In your own words...

Curious as to what different owners do during break in. For me, I drive 120 round trip a day. I do 60% on the highway(70 to 80), 20% on winding country road (some stop and go, 45 to 55), and 20% city(35 or less).

 

being nice mostly

you are not just breaking in the engine, but also the tranny and all the other bearings in the drivetrain. letting all the seals seat and such.

You should avoid taking a 1000 mile road trip right off, but past that, driving your normal pattern is good for it.

 

Do not drive at a constant RPM for long periods of time (I was told 15 minutes is a long period of time, take it with a grain of salt if you wish), vary the RPM so that you break in through out the driving range. The way I did mine (I have a 50 mile commute) is drive in 4th for 5 minutes, drive in 5th for 5 minutes, then back to 4th. Sometimes,after the recommended time frame in manual, I would go all the way to 3rd and sprint and skip 4th and go to 5th. The key is to just vary it to break in through out the range thats all. How you want to do it is up to you.

 

For the first 1500 miles, I didn't take the engine past 5K RPMs. I would shift between 3-4K and the occasional 5K in 1st or 2nd. On the highway (I make alot of long road trips) I varied my speed and gear about every 3-4 minutes. 70, 75, then 80 in 5th - switch to 4th, 65, 70, then 75. I changed the oil at 1000 miles and then made a 1500 mile trip from 1800-3300 mile mark. I made sure not to use cruise control and varied speeds about every 5-10 minutes using mostly fifth gear. After that trip, I stopped being gentle and made frequent trips to the rev limiter (still do ).

In addition, my break in period meant alot of time waxing. After seeing all of the paint issues of members on the board, I applied about 8-10 coats of wax in the first 1500 miles or so. It was a pain, but I don't seem to have that many chips (more than a car with 16K should, but less than some of the other Maximas).

 

Since break in has been defined, I would like to use it in a sentence:
Don't leave you cell phone or cd's on the front seat, that might make somebody break in!