High miles?

westwood68

For those who are scared of high mileage vehicles, the record holder has hit the next great milestone:-

http://classics.honestjohn.co.uk/news/general-news/2013-09/volvo-p1800-reaches-3-million-miles/

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/18/irv-gordon-has-driven-nearly-3-million-miles-in-his-1966-volvo-1800s/?_r=0

"He’s done all that on the original engine, although Mr. Gordon has had it overhauled twice, at the 680,000-mile mark and again at nearly 2 million miles."

jase1

Petrol as well -- punching yet another hole in the tired old cliche that diesels run for more miles than petrol engines.

westwood68

Petrol or Diesel is irrelevant. Regular servicing and good engineering are everything.

All early Volvo petrol engines would rack up very high miles if well serviced:-

http://www.volvoclub.org.uk/miles.shtml

http://www.volvoclub.org.uk/highmileage/ov_section4.php

sirloyneofcowes

Puts my 144k vitara to shame doesn't it

OddballJamie

Second story I've read today about a P1800.

Lum

westwood68 wrote: »

Petrol or Diesel is irrelevant. Regular servicing and good engineering are everything.

All early Volvo petrol engines would rack up very high miles if well serviced

Could also be argued that the older simpler designs have fewer expensive things to go wrong and so it's more feasible to preserve them.

Retrogamer

There was an Era not so long ago where diesel engines were generally more reliable and lasted longer than petrol alternatives.

Lum

Retrogamer wrote: »

There was an Era not so long ago where diesel engines were generally more reliable and lasted longer than petrol alternatives.

Yes but the manufacturers fixed that problem by making sure that diesel engines became just as fussy and fragile as modern petrols, but they get 0.3MPG more than the older version, saving you a few hundred quid over your reduced ownership period, so it's win/win right?

jase1

Retrogamer wrote: »

There was an Era not so long ago where diesel engines were generally more reliable and lasted longer than petrol alternatives.

This was always a myth.

Even 20 years ago, the Japanese petrol engines massively outlasted the cars they were put into. The only reason it appears that diesels are longer-lasting is that they were chosen for high-mileage applications due to economy -- a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Those Japanese petrol engines would easily keep up with the diesels, when driven in the same way. You want proof? Have a look at all the ancient Jap 2l cars in the US and Australia with 3-400,000 miles and still purring like a kitten.

Lum

Well it was true for a brief period 10 years ago when petrols started getting massively complicated, but the diesels have caught up now.

*goes outside to look smugly at her 20 year old Japanese petrol engined car*

mad_rich

3 million miles since 1966? Including 1 million since 2002?

Hmm. Something sounds a bit fishy there.

That last million has come at a rate of [strike]77,000[/strike] 90,000 miles per year - nearly [strike]1,500[/strike] 1,750 per week. Week in, week out for 11 years.

You're not going to get an average of more than 50mph, so that's a minimum [strike]30[/strike] 35 hours a week. Every week. For 11 years.

Really?

Edit: Got my sums wrong. It's even more implausible now!