Old Volvo with nearly 3 million miles on it

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20120709/D9VTCT481.html

Apologies if this has been posted.

Motor is original, but has been overhauled twice.

something to be said for keeping up with the maintance

And, he is obviously very good at defensive driving! The flippant thought entered my mind that at 2,999,999.9 miles he gets clobbered by a drunk driver. Heh, heh.

I’ve had a couple cars approaching 500,000 and the question I have to ask is WHY? A trunk full of parts? Why put yourself through that? So you can save money and give it to the kids? I can understand if you live in Cuba, but really, in the US?

I have the same question, but there are fanatics of all types. Some paint their house in the colors of their favorite football team, some maintain a Volvo to this extent…

My uncle bought a VW Van back in the early 60’s much to the chagrin of my aunt. She insisted that they carry a spare engine with them since they were traveling from the east coast to the west coast and back. They discovered that the van had little power in the Rockies and the heater was a heater in name only. My uncle sold the spare engine a few years later and actually made a profit on it. My aunt never trusted the van even though it made the nearly 5,000 mile trip without a hiccup from the original engine.

What’s amazing to me is that the law of averages about collisions hasn’t caught him yet. By the time most cars are 6-8 years old many of them have been whacked to one degree or the other.

@ok4450 "What’s amazing to me is that the law of averages about collisions hasn’t caught him yet. By the time most cars are 6-8 years old many of them have been whacked to one degree or the other. "

In my experience he would need to get new tires, brakes, get a paint job, maybe new glass, and some transmission work. Then it would be wacked for sure.

Having spent considerable time while traveling many miles in cars but not anywhere near what has been described about the Volvo, I believe that the Volvo owner can say just before he closes his eyes for the last time: There! I did it! I spent most of my life in a car.

think he’ll ask to be buried in it?

I hope the guy doesn’t ever try out a new car and find out what he’s been missing all those years when its too late to do much about it.

OCD / hoarder traits ?

“It was $10 extra, and at that time, $10 was a lot. But an AM/FM radio was a big deal,” he said."

No it wasn’t a lot. If the car was $4,150 and radio was $10, that is like buying a $41,150 car and paying $100 for a radio today. So, no, it was not a lot, spare me your “humble” schtick.

Groucho Marx’s guest said he had 13 kids, then added that he loved his wife. Groucho replied that he loved his cigar but took it out of his mouth occasionally… It does sound like the owner loved his car so much he just couldn’t get enough of it. His car was likely much cheaper than 13 kids. To each his own, as they say.

Used to gander at the odometers on Volvo 240s in the carlot junkyards,looked like the average lifespan was about 130K,shows what love and TLC can do.I wonder what some of the cars in Cuba have on em(BTW,isn’t it about time we lifted the embargo on Cuba?)-Kevin PS -The 1800 is a pretty cool looking car