3-Milliom Mile Volvo 1800S, Fact or Hoax?

[jvett77]

Auto restorer Wayne Carini presented a 3-million mile Volvo 1800S on the Chasing Classic Cars TV series recently. Irv Gordon (1940-2018), the Volvo owner from East Patchogue, NY, bought the car in 1966 when he was 26 years old. He worked as a science teacher at Roslyn Middle School from 1962 until he retired in 1999. With a 125-mile round-trip daily commute, he easily did 30,000 miles annually.

Gordon reached one million miles after 21 years. He did the second million in 15 years, then the third million in only 11 years. So, as he aged, his claimed annual mileage increased from 50,000 to 91,000 miles (equivalent to 15 round trips to LA). At 62, he'd have to spend all his time on the road and $40,000 on more for motels, annually. Not impossible, but very unlikely. He stated that he enjoyed driving solo, traveling around the country, visiting auto shows, etc.

No logs or records are presented to document Gordon's mileage. He has stated his claims over the years are based on maintenance records. I made these computations based on his reported driving milestones.

1976 age 36, 500,000 miles 10 yrs, 50,000 mi/yr; 4,166 mi/mo
1987 age 47, 1,000,000 mi, 21 yrs, 47,600 mi/yr; 3,968 mi/mo
2002 age 62, 1,000,000 mi, 15 yrs, 66,666 mi/yr; 6,666 mi/mo
2013 age 73, 1,000,000 mi, 11 yrs, 91,000 mi/yr; 8,272 mi/mo



In 1987, at the million-mile mark, he was honored by Volvo and presented a brand-new 780 coupe according the Road&Track.

In 1998, the car was registered as the vehicle with the highest certified mileage driven by the original owner in non-commercial service, by the Guinness Book of World Records, 1.696 million miles.

On April 2, 2002, Gordon appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to celebrate the 2-million mile mark.

In Sept., 2013, after reaching 3-million miles, he was honored by Volvo Cars North America (VCNA) with PR campaign.

Irv Gordon, Guinness World Record Holder Who Put 3.2 Million Miles on His Volvo P1800, Has Died.

 

[Hank Kingsley]

Tough cars.

I had a 76 245 DL. It was a tank until it got broken into for the stereo.

Then the drivers door never fit properly and water dripped into electricals.

Ended up trading it in on a 1983 Camry.

 

[YankeeRebel]

If you take care of any car you can drive it for life provided parts are still available

 

[R.J. MacReady]

It's possible since this was before Volvo was bought by the Chinese.

 

[PatsFan2003]

My favorite car commercial was the one where they threw Volvo's off an overpass only to see them crash in one piece on the ground below.

 

[Yankee Traveler]

If you take care of any car you can drive it for life provided parts are still available

Some need fewer replacement parts, less often then others, but yes.
Preventive maintenance.
And rebuilds.
Rebuilt motor, rebuilt transmission, rebuilt differential.

Many people read the headline and assume that he put gas in and drove it for 3,000,000 miles.
I'd wager 250,000 of those were trips to his mechanic.

 

[YankeeRebel]

Some need fewer replacement parts, less often then others, but yes.
Preventive maintenance.
And rebuilds.
Rebuilt motor, rebuilt transmission, rebuilt differential.

Many people read the headline and assume that he put gas in and drove it for 3,000,000 miles.
I'd wager 250,000 of those were trips to his mechanic.

I agree and if you do the preventive maintenance it can save money on larger repairs. I just posted in the other thread that Sat I purchased a 2021 Outback and I always do my maint hoping to get at 250k out of this with minimal issues

 

[Flynbrian]

I restored a 1965 P1800 Volvo that spent it's entire life in the central valley of California - free from salt, rain, and humidity. The car had 125,000 miles on it and needed multiple rust repairs. Every part was worn out. This got me thinking, how could Irv Gordon drive 3,250,000 miles on a 1960's era, non-airconditioned, non-power steering, British supplied carbureted, car, while living in the traffic congestion and the salt environment of Long Island, NY? As a Test Engineer, I applied mathematics, used what I had learned during my restoration process, and studied every single article and interview I could find. I learned his commuted wasn't 125 miles a day but only 78 miles per day. He only performed this commute 9 months out of the year with one month off for vacation and spring break. Also, Irv lived on Long Island where the average speed on the roads is 25-35 MPH. Irv's famous expression was "The LIE (Long Island Expressway) is the world's longest parking lot". To get to a major highway, Irv would have to drive Long Island, commuted though NYC, and then over the bridges and through the tunnels. Irv claims of high mileage on parts and subsystems.... 2 million miles on an engine rebuild, 900,000 miles on a British Carb re-bush, 100,000 miles on a set of Bridgestone Potenza race tires, 2,000,000 miles on A arm bushings, is 5-15 times longer than the average Volvo of that era. Irv claimed he performed all the routine and preventative maintenance on the P1800. So when he did take it to the Volvoville Dealership for parts replacement or an engine rebuild, he would tell Volvoville what the mileage was and they would write that number on the maintenance invoice because Volvoville couldn't verify the 99,999 odometer turnover (the 1966 Volvo P1800 Smith odometer is only capable of recording 99,999 miles). Using mean-time-between-failure analysis, Irv's 1966 P1800S had between 250,000 to 350,000 miles on it. That is it. According to Irv, Guinness Book of World Records used the VolvoVille Dealership 1966 Volvo P1800S maintenance records, along with their affidavits, to validate the world record non-commercial auto mileage.

