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What kind of cars have you been buying with no temp gauge? I also have never had a car without one. Well my current car does not but it does have a blue light that goes out once the car is warm which I think I might actually prefer. More visual.
He’s talking about oil temp gauge not cooling system temp.
So you're telling me with modern vehicles it's safe to redline and run full boost with a cold engine?
Is there any study or engineering design document that says this?
Why do you think the new vehicle don’t have to be warmed up like the older ones you start them in the winter and start driving but take it easy for the first 5 min or so you don’t go bat crazy. Newer vehicles have semi or full synthetic oil now. And no you don’t redline a cold vehicle but after 5 min of normal driving you can drive highway speeds. Read your manual for hevan sakes it will tell you everything you need to know just read it.
so why do the vast majority of cars not provide a gauge that shows you when they are warmed up?
Good Question
I had a '66 Chevy Biscayne with a 250 IL-6 & Power-Glide transmission
it had a green ' COLD ' light in the cluster that would disappear when
it warmed up
I would suspect in today's world a majority of drivers are ' Gas & Go '
OP, I know exactly what you are talking about. Most important gauge I pay attention to when warming vehicle up. All the German vehicles I’ve had have them, though all were either AMG or turbo line. The AMG would flash until reaching a certain temp and I think wouldn’t let you rev it past a certain point. My current one has a stationary gauge and I also have a digital one too.
I'm puzzled as well but the average consumer doesn't care nor wants to be informed. An engine oil temperature sensor and gauge would probably add $40 to the production cost given the large scale ($30 for parts, $6 labor, & $4 design cost). What might blow you away is that most cars actually have the sensor but you have to hook up a OBD reader to get the information. Another thing is that the gauge meters can often be grossly inaccurate compared to the real-time readouts from the ECM/ECU.
I've got an old MK4 Golf TDI which has been relegated to the garage and is primarily used for long-distance driving (greater than 20 miles) or when I'm itching to drive a stick-shift. The car takes about 6 miles to reach peak operating temperature and I don't want excess water in my oil creating sludge. I've got a BEV Fiat 500e that needs zero warm-up time and an old Lexus Rx400h that essentially uses glow plugs to warm the engine fluids within minutes; I use those cars (when available) to do my local errands.
I did not say you "can't drive the car". I'm saying you shouldn't drive it hard and redline it. Not sure why this is so difficult to understand.
Every reply so far is people who
A) Think coolant temperature is the same as oil temperature
B) Don't know that you aren't supposed to redline a cold engine
or
C) Think modern cars can be redlined even when cold
So maybe this isn't common knowledge after all
I understand what you're saying, but I wouldn't redline my engine period. So.. From my perspective.. Moot point.
I'd think people that WOULD be redlining their engines probably have added gauges for this? I tend to agree with others that I don't particularly think this is a big issue, but your point is valid.
People don’t really care about oil temp all the want is a vehicle that runs that’s the mentality of today’s consumers they just want to put key in or push button and start the vehicle and go. Most people today can care less about the mechanical aspects of a vehicle they just want to know what electronic toys are in it. And on new cars don’t worry about the oil temp light because vehicles are way better than those of the past.
Well, no. Once again, we've moved on past 1973 Monacos with 1950s V-8s. Modern cars are designed to start and go with no excessive wear issues and very little fuel/emission impact. A Honda engine will go 2-300k on the original short block and heads with or without coddling (needing only timing belt replacement at 100k intervals).
OTOH, my 1968 Mustang, literally driven by a little old lady for its first 25 years, needed a replacement engine at 74k and that engine was completely worn out (not even a reusable block) at 142k. She was obsessive about warming it up before driving. Most cars of that era amazed people if they limped to a trade-in at 100k.
Do you really know of anyone who walks out to their car on a cold 5 degree AM and fires it up and pulls out of the driveway hitting the rev limiter up the road? Most people I know just don't drive like that. Even my own car drives "different" while I'm gingerly driving it down the road while it's warming up. I've driven this car to temps down to -10 degrees so far, and it just feels tighter and revs more slowly until the engine oil comes up to temp.
I usually remote start it a couple times anyway and still drive it gingerly as I sit in bumper to bumper traffic. I routinely get an oil analysis done and everything looks good.
Incidentally, my car now doesn't even temp gauge at all. Felt weird but that's really just because I'm used to it. There's a dummy light that supposedly will come on. That's like your oil pressure light. I never trusted those much, but then most vehicles don't have oil pressure gauges either.
I understand what you're saying, but I wouldn't redline my engine period. So.. From my perspective.. Moot point.
I'd think people that WOULD be redlining their engines probably have added gauges for this? I tend to agree with others that I don't particularly think this is a big issue, but your point is valid.
How do you just not redline your engine? Don't you sometimes have to accelerate quickly to merge? I turn from a side road onto a main road, so whether my car is warmed up determines how much space I need to make the turn. If I can floor it, I need only a little room. If the engine is cold and I need to stay under 3000 rpm then I need a big gap
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Good Question 
