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