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.
What’s with you guys rarely ever changing your oil???
Doesn’t count because there is no gravity on the moon so the tires will not wear, there is no wind resistence to effect gas mileage, there are no other cars to stop for and no rain to rust the body.
ping...
From www.TheAutoChannel.com:
The current Mercedes-Benz High Mileage champ is Gregorios Sachinidis, a Greek taxi driver who holds the known record of more than 2.8 million miles in his 1976 Mercedes-Benz 240D. The latest Mercedes to be recognized for surpassing the one-million-mile mark is a 1970 280SE acquired for the Mercedes-Benz Museum Collection from its original owners, George and Luzstella Koschel of Orange County, Calif. The Koschels had bought the car new and drove it for 1,019,000 miles.
My Dodge is at 215K and still uses less than a quart between oil changes (5,000 miles).
You can see Dodges with Cummins engines on Fleabay with over 1 million miles pretty frequently. There was a write-up in the Turbo Diesel Register magazine about a guy that had 1.1x million miles on his before he put it in reserve status. He pulled boats from manufacturer to dealer.
LOL! Kinda like saying "after 35 years, I'm still married!" not mentioning that your 4 prior wives divorced you and you've only been with the current one for 6 months.......
We use technology that has been around since 1972. Synthetic oil combined with proper filtration.
The particular oil I use is good for 35,000 miles or a year.
I've used this and previous oils, good for 25,000 miles since I found out about them in 1976 in many vehicles of all US brands and several foreign.
Wonder how long the Canadian Armed Forces version will last... they are called “Milverado”...
I remember about 30 years ago Volvo was advertising high mileage that their cars were achieving: 300,000 up to 1 million. They had pix of the customers and the cars in the ads. What happened?
For PR purposes, Chevy ought to star him in a commercial and buy him a brand new truck.
Those are great on Jeep Wranglers!
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