Remarkable, seems a nice chap too.
No electronics/computers, bliss.
I'd like to read a breakdown of the service/replacement schedule over those years, i wonder if Volvo helped him in any way once he got past the first million and was obviously keen to carry on, any help would have been money wisely invested, an advertisers dream.
My first car was a Volvo 122S Amazon, unfortunately it was an import from SA so suffered serious rust, it was however very fast (engine conversions by University Motors Salisbury was on a plate rivetted to the rocker cover) and handled predictably for its day and my complete inexperience.
I recall all Volvos of that era as being easy to work on having seemingly been designed to be worked on throughout their long design life, not just manufactured easily/cheaply which seems to be the modern way.
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blog.hemmings.com/index.php/tag/irv-gordon/
Nice to see the Volvo high-mileage club made a 3,000,000 mile grille badge for him!
>> I'd like to read a breakdown of the service/replacement schedule over those years
www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/pictures/million-mile-club-the-worlds-longest-lived-cars#slide-1
"He re-bushes the carburettor about every 900,000 miles"...
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Nice looking car build to last.Anything over fifty thousand miles and most people panick the engine is going to pack up in their car.
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And, he changes the oil every 3000 to 3500 miles!
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Cheers Dave.
From the first link
“I used to think I’d park it in a museum where people will get to enjoy seeing the car that beat the odds – all with the same engine, same radio, same axles, same transmission, and of course, the same driver. Now I think, ‘no way.’ I’ll either keep driving it, or sell it for $3 million.”
Brake overhauls at 100k, oil changes at 3k (yess), and sensible anticipatory driving have contributed to this marvellous record.
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1,000 oil changes so far. He should have the hang of it by now!
Last edited by: Boxsterboy on Mon 23 Sep 13 at 21:01
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I read in an interview once that surprisingly he finds windscreens have to be replaced quite often, at about 500,000 miles, as they get worn by the wipers.
Americans have a thing about frequent oil changes. I'm not sure it's really necessary to go to his lengths with that sort of driving use, but I suppose he must be the expert.
I love the story that he took it back to the agent the day after he bought it, as it's first 1500 mile service was due.
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What fascinates me is that he only lives a mile or two from the sea - in an area which is prone to high winds, and which is cold enough for snow in winter.
All those factors suggest to me that rust should be a potential problem.
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Yes that is amazing, I bought an old 3 series beemer which was used by the owner mainly to get to his golf course - right next to the sea in West Cornwall.
I noticed a bit of rust on it, but I didn't check it over thoroughly as it was only a cheapy.
Chap at the garage where I had it MOT'd said he'd never seen so much rust underneath a BMW in his life!
:(
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>>1,000 oil changes so far
1,000 gallons of quality engine oil would have bought quite a few engines....
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>> 1,000 gallons of quality engine oil would have bought quite a few engines....
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But then this isn't Triggers broom, what makes this car special is its still on the same engine.
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>>But then this isn't Triggers broom
It is, it's just some parts are being replaced more slowly than others.
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Although it's certainly not my place to question his veracity, I've had the sort of jobs for 35 years which requires me to do a lot of driving, and although I can't be 100% accurate about this, I'm fairly sure just by a bit of simple arithmetic that I've not quite driven 1.5 million miles in my life yet.
3 million miles is a very very long way. Truck driver miles one would have thought.
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Tue 24 Sep 13 at 19:29
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I thought that, especially given how long it took him to do 750k and then get to 3m.
Also, it looks like his Volvo has the 99,999 milometer. So how does anyone (including him) know for sure?
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>> 3 million miles is a very very long way. Truck driver miles one would have
>> thought.
He must like driving and to be fair its a big country, reckon i'm a little over the 3 mill now after 37 continual years on HGVs.
I expect Volvo have gone to town confirming records, servicing MOT equivalents etc, if it was proved to be a fraud after all this hype (and two bonus cars) it would be mightly embarrasing.
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I've averaged 20-30k miles per year since I passed my test in the late 80s - so maybe 500-600k miles in total.
If I was retired I'm pretty sure I could manage 50k miles a year purely 'going places' but it wouldn't be cheap!
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Och I'm sure it is right but it does seem like a lot for what is apparently private running. Given that he must presumably have had a job as well to fund the costs of it all, he must have spent a lot of his spare time driving. Come to think of it I seem to think he was a teacher. Makes sense now...loads of spare time...
;-)
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"I expect Volvo have gone to town confirming records, servicing MOT equivalents etc, if it was proved to be a fraud after all this hype (and two bonus cars) it would be mightly embarrasing."
Very embarrassing for Volvo. And for the Guinness Book of Records, too. Apparently all the work done on the car has been done by the dealership he bought the car from.
The figures, however, are interesting. It has taken him 47 years to do 3 million miles, so that works out at 64,000 per year.
The first million took 21 years (about 48,000 per year), the second million 15 years (about 67,000 per year), and the last million took him 11 years, (about 91,000 per year). Clearly retirement has allowed him to spend more time in his car.
While not doubting that the story is true, I do wonder about the sort of life he has lived over that time. Over the last 11 years he has averaged about 250 miles per day, and none of it (I assume) is work related. That is just a little, er, odd.
Last edited by: tyro on Tue 24 Sep 13 at 20:00
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1966 Volvo clocks up three million miles - -
