Another Million Miler

[slacktide_bitog]

I miss when the odometer would actually roll over to zero

Too bad most digital odometers stay at 999999 instead of rolling over

"Thirty years, two engines, and two transmissions later, "

I have a real Ship of Theseus problem with these stories.

Yea, a million miles is a lot, but if you keep replacing parts when they break, is it really that big of a deal?

it is up north where cars rust

 

[Oliveoil2]

Wow, this is really impressive! The owner showed loyalty and contentment. The thought of spending all that time in one car is mind boggling!

 

[Hermann]

More about an owner being resistant to change.

Would blend in well here at BITOG

 

[Kristian]

St. Louis County man drives over 1 million miles in his Volvo sedan

A lot has changed since 1991, but Jim O’Shea’s car hasn’t.

fox2now.com

Can't be accessed from EU. Go figure.

 

[joekingcorvette]

Gordon knew how to fix almost everything on his car. His trunk was full of extra parts. Still an amazing article.

 

[miden851]

proud of ownership goes both ways; a brand new car/premium car or a long in tooth owned car

 

[javacontour]

Can't be accessed from EU. Go figure.

Can you see it through the Internet Wayback Machine?

St. Louis County man drives over 1 million miles in his Volvo sedan

A lot has changed since 1991, but Jim O’Shea’s car hasn’t.

web.archive.org

 

[miden851]

try this

 

[CR94]

We still have grandpa’s axe. He replaced the handle twice and the head once, but it is still grandpa’s axe.

That joke is much older than your grandpa would be. Some versions had 3 handles and 2 replacement heads, etc.

 

[ctechbob]

it is up north where cars rust

True enough, didn't pay attention to that. I get jaded being here in the south where you can work on a 1980's car and everything comes right apart.

 

[FordMan59]

That's Mr Sheppard's million mile Toyota Tundra. The original seat, engine and transmission.

Toyota Today

Toyota Today - the official site for press releases, photos, video, audio, pr contact information, presskits and more.

www.toyotatoday.com

I had to replace the front seats in my '88 Escort well before 500K. I had to fabricate my own mounting system but I used seats out of a much newer Dodge Neon. The color didn't match the rear seat but they were the best set of seats I could find in the junkyard and were fairly comfortable.

 

[JHZR2]

"Thirty years, two engines, and two transmissions later, "

I have a real Ship of Theseus problem with these stories.

Yea, a million miles is a lot, but if you keep replacing parts when they break, is it really that big of a deal?

The Daimler mileage awards require verification of the vin and engine number for that reason I guess…

 

[doublebase]

Always been a thought of mine that I’d like to keep a car a million miles and reach that milestone: unfortunately with so many accomplishing it, and the difficulty of actually doing it - never mind the time it’d take - it just will never happen for me now. The longest I’ve taken a vehicle is 289,000 miles and believe me it took all I could do to get it to that point...I have a list of repairs a mile long on a extremely well maintained, highway driven Honda Acccord that would make your eyes bleed. In fact I started a thread here about it.

So, I appreciate the long haulers, but like others have said...when you replace the engine and transmission, it’s game over for me. Still think it’s quite an accomplishment to take it to where this guy did before that engine blew, but that’s where it ended. This is no million mile vehicle, IMO. It’s a 500,000 mile vehicle twice, and that’s pretty darn good. And the guy obviously put the work in to get there, but the car (in my opinion) never made it there, the owner did. And isn’t it funny how people think they deserve a free new car now if they make it THERE? Because a few have been handed out (Honda, Volvo), but unfortunately I don’t think it’s happening anymore.

 

[GMFan]

Grandpas axe has lasted forever... It's only needed 2 new heads and 3 handles.

 

[VolvoZ]

Impressive, and the car still looks pretty classy and good! Partially a testament to the solidity and simplicity of those old Volvos. We had a 00 Chrysler T&C that would certainly NOT make it that far and that long since the body( and just about everything else (seriously!) was corroding/rusting/disintegrating. Meanwhile our fleet of P2 Volvo V70R wagons ( 2004, ‘05, and ‘06) with 250K, 308K and 270K miles, respectively are essentially rust free and very solid driving vehicles that I am sure could accomplish the 1M mile feat with far fewer engine and transmission swaps. And they live in the salt belt.

 

[2EHA]

Meanwhile our fleet of P2 Volvo V70R wagons ( 2004, ‘05, and ‘06) with 250K, 308K and 270K miles, respectively are essentially rust free and very solid driving vehicles that I am sure could accomplish the 1M mile feat with far fewer engine and transmission swaps. And they live in the salt belt.

maybe if you drive like a grandpa. the center diffs and engine blocks are made of cheese. the 2.5 Rs were not made to be driven hard

 

[AlphaOmega]

What is amazing about this story and others with even more miles (Irv Gordon rip) is that the car was never in an accident. Figure the odds of that.

Quick googling produced this statistic. It's due the year 2002, but gives a rough idea of a chance of an accident per miles driven:

For the year 2002:

Total miles driven in the US: 2,829 billion miles [1]
Total number of accidents: 6,316,000 accidents [2]
Chance of getting an accident per mile driven: 1 per 447,000 miles driven

 

[PF52]

My 940 is a '91 but it only has 670K to go before it reaches one million. What is amazing about this story and others with even more miles (Irv Gordon rip) is that the car was never in an accident.

Irv Gordon claimed never to have been found at fault in an accident. That leaves the door open for possible accidents or fender-benders he wasn't responsible for.