Sensibly i'd let the car fast idle for a minute before going for it, and i'd drive the car by what feels right for the car in question, some are gutless and need higher revs, some have plenty of low down torque, drive by seat of pants.

"but lugging is definitely bad for the flywheel." I don't understand that comment. A standard flywheel (not DMF) is a lump of metal. Much slipping of clutch may cause damage, but labouring in too high a gear won't affect it.

I get the OPs point though. We live a mile from a motorway and my office was a bit less than a mile from the motorway. Twice a day I'd be hitting the motorway with a virtually cold engine. It takes a lot of self control to keep the speed down until the engine has warmed up.

Both the OP's question and his subsequent advice were something that most drivers never even think about. As already suggested, they simply drive the car so that "it feels right".

Any half decent driver doing that ensures they are always in the correct gear for the road/traffic conditions and hence also minimises wear on the engine and transmission. No idea about autos as I have never owned one.

Stevejock1 first asks for advice and then proceeds to give it.

And 'keeping the oil up to the max mark' is the wrong advice if you need the engine to warm up quickly. Engines don't like lots of freezing cold oil sitting in the sump. The dipstick marks are 'over-engineered' to allow for forgetfulness. It's probably better to have just 3 litres in a small engine and change it every 6,000 miles than 4.5 litres changing it every 9,000 miles but for obvious reasons no manufacturer will advise this. Our old 1.6 Zetec Focus has never had more than 4 litres in the sump - always between minimum and half-way to max mark. Engine still fine at 145,000 miles (body not so fine at nearly 20yrs!)