Pretty much should be #3 these days. About 95% of all rod breakage is due to operator stupidity and should be treated as such. In legitimate cases where the rod has a true defect, failure will occur almost immediately, in a fairly non stressful situation. It is also very evident to the factory personnel inspecting it once returned as to what the "real" problem was/is.

(I'll run down to the auto dealer later today and see how they feel about options #1 and #2 if I decide to buy...)

Make no mistake, when one buys an expensive rod it's for the cool first, and warranty whine second. It's called "warranty", and not "insurance" for a reason.

Good luck with this one.

Who still offers an "unconditional lifetime warranty" on anything?

Shimano or Berkley Rods.

Everyone should read this article it's pretty interesting on rod breakage and causes:
http://www.roguerods.com/docs/rodbreak.pdf

They broke over 200 rods and found that at best 2% were manufacturer defect.