A teacher named Irv Gordon bought a red Volvo P1800 in 1966, and the Irv Gordon Volvo went on to cover more than 3.2 million miles. His car is the best-known member of a small club. Each vehicle here passed 1 million miles with the drivers named below behind the wheel.
The eight below come from carmaker records, museum donations and press reports. They include a Greek taxi, a Wisconsin salesman’s Saab, two trucks and a hybrid SUV. In each case, the mileage figure comes from the maker or the outlet that reported it.
1. Irv Gordon’s 1966 Volvo P1800
Gordon was teaching on Long Island, New York, when he paid $4,150 for his cherry red coupe on Friday, June 30, 1966. That was about a year’s salary. Then he drove 1,500 miles over the first weekend, so the car went in for its first service the following Monday.
According to Volvo Cars’ own account, the Irv Gordon Volvo reached 1 million miles by 1987, 2 million in 2002 and 3 million in 2013 on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. In fact, the engine was rebuilt twice but never replaced. When Gordon died in November 2018, the odometer read 3,260,257 miles. Volvo now owns the car.
2. 1976 Mercedes-Benz 240D
Gregorios Sahinidis brought this 240D home from Germany with his brother in 1981, when it was already about four years old. After that, he ran it as a taxi in Thessaloniki, Greece, for 23 years.
Greek City Times reports that he covered more than 4.6 million kilometres, which is over 2.8 million miles. The diesel also carried humanitarian goods to Serbia almost 400 times. Mercedes-Benz then asked him to donate the car to its Stuttgart museum. He handed it over in 2004 and received a new C200 CDI in exchange.
3. 1989 Saab 900 SPG
Peter Gilbert of Glendale worked as a traveling salesman, and his 900 SPG was his road car. It took 17 years to reach the million-mile mark. It finished at 1,001,385 miles.
According to Saabplanet, most of the car is original equipment. However, the transmission was rebuilt at 200,000 miles. The hood and a few other parts were also replaced after eight run-ins with deer. Saab verified the mileage before Gilbert gave the car to the Wisconsin Automotive Museum.
4. 1964 Porsche 356
A buyer collected this Bali Blue 356 at the factory in Stuttgart, but he kept it only about three months. Guy Newmark’s father bought it next. Later, the car became Newmark’s college graduation present, and the family calls it “Blu.”
The Drive reported in November 2016 that the daily driver had crossed 1 million miles. By then, the engine had been rebuilt three times. Meanwhile, the original transmission lasted about 900,000 miles before it was replaced. Newmark has never missed a 3,000-mile service, the outlet says.
5. 2006 Chevrolet Silverado 3500 HD
Tammy Pennington started a business to help after Hurricane Katrina. She and her husband, Hugh, a retired GM Delphi worker, bought this heavy-duty Chevy new in Georgia in 2006 to haul FEMA trailers.
Autoblog reported in 2013 that the truck hit 1 million miles in six years. A year after that, Hugh said it read about 1,220,935 miles. The couple averaged more than 500 miles a day, towing trailers, campers and their boat across Canada and the U.S. Meanwhile, they watched a small oil leak by checking the level often.
6. 2006 Toyota Highlander Hybrid
Mark Miller lives in Bonita Springs, Florida, and runs an asphalt paving business. He drove his 2006 Highlander Hybrid for 16 to 17 years and put more than 1 million miles on it.
Then Hurricane Ian flooded his home in September 2022 and destroyed the SUV. Toyota’s March 2023 release says Germain Toyota of Naples stepped in with a replacement. Miller got a new 2023 Highlander Hybrid Bronze Edition in cement grey, delivered with a giant red bow on it.
7. 2013 Hyundai Elantra
Farrah Haines of Olathe, Kansas, delivered auto parts for a living. Her gray 2013 Elantra reached 1 million miles in five years, on its original powertrain. That works out to about 200,000 miles a year.
Because the odometer stops at 999,999, Hyundai replaced the odometer, Autoblog reported in December 2018. It also made its first 1 Million Mile Emblem for the cluster. Its engineers also checked casting numbers, service records and Carfax reports to confirm the total. Finally, Hyundai gave Haines a new red 2019 Elantra.
8. 2007 Toyota Tundra
Victor Sheppard of Houma, Louisiana, drove long-haul trips to North Dakota, Wyoming and Virginia for work. His 2007 Tundra was one of the first built at Toyota’s San Antonio, Texas, plant. It averaged about 125,000 miles a year.
According to Toyota’s May 2016 release, the truck passed 1 million miles on its original engine, transmission and paint, after 117 dealer service visits. On May 11, 2016, Toyota swapped it for a new 2016 Tundra at Greg Leblanc Toyota in Houma. Chief engineer Mike Sweers and his team then planned to take the old truck apart to study how its parts held up.
More from Fast Lane Only
