three million mile Volvo: Long Island man’s P1800S won’t abandon
Trio million mile Volvo possessed by a Long Island schoolteacher already holds the world record for the highest recorded mileage on a car, but Irvin Gordon’s beloved Volvo is expected to hit the three million mile mark sometime next year.
By Bradley Klapper , Associated Press July 9, two thousand twelve
Bay Shore, N.Y. — It just keeps going, and going, and going. No, it’s not a battery. It’s Irvin Gordon’s one thousand nine hundred sixty six Volvo P1800S.
Gordon’s puny, crimson two-door has well more than two million miles on the odometer, the equivalent of almost 1,176 times across the globe.
The retired schoolteacher from Long Island hopes to reach the three million mile mark by next year. He only has 34,000 miles to go.
The 72-year-old Gordon drives his Volvo everywhere. He has held the Guinness World Records mark for High Mileage Vehicle since two thousand two and was the very first person to hold that record.
“It’s just a car I love driving,” he said.
He bought his beloved car on June 30, 1966, for $Four,150 at the age of 25. “It was a entire year’s salary,” he said.
Gordon originally dreamed the convertible Volvo with air conditioning, but it was too expensive. He paid extra to have an AM/FM radio, tho’.
“It was $Ten extra, and at that time, $Ten was a lot. But an AM/FM radio was a big deal,” he said.
Gordon’s car has just enough room for him and his essentials. His front bumper is packed with pins of his mileage achievements. Even his license plate says “MILNMILER.” And his trunk overflows with the many car parts he thinks he might need when on the road.
“I have a set of everything,” he said. “If I have it, then I am not going to need it.”
Gordon has been taking road trips since he was a kid and continued through his adult years. He says he would just tell his family to pack their things and hit the road. Gordon’s two daughters went on his road trips until they outgrew the little crimson car.
“They just couldn’t fit in the back anymore. That is when I bought the station wagon,” he explained. “Volvo, of course.”
His odometer doesn’t have enough digits to display the actual mileage, but Gordon has tune-up records verifying it.
Now divorced, Gordon takes road trips alone. With trips to Montreal, Texas and Michigan in just the last month, the last gam of his excursion should not be too hard. It took him twenty one years to reach the very first million miles and fifteen more years to reach two million. Gordon averages 85,000 to 100,000 miles per year. Most of his trips are for auto shows, but he also takes trips across the country just for a good cup of coffee.
“I have had coffee in every state,” Gordon said. “I am my own travel channel.”
The avid driver believes in taking care of his car, and he doesn’t let anyone else drive it.
“That’s why I bought my chicks their own cars,” he said.
Jordan Weine is a mechanic at Bay Diagnostic, an auto shop based in Brooklyn and a Volvo accomplished. He says because Gordon takes care of his car, he is able to get high mileage without much switch to the car’s original mechanics. The car still has the original engine, however it was rebuilt twice in the car’s lifetime.
“How high does a redwood grow? If it is not messed with, it will grow,” said Weine, who hasn’t worked on Gordon’s car. “And there are very few redwood trees and the same goes with this. There are very few people that can achieve three million miles.”
It is clear that Gordon loves his car and he can’t imagine getting rid of it.
“Why would I want to get rid of it?” he asked. “Kind of like a good woman.”
Gordon’s car has brought him fame. Joe Brusack, a mechanic who worked on his car when it was on its millionth mile more than twenty years ago, said it’s come a long way.
“I think it was just amazing that he got this far,” he said.
Gordon himself is astonished every time he gets into his car and edges closer to his three million mile objective. But the miles have taken a toll on the car. Recently, some black tar got into the car’s carburetor. He has to get that stationary before he can hit the road again.
Volvo has sent Gordon to trips around the country and the world to represent Volvo in auto shows.
“I don’t think (just) any car could do it,” said John Maloney, president and CEO of Volvo Cars of North America. “It is a combination of a car beloved by his possessor that has gotten Irv to this mileage.”
Gordon thinks that his Volvo will last way longer than three million miles.
“I have a feeling I’ll be dead long before the car.”