I think it's an official record breaker... It was a Mercedes...

Article from "Chicago Magazine":
http://www.chicagomag.com/people/1001expert.htm


From the "Columbus Dispatch" 8/13/93
Irv Gordon has put a few miles on his Volvo over the years - enough to travel at least twice to the moon round-trip.

Unofficially the most durable car in the world, Gordon's Volvo P1800S has hit the 1,260,000-milemark - that's million - and appears to only run better the farther its driven.

Gordon, a middle-school teacher, made a spontaneous pit stop early yesterday at Segna Motors, 2265 W. Dublin-Granville Rd., while driving across the country.

"This car just amazes me. I make trips now just to see how long it will take before it starts to leave pieces on the highway," Gordon said. The car, which has been repainted four times, appears to be rust-free.

Long car trips are part of Gordon's life. He drives, just for fun, an average of 50,000 miles a year. He keeps records, which are verified by the Volvo company, of miles logged.

Gordon left his Patchogue, N.Y. home Monday for a road trip to the annual meeting of a Volvo owner's club in Flagstaff, Ariz. The meeting begins August 27 and he occassionally will stop at Volvo dealerships and parts stores along the way.

The fiery red car still has the same transmission and master cylinder it had when Gordon bought the car new in June 1966. It has most of the original engine parts, although he said the engine was rebuilt after 675,000 miles.

"The car has been great; it's never failed to start," he said.

The key to making a car last a million miles is to keep up on maintenance, Gordon said. Every 3,500 miles he changes the oil; the belts are changed every 100,000 miles.

Gordon appears to have broken a world record for the highest mileage, although his name does not appear in the 1993 Guinness Book of World Records because he's never turned it in.

The highest recorded mileage listed in the book is held by the owner of a Mercedes 180D that reached 1,184,880 miles in 1978.

Gordon has a 16-year-old daughter who is ready to learn to drive.

She won't be practicing in the million-mile Volvo. "No one drives this car but me," he said. "She can drive one of my other four Volvos."