Post by: Ryan in Maine on February 12, 2008, 08:16:11 AM
Quote
Man's '91 pickup passes the 1M-mile mark
Mon Feb 11, 11:08 PM ET
GRESHAM, Wis. - Frank Oresnik's trusty pickup truck he calls it "the old girl" passed the 1 million-mile mark with a camera crew filming the event and a public-radio audience listening in. "I can't tell you how much fun it was," he said. "It was really humbling, all this interest."
Recent news stories told how Oresnik had just 1,200 miles to go before reaching the milestone in the 1991 Chevrolet Silverado that he bought with 41,000 miles on it in 1996 and used in his business, distributing seafood and steaks in the upper Midwest.
At the time, he was getting his latest oil change the kind of regular maintenance he credits with helping to keep the truck going so long.
He said he's had the truck's oil changed more than 300 times. It's had so many changes that the oil pan drain plug had to be rethreaded several times, he said, and "you never hear of that."
He passed the million-mile mark Friday in southeastern Wisconsin while on his way back home to Catawba, located in the north in Price County, about an hour west of Rhinelander. He was on County Highway V southeast of Fond du Lac.
On hand was a film crew from Chevrolet's public relations and advertising company, and he was speaking live to Robert Siegel, host of National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."
A news crew from CBS had been with him earlier in the day.
"I wont say it was relief ... it was exhilarating," Oresnik said later during a stop in Gresham where he has one of his longtime customers. "This truck has been so dependable over the years." Now that it's made history, the truck could be headed back to the automaker or Shell Oil. Oresnik said there's been some interested in GM or Shell Oil buying it.
Mon Feb 11, 11:08 PM ET
GRESHAM, Wis. - Frank Oresnik's trusty pickup truck he calls it "the old girl" passed the 1 million-mile mark with a camera crew filming the event and a public-radio audience listening in. "I can't tell you how much fun it was," he said. "It was really humbling, all this interest."
Recent news stories told how Oresnik had just 1,200 miles to go before reaching the milestone in the 1991 Chevrolet Silverado that he bought with 41,000 miles on it in 1996 and used in his business, distributing seafood and steaks in the upper Midwest.
At the time, he was getting his latest oil change the kind of regular maintenance he credits with helping to keep the truck going so long.
He said he's had the truck's oil changed more than 300 times. It's had so many changes that the oil pan drain plug had to be rethreaded several times, he said, and "you never hear of that."
He passed the million-mile mark Friday in southeastern Wisconsin while on his way back home to Catawba, located in the north in Price County, about an hour west of Rhinelander. He was on County Highway V southeast of Fond du Lac.
On hand was a film crew from Chevrolet's public relations and advertising company, and he was speaking live to Robert Siegel, host of National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."
A news crew from CBS had been with him earlier in the day.
"I wont say it was relief ... it was exhilarating," Oresnik said later during a stop in Gresham where he has one of his longtime customers. "This truck has been so dependable over the years." Now that it's made history, the truck could be headed back to the automaker or Shell Oil. Oresnik said there's been some interested in GM or Shell Oil buying it.
Well, I know what I'm going to get when I get a truck.
I wonder how many vehicles have actually hit 1-million miles.
Post by: mtnbkr on February 12, 2008, 08:21:21 AM
More important than the odd fluke here and there that get 1mil miles is the average number of miles a larger sample reaches.
Chris
Post by: Ryan in Maine on February 12, 2008, 08:25:14 AM
Post by: The Viking on February 12, 2008, 08:51:32 AM
Post by: Ex-MA Hole on February 12, 2008, 09:01:28 AM
Let's see....I do a bit over 30,000 a year, so....only another 31 years to go....
Post by: charby on February 12, 2008, 09:19:39 AM
Post by: MillCreek on February 12, 2008, 09:47:11 AM
Post by: The Viking on February 12, 2008, 10:04:47 AM
A few years ago, the New York Times did a story on several Volvos that have passed a million miles and are still going strong.
Older Volvos are sure ugly bricks, but they run on and on...
Post by: Tallpine on February 12, 2008, 11:29:06 AM
At 215K my 1991 Suburban is just a youngster
Post by: Iain on February 12, 2008, 11:32:49 AM
Post by: RoadKingLarry on February 12, 2008, 11:39:20 AM
Post by: lupinus on February 12, 2008, 11:52:08 AM
With proper maintenance and just not beating your vehicle to death most would be surprised just how long a lot of models can last.
Post by: Declaration Day on February 12, 2008, 12:07:29 PM
Post by: Bigjake on February 12, 2008, 12:11:45 PM
Post by: Tallpine on February 12, 2008, 02:22:57 PM
Quote
I think there is at least one VW Beetle with over 1m on the clock.
