FA+
Shop
Now this is funny, and heartwarming...
15 years ago
General
How do you get your car to go 562,000 miles? Just ask Rachel Veitch, a 91-year-old great-great-grandmother who is still driving a 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente her husband purchased for her brand new.
WWLP News in Milwaukee interviewed Veitch, who showed them all the service reports and her lifetime guarantees on shocks, batteries and mufflers. She bought a lifetime guarantee on a battery from JC Penney, and so she's gotten 18 free batteries from the company.
Although it's a fabulous story, it also illustrates part of why Mercury is dying. The brand lost its individuality over the years, and many of its fans were older folks. Mercury is expected to end production in November.
Still, Vietch's Comet is pretty cool. She claims she drove it once at 120 mph "just for a mile", and had to have cruise control installed because she kept getting speeding tickets.
-- Sharon Silke Carty/Drive On
And another old driver story...
The driver of the highest mileage vehicle on the road turns 70 years old today (it's longevity day here on Drive On, if you haven't noticed) and Volvo is helping him celebrate.
Irv Gordon's red 1966 Volvo P1800 has 2.8 million miles on it, and the septuaganarian says he wants to reach 3 million miles by his 73rd birthday.
"Three million miles is an iron clad number that I'd like to think sits right up there with DiMaggio's consecutive game hitting streak," Gordon said. "Who's going to beat that? No one."
Back in 1966, Gordon, a retired science teacher from East Patchogue, N.Y., drove 1,500 miles in the first 48 hours of owning his Volvo. He made the Guinness Book of World Records in 1998 when he hit 1.69 million miles, Volvo said in a congratulatory press release today.
Gordon says he's not sure what he'll do once he hits 3 million miles, but he'd considering selling it for $1 for every mile on the odometer.
"I used to think I'd park it in a museum where people will get to enjoy seeing the car that beat the odds - all with the same engine, same radio, same axles, same transmission and of course the same driver," Gordon said. "Now I think, 'no way.' I'll either keep driving it or sell it for $3 million."
-- Sharon Silke Carty/Drive On
WWLP News in Milwaukee interviewed Veitch, who showed them all the service reports and her lifetime guarantees on shocks, batteries and mufflers. She bought a lifetime guarantee on a battery from JC Penney, and so she's gotten 18 free batteries from the company.
Although it's a fabulous story, it also illustrates part of why Mercury is dying. The brand lost its individuality over the years, and many of its fans were older folks. Mercury is expected to end production in November.
Still, Vietch's Comet is pretty cool. She claims she drove it once at 120 mph "just for a mile", and had to have cruise control installed because she kept getting speeding tickets.
-- Sharon Silke Carty/Drive On
And another old driver story...
The driver of the highest mileage vehicle on the road turns 70 years old today (it's longevity day here on Drive On, if you haven't noticed) and Volvo is helping him celebrate.
Irv Gordon's red 1966 Volvo P1800 has 2.8 million miles on it, and the septuaganarian says he wants to reach 3 million miles by his 73rd birthday.
"Three million miles is an iron clad number that I'd like to think sits right up there with DiMaggio's consecutive game hitting streak," Gordon said. "Who's going to beat that? No one."
Back in 1966, Gordon, a retired science teacher from East Patchogue, N.Y., drove 1,500 miles in the first 48 hours of owning his Volvo. He made the Guinness Book of World Records in 1998 when he hit 1.69 million miles, Volvo said in a congratulatory press release today.
Gordon says he's not sure what he'll do once he hits 3 million miles, but he'd considering selling it for $1 for every mile on the odometer.
"I used to think I'd park it in a museum where people will get to enjoy seeing the car that beat the odds - all with the same engine, same radio, same axles, same transmission and of course the same driver," Gordon said. "Now I think, 'no way.' I'll either keep driving it or sell it for $3 million."
-- Sharon Silke Carty/Drive On
