3,000,000 Miles

We’ve told you here of Million Mile Joe, the Maine resident who kept his meticulously maintained 1990 Honda Accord running through a whopping 1,000,000 miles. And while Joe was getting plenty of media attention as he approached that milestone (and a brand new Accord from Honda once he passed it) a New York man was quietly racking up even more miles — almost 3,000,000 — in a beautiful red 1966 Volvo P1800.

Irv Gordon, of Long Island, bought the Volvo new in June of ’66 for $4,150 (for some, a full year’s salary at the time). Since then Gordon, who has stated a lifelong love of travel, has been racking up the miles: it took 21 years to reach the first million miles, and another 15 to reach the two-million mark, according to MSNBC. Now, 46 years after purchasing the Volvo and already having driven the car the equivalent of 1,200 trips around the globe at the equator, Gordon is less than 40,000 miles from clicking “3,000,000” on the odometer.

And did we mention, since he failed to spring for the option back in ’66, Gordon has done all this driving without an air conditioner?

Regular maintenance, oil changes and tune-ups are key to the vehicle’s longevity, of course, and the Volvo still has its original engine (albeit rebuilt — twice). Perhaps Gordon’s connection to the car is the secret? The 72-year-old recently told the Associated Press “It’s just a car I enjoy driving.”

At nearly 3,000,000 miles — a number Gordon expects to hit this year — we think that may be a bit of an understatement.

[Source: MSNBC.]

he has the sports car, 4 cylinder engine. Very simple design. very durable as long as the carbs are balanced.

I used to rebuild them, my first business. Loved driving them. The transmissions ‘click’…

for 46 yrs, that is an avg of over 65k miles per year…….or over 180 miles per day EVERY day since he has owned it. Must have been on the road for a living with it to rack up that kind of mileage. Wow!

Love those old Volvo B18 motors..Had two old Volvo 122’s over the years and am looking for another as soon as the right one makes it’s presence known to me. I remember hearing about that guy a few years ago. Cool to see him and his car are still at it.

The guy is 72 and he is gonna put on another 40K before years end… he has just gotta be joy riding it now… how many trips to the bingo hall is that ???

what luck some people are fortunate enough to be blessed with, quite the feat being able to drive that much, insane to think about…i recently seen a trucker with “1,000,000 accident free miles” printed on his door, thats crazy! wasnt there also another guy or gal that drove his or her pontiac (maybe) 100k miles without changing the oil? i cant eve hit a pothole without losing a balljoint or tearing apart my cv joint

Heck… we put on more than three million that foggy night
Ed was drivin the van and we tried to find our way
back to Point No Point Lake from my brother in laws divorce party.

That was the night a Higgs Boson walked into the tavern
and the bartender sez hey we missed ya howtheheck are ya
and the particule says,well for just a smidgeon of a fraction of a nonosecond there, thought it felt like we was God!

Now that we thot about it, that was the same Higgs Boson particle that got thrown out of our church when the priest said we don’t serve yer kind here and the particle said, hey, without me you ain’t got no MASS!!!!

What the… it’s not you, it’s me…