Have you ever thought of joining the Million-Mile Club? Many long-haul truckers and those who drive for a living every day can easily rack up a million miles driving over the course of a career.
But everyday citizens with just one vehicle? That’s much harder.
This list contains almost 15,000,000 miles worth of driving on just ten vehicles. In accordance with the Everlance mileage tracking app, if 100 percent of these miles were business-related, the total deduction would be more than $10,000,000 using the current IRS standard mileage rate or the CRA mileage rate!
1. Irving Gordon: 1966 Volvo 1800S
Irving currently carries the Guinness World Record for the largest vehicle mileage on a personal car, with over 3,000,000 miles on his 1966 Volvo 1800S!
Irving thinks he drives over 100,000 miles per year going to car shows, with the greatest stretch in a single trip being New York to Vancouver, Canada. He was interviewed by Popular Mechanics after making the world record and detailed the maintenance of his vehicle, stating that he changes the oil every 3,000-3,000 miles.
An even mad feat was the fact that his original clutch stayed a whopping 450,000 miles! (For reference, the AV. The life of a clutch is around 50,000 miles, with some people seeing 100,000 miles if properly cared for.
Could it be that Volvo established an around-indestructible vehicle in 1966, or is Irving just that gentle on his cars? The truth is generally moving somewhere in the middle. Either way, this is an excellent feat.
2. Gregorios Sachinidis: 1976 Mercedes 240D
Gregorios comes in 2nd with 2,850,000 miles.
However, this is a bit of a cheat for “personal use” because he drove for a living (a taxi driver). The reality is that this was a dual-purpose vehicle. He prefers it for business and self-use, just like a lot of self-employed people.
The really interesting part of this story is that Gregorios blasted this milestone in 2004, 14 years ago, and when he did, Mercedes-Benz verified the accuracy of the mileage and awarded Gregorios a C-Class! Of course, in order to get the C-Class, he had to give up his prized Mercedes 240D, but it is thought we can all understand it was a decent trade.
How many of you would happily trade your vehicle with 2,000,000 miles on the clock for a brand new Mercedes?
Gregorios turned out decent in this deal and got maximum use out of that 240D, which now stayed on display in Mercedes-Benz’s personal museum as the largest running vehicle in the brand’s story!
3. 1979 Volvo 245 GL
While it’s good to have a self-story linked to vehicles, sometimes vehicles are just company cars, made to be used by anyone and everyone at a particular company.
In this instance, the 1979 Volvo 245 GL that put up 1,630,000 miles was the property of a Finnish company called S.E. Makinen. There aren’t a lot of details about this use of this vehicle, but we like to imagine that it has traversed the world a few times and visited some really cool far-off destinations.
However, it probably spent its entire life navigating the country of Finland as part of a logistics fleet. The company has defined that it did nothing to the vehicle other than “decent care.” If that’s true, that says a lot about past Volvo’s!
4. Joseph Vaillancourt: 1963 Plymouth Fury
This story is almost too mad to trust.
After driving his vehicle as a taxi in Montreal for most of his career, Joseph had managed to reach 1,620,000 miles by 1999. This was good enough for the Guinness Book of World Records at the time—he only required a few 100 more miles (264 kilometres, actually) to take 1st place.
While driving, his vehicle was totalled by a truck that uses a red light. While he was unharmed, his options of getting the world record were ended that day. An unhappy story for Vaillancourt, but his believable fury still earned him a place on the top 10 list!
5. Albert Klein: 1963 Volkswagen Beetle
Of course you’d expect one of the most mass-produced vehicles of all time to be in the top 10, right?
This particular Volkswagen Beetle was owned by a Californian man named Albert Klein, who bought the car brand new in 1963 for $1,900.
Over the coming 24 years, Albert tackled to drive 1,610,000 miles. This in itself is a pretty amazing feat, but there was a real approach. All of the vehicles above had managed to drive 1 million, 2 million, or even 3 million miles with very few replacements.
This vehicle actually was a terribly built car, but Albert was persistent. Or maybe a little obsessed? Either way, the last tally of changed parts reads, such as a part list from a scrapyard:
- 7 new engines
- 3 new transmissions
- 150 tires
Additionally, with an absolutely obscene number . of engine changes and 3 transmissions, Albert managed records of not only his tire utilisation but gasoline and general maintenance priced as well. He says he went through over 35,600 gallons of gas just getting to the million-mile mark and spent over $38,000 on maintenance!
6. Chet Belisle: 1983 Lincoln Town Car
CNN forwarded a feature on Chet in 2009 where he stated about his 1 million-mile Town Car.
Actually, his 1.3 million-mile Town Car, carrying the impressive claims that he got over 22 mph and never had to do any main repairs!
Chet didn’t drive for a living; he drove because he enjoyed it. He would get trips from his Kansas home across the country many times. He was definitely at home on the road.
7. Frank Oresnik: 1991 Chevrolet Silverado
Frank was a steak & seafood delivery driver that drove from his home in Green Bay, WI, to Chicago, IL, nearly every day!
That’s one serious commute.
Unlike the majority of people on this list, Frank didn’t buy his truck new. He bought it in 1996 with 41,000 miles on the odometer, though he’s driven every mile since.
Frank managed to hit the 1 million mile highlight with an ad man and a television crew, but he would go on to put alternative 290,000 miles on the truck. His truck is named “Old Girl,” and he still isn’t done driving!
8. Family: 1966 Mercedes-Benz 250SE
In 2014, the current driver of the ’66 Benz 250 contacted the High Mile Club to report their odometer had just crossed the 1.2 million mile mark.
The true story is the family that managed it before him, though. The original owner had bought the Mercedes-Benz in 1966 and managed to drive over 877,000 miles himself before he passed away. Then his family took on the task of getting to the million-mile mark and over the next few years put on over 300,000 miles before finally selling the vehicle to a man named Ben Clopot.
With that way, the family kept meticulous records of the car. In the papers, it is said to have had the following major repairs:.
- 2 bottom-end engine repairs
- 4 top-end engine repairs
- 2 rebuilt transmissions
While that repair list is impressive, the car is over 42 years old, the most amazing part of this story!
9. Hugh & Tammy Pennington: 2006 Chevrolet Silverado 3500
One thing to focus on about this tale: this truck has over 1,000,000 miles on it, and it’s a 2006!
Even more mad is the fact that they tackled to drive over 1 million miles in just six years. While diesel engines are called to have a greatly long life span, who could have guessed over 1 million miles?
Or more particularly, 1 million miles in 6 years with no main maintenance. Hugh and Tammy have simply changed the oil every 5,000 miles.
Is it just us, or is it pretty impressive that 2 generations of the Chevrolet Silverado have kept to make up 20% of this list?
10. Phil Marsella: 2006 Ford F-250
Another 2006! This type of longevity in a vehicle is a promising thing to look at.
These specific F-250’s miles are appealing, but not nearly as attractive as the Silverado above. It carries two engines.
He drives for a living, so this is a work truck, not mandatory personal use. That being said, Phil put on over 1.2 million miles in 5 years, and that’s definitely a vote for coolness in our book.
Considering it’s been 7 years since he broke 1.2 million miles, if the usage has stayed the same, this truck may very well be in the 2 million mile range!