that have owned so many lemons that they live in fear of breaking down daily. I would spend my entire pays to make sure I dont have problems. I change my oil monthly, trans fliud 3 times a year, will soon have 2 trans coolers, (drives like an old person sometimes, not all the time) due to fear I'll beat on the car. Am I crazy?

Crazy?...possibly, but 10 year old machines that face the kind of elements that we face breakdown...yes some worse then others, but...its still a machine

Your oil could go 5k and you couldn't tell the difference. You don't wanna run the tranny too cool. If you're doing it over again, get one that'* controlled with a stat. If anything isn't exactly the way it should, i make sure and double check whatever, but then I'm not crazy. If something'* going to cause a problem with your oil or tranny fluid, it won't matter how many miles are on the fluid.

Are you kiddin'?? My Motto: Gotta be a little insane to stay sane...

You're not crazy. I change my oil every 3000 miles (used to do it every 2500 for a while). This month I'm changing it even though I've only driven 1300 miles in the past 3 months. I let my car warm up for 10 minutes in the winter and don't drive it until the temp is about 140-150*. I don't even want to drive it cold at 2000rpms. I don't want to risk anything. Summer time is a bit different, but I've decided to baby it more because I want it to last until I can buy my dream car. If something goes wrong before I have the money for my dream car, I'll be very unhappy.