Posted on 02/12/2008 6:29:16 AM PST by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
Frank Oresnik's trusty pickup truck — he calls it "the old girl" — passed the 1 million-mile mark with a camera crew filming the event and a public-radio audience listening in. "I can't tell you how much fun it was," he said. "It was really humbling, all this interest."
Recent news stories told how Oresnik had just 1,200 miles to go before reaching the milestone in the 1991 Chevrolet Silverado that he bought with 41,000 miles on it in 1996 and used in his business, distributing seafood and steaks in the upper Midwest.
At the time, he was getting his latest oil change — the kind of regular maintenance he credits with helping to keep the truck going so long.
He said he's had the truck's oil changed more than 300 times. It's had so many changes that the oil pan drain plug had to be rethreaded several times, he said, and "you never hear of that."
He passed the million-mile mark Friday in southeastern Wisconsin while on his way back home to Catawba, located in the north in Price County, about an hour west of Rhinelander. He was on County Highway V southeast of Fond du Lac.
On hand was a film crew from Chevrolet's public relations and advertising company, and he was speaking live to Robert Siegel, host of National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."
A news crew from CBS had been with him earlier in the day.
"I wont say it was relief ... it was exhilarating," Oresnik said later during a stop in Gresham where he has one of his longtime customers. "This truck has been so dependable over the years." Now that it's made history, the truck could be headed back to the automaker or Shell Oil. Oresnik said there's been some interested in GM or Shell Oil buying it.
Happens all the time, if you want to make a GM, motor live, put an oversize oil pan on it the day you buy it and a high pressure oil pump.
I read some blog where a guy posted that he had gone over a million miles in his Dodge diesel pickup. There must be a few of those around, with their Cummins engines. The 7.3 Fords seem to have the same kind of reputation.
Drain plug threads regularly went bad on older model US cars. I was a mechanic in the 70's and 80's and saw it dozens of times. And the manufacturers exacerbated tbe problem buy making the threads more coarse in the mistaken belief that it would solve the problem of threads being stripped.
Lots of people ended up using expanding rubber plugs, or aftermarket permanent ball valve plugs. It was much more common than this guy thinks. Today's cars seem (to me) to have a much higher quality drain plug than they did in the 60's and 70's vehicles that I mostly worked on.
I just passed 104,000 miles today on my ‘97 Mercury Tracer here in Germany (I probably own the only Mercury in the whole country, it seems like...). I have a ‘03 Saturn Ion at home that has around 33,000 miles on it. I drive a lot farther here than I did in the U.S. The local area in the U.S. was a radius of about 20 miles; here in Germany, that radius expands to about 100 miles. I drive at a rate of about 10,000 miles/year, while in the U.S., it was like 5,000 miles a year. And back home, I traveled about 22 miles roundtrip everyday to work and back. Here, I walk to work.
I loved the 7.3 and purposely passed on another diesel ( I do not consider any other make ) until the kinks are worked out of the 6.0. I am liking the new Fords however. I rode in a new Super Duty last weekend and it was sweat.
192,000 on my Geo Metro. OK, it had a replacement japanese market motor at 160, when I bought it. I am going to bet if I had it from the beginning it would still have the original engine. K&N oil filter keeps oil looking clean for at least 5,000 miles.
I think we’re around 108K on a 1989 GMC Suburban with a 454 engine. We’ve retired it as a daily driver now, though. just keeping it for towing and special trips. The ac needs rebuilding, but it seems to be fine otherwise.
There was a story a few years ago about a man in NC who had around 1,300,000 miles on his F-150.
89 Toyota pick up with 414,000 plus. Runs great. Has about 20,000 rough off road miles and the body is still very tight.
Replaced the head and timing chain recently but not the short block. Everything else original.
That was with 17 engine oil changes and two transaxle oil changes.
It still got 40 to 42 MPG, instead of the 38 Saturn claimed.
I think Ford decided to scrap the 6.0 and build their own engine, or maybe they will start building the 6.0s I guess it’s bad news for International, but it’ll be interesting to see what Ford does.
While can’t a centrifugal oil filter be used on a car or light truck like they are on large diesels under continuous operation?
If the odometer still works, you really haven’t used the truck very hard.
I thought I read something about that.
You know the Ford F-150 is the best selling, most popular truck of all time, and I believe has outsold every vehicle made in the U.S. for the past 20 years.
One of the advantages of that is the abundance of parts at fairly low prices. Back when I had an F-150, my insurance agent told me they were one of the least expensive vehicles to insure (collision) due to the low cost of parts.
Got 1.65 million miles on my 1975 Ford Maverick. It’s never got less than 56 miles per gallon. Ive had to change the oil twice but the tires are still good and the brakes are fair. Last year I did have to give up drag racing it on the weekends though. I sure wish they still made them like this!
I have a ‘99 chrysler concorde, bought with 30,000 miles on it that now has 214,000, and still on the original spark plugs. Runs great, uses no oil.
mine was an 88.
It was those kind of vehicles built at a time when the US made complete crap that gave Toyota the reputation it deserves today.
If i had that Supra sitting in my driveway in the condition i bought it in right now I would be one real happy person.
That was such a great episode!
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