Wow, that's a lot of valve adjustments
Post by: Headless Thompson Gunner on February 12, 2008, 07:08:01 PM
Post by: Gewehr98 on February 12, 2008, 07:57:53 PM
Post by: mtnbkr on February 13, 2008, 04:01:20 AM
I think there is at least one VW Beetle with over 1m on the clock.
If it is the same one I'm thinking of, the engine has been rebuilt several times. The 1mil miles is on the body/suspension, not the engine.
Wow, that's a lot of valve adjustments
Ain't that the truth. Though, you can get around that by installing hydraulic lifters. I didn't bother though, it was pretty easy to adjust the valves and only took me about 10 minutes per side.
With proper maintenance and just not beating your vehicle to death most would be surprised just how long a lot of models can last.
My personal benchmark is that a car has to hit at least 150k miles without a major repair and has to go to at least 200k without becoming a money pit. So far, only Toyotas have done that for me.
Chris
Post by: Boomhauer on February 13, 2008, 04:59:54 AM
No work done on engine or transmission. Only stuff like altenator, waterpump, balljoints replaced.
Drove 120 miles round trip every weekday for several years. Long trips help the engine dry out and warm up properly, leading to better engine life. Oil changes every 3k miles at home, Quaker State 30 weight. When we finally started tearing the engine down after it started giving us major trouble, it was clean as a whistle inside.
Many people think that anything over 100K is high mileage. It isn't. We don't have the money to trade in cars every couple of years for the latest model, so we drive 'em a long time. Last cars we bought were my father's '99 Suburban with 130K miles on it, and my '99 Silverado with 110K miles on it.
Post by: Tallpine on February 13, 2008, 08:13:54 AM
Quote
it was pretty easy to adjust the valves and only took me about 10 minutes per side.
Wow, that's almost as fast as they go out of adjustment
My wife (fiance) had a VW bug that was itself made out of several salvaged cars before she bought it. Then she rolled it and I went out and bought another one that needed an engine. I swapped the motors from the wrecked one and we drove it for a while. Finally one evening we made a turn and ended up out in a cow pasture - the steering wheel had broke completely off. The metal in the front of the chassis pan had rusted so that the four bolts holding the front axle pulled completely through, despite the fact that I had replaced them with longer larger bolts with multiple large flat washers.
So I pulled the body from the chassis on both cars and put the good undercarraige under the good body (had to swap the engine back again of course). There are a lot of bolts holding them together and I never did get them all back in.
All in all, we got almost as many hours of driving out it as I spent working on it. The most fun was driving the wrecked one around with no doors or glass as a dune buggy for while.
Post by: mfree on February 13, 2008, 03:11:26 PM
Define major repair.
Post by: Tallpine on February 14, 2008, 06:56:40 AM
Next most expensive thing was re-coring the radiator after it plugged up completely, but I suspect that was a maintenance problem from a previous owner using tap water to mix with the coolant.
Also, we swapped out the factory "automatic" hubs for Warn manual hubs.
I can't remember anything else except for maintenance stuff: tires, batteries, muffler, spark plugs, filters, engine and tranny oil changes, and a starter. The parts and labor on these older and simpler vehicles is really pretty reasonable.
Post by: mtnbkr on February 14, 2008, 07:11:06 AM
"My personal benchmark is that a car has to hit at least 150k miles without a major repair and has to go to at least 200k without becoming a money pit. So far, only Toyotas have done that for me. "
Define major repair.
Define major repair.
Anything that isn't normal wear and tear (such as a clutch) and doesn't leave you stranded or cost hundreds or thouseands of dollars.
This past summer, I had to rebuild the starter in our 4Runner. The contacts were wearing and it would sometimes fail to spin. It cost me $50 in parts and about an hour's worth of my labor. That, to me, isn't major.
We had an Altima that developed a rear main seal leak at 80k miles. That's a major repair, especially at the mileage. My wife had to replace the transmission in her Grand Am well before it hit 100k. That's another major repair.
Chris
Post by: mfree on February 14, 2008, 07:23:01 AM
And then several thousand miles later, around the 97K mark IIRC, I totalled it
Post by: mtnbkr on February 14, 2008, 07:27:00 AM
BTW, the starter repair on the 4Runner was past the 150k mark. That SUV has been so troublefree, I'm afraid I'm going to have it fail all at once one day.
Chris
Post by: mfree on February 14, 2008, 07:51:21 AM
That car got parked a 278K and we finally pawned it off to a cousin of mine... it had been sitting for 4 years at that point, he blew up the tires, dribbled a spoonful of gas down the carb, hooked up some jumper cables...
...and drove it home. No idea what happened past that, we all assume he's chopped it up by now, that marque had a kickass truck engine and transmission in it and a disc brake 9" rear end that racers used to kill for...
EDIT:
PS does my Tbird's 30 minute, $15 water pump replacements count? Only needed 4 of them before I wised up and replaced the fan...
Post by: Chris on February 14, 2008, 08:08:02 AM