-man load of football-player appearing passengers were sort of incongruous to the size of the car.