 

[YankeeRebel]

I restored a 1965 P1800 Volvo that spent it's entire life in the central valley of California - free from salt, rain, and humidity. The car had 125,000 miles on it and needed multiple rust repairs. Every part was worn out. This got me thinking, how could Irv Gordon drive 3,250,000 miles on a 1960's era, non-airconditioned, non-power steering, British supplied carbureted, car, while living in the traffic congestion and the salt environment of Long Island, NY? As a Test Engineer, I applied mathematics, used what I had learned during my restoration process, and studied every single article and interview I could find. I learned his commuted wasn't 125 miles a day but only 78 miles per day. He only performed this commute 9 months out of the year with one month off for vacation and spring break. Also, Irv lived on Long Island where the average speed on the roads is 25-35 MPH. Irv's famous expression was "The LIE (Long Island Expressway) is the world's longest parking lot". To get to a major highway, Irv would have to drive Long Island, commuted though NYC, and then over the bridges and through the tunnels. Irv claims of high mileage on parts and subsystems.... 2 million miles on an engine rebuild, 900,000 miles on a British Carb re-bush, 100,000 miles on a set of Bridgestone Potenza race tires, 2,000,000 miles on A arm bushings, is 5-15 times longer than the average Volvo of that era. Irv claimed he performed all the routine and preventative maintenance on the P1800. So when he did take it to the Volvoville Dealership for parts replacement or an engine rebuild, he would tell Volvoville what the mileage was and they would write that number on the maintenance invoice because Volvoville couldn't verify the 99,999 odometer turnover (the 1966 Volvo P1800 Smith odometer is only capable of recording 99,999 miles). Using mean-time-between-failure analysis, Irv's 1966 P1800S had between 250,000 to 350,000 miles on it. That is it. According to Irv, Guinness Book of World Records used the VolvoVille Dealership 1966 Volvo P1800S maintenance records, along with their affidavits, to validate the world record non-commercial auto mileage.

Well the download didn't work for me but that's because I'm on my phone but I know that car those are really cool looking cars I'll see if I can get the downloads when I get back into the office

 

[jvett77]

I restored a 1965 P1800 Volvo that spent it's entire life in the central valley of California - free from salt, rain, and humidity. The car had 125,000 miles on it and needed multiple rust repairs. Every part was worn out. This got me thinking, how could Irv Gordon drive 3,250,000 miles on a 1960's era, non-airconditioned, non-power steering, British supplied carbureted, car, while living in the traffic congestion and the salt environment of Long Island, NY? As a Test Engineer, I applied mathematics, used what I had learned during my restoration process, and studied every single article and interview I could find. I learned his commuted wasn't 125 miles a day but only 78 miles per day. He only performed this commute 9 months out of the year with one month off for vacation and spring break. Also, Irv lived on Long Island where the average speed on the roads is 25-35 MPH. Irv's famous expression was "The LIE (Long Island Expressway) is the world's longest parking lot". To get to a major highway, Irv would have to drive Long Island, commuted though NYC, and then over the bridges and through the tunnels. Irv claims of high mileage on parts and subsystems.... 2 million miles on an engine rebuild, 900,000 miles on a British Carb re-bush, 100,000 miles on a set of Bridgestone Potenza race tires, 2,000,000 miles on A arm bushings, is 5-15 times longer than the average Volvo of that era. Irv claimed he performed all the routine and preventative maintenance on the P1800. So when he did take it to the Volvoville Dealership for parts replacement or an engine rebuild, he would tell Volvoville what the mileage ws and they would write that number on the maintenance invoice because Volvoville couldn't verify the 99,999 odometer turnover (the 1966 Volvo P1800 Smith odometer is only capable of recording 99,999 miles). Using mean-time-between-failure analysis, Irv's 1966 P1800S had between 250,000 to 350,000 miles on it. That is it. According to Irv, Guinness Book of World Records used the VolvoVille Dealership 1966 Volvo P1800S maintenance records, along with their affidavits, to validate the world record non-commercial auto mileage.

It was evident even back in 2021 that Irv Gordon was a basic scammer. Like he really drove a million miles aged 62-73. How could Guinness believe any of it. Ref flag history you documented is amazing.