High Mileage cars

[Robert I.]

Saw this article:

http://autos.aol.com/article/rachel-veitch-old-car

Everybody seems to have very low mileage, numbers matching cars.

Just wondered if there were any real high mileage cars out there?

My 62 has 265,000 on it.

Isn't there anybody else who actually liked to drive the cars?

[Mike M.]

Re: High Mileage cars

57 vin 1093 had 252,000 miles on it when i bought it in 1970. i then put about 25,000 miles on it till it was put on back burner in 1978. just finished restoring it. it was rough. it'lll be in Marlboro this weekend. mike

[Michael W.]

Re: High Mileage cars

Saw this article:

Everybody seems to have very low mileage, numbers matching cars.

'Seems' is an excellent choice of words Robert.

[Sandra H.]

Re: High Mileage cars

My '62 accumulated 100,000 miles in the 17 years it was on the road.
Sandy

[Jim T.]

Re: High Mileage cars

"seems" reminds me of my good friends 65 327/365 Corvette that was the frist one I ever drove and he sold because of marriage later. He saw his ole Corvette years later with the owner at a Chevrolet dealership and was checking it out to see if it was the one he owned. The owner remarked about the Corvette's low mileage. My friend then told the owner he used to own it and told the owner to add at least 100,000 to the mileage. My friend worked out of town a lot and put a lot of miles on his 65 when he owned it.

[Russ U.]

Re: High Mileage cars

High mileage cars work for me. These cars can just go forever with a bit of TLC.

My 1953 #276 has more than 300k miles on it. I don't know the exact number, but #276 had 270k miles in 1968-69 when Corvette News did the survey of 1953 owners. The same guy, Dave Elie, owned the car for 50 years, and drove it everywhere. Dave was a ski coach, and #276 was his ski car. The body is unhit and the frame is rust free. I suspect 53 #276 had about 350k miles based on the usage I can see since the late 60s.

I freshened up all of the mechanicals, and now drive the car every chance I get. I put 1600 miles on it this summer. The car has a 261 truck block six banger (195hp) mated to a Corvette 4 speed. I even put the circa 1965 four track tape player back in the car. 53 #276 is a blast to drive - and gets a tons of looks and smiles notwithstanding its now well worn outward appearance. Here is the complete history of 53 #276.





My 59 Corvette only has about 245k miles on it. The original owner, a gal, put 230k miles on it. She had a ton of fun in the car - she was in the Hollywood scene in the early to mid-1960s. So people like Sammy Davis Junior have been for rides in the car. My mechanic is just now finishing a complete mechanical freshening of this car (new date correct 283 block, rebuilt tranny, etc). I put about 3000 miles a year on the 59, but hope it can take on a greater share of my driving in the future. Here is the complete history of my 59.




Russ
EarlyCorvettes.com

[Roy B.]

Re: High Mileage cars

The old Corvettes roll over to (0) after 10000 so then the person can say it only has 10,000 mile on it or more or less.
I now can say it has only 17,000 now being a vary rare low mileage 55 , ant that sweet!!!

[Jeffrey S.]

Re: High Mileage cars

In Jan. 1976 my wife and I moved from New York City to Detroit and I drove my '69 and she drove her '69 Olds on the move. In a blizzard in Ohio my odometer stopped working. It froze at 61,999 and it remains there today. For the next 15 years I drove the car as my daily transportation so if I say I put on an average 12,000 mile a year the car had 240,000+ miles in 1991. After that I only used it summers and in good weather so at 1000 miles per year I would expect that I now have about 260,000 miles on the car. Just normal maintenance.
Jeff

[Tom L.]

Re: High Mileage cars

My '72's odometer reads 28,000, I'm pretty sure that it is 128,000.

Thats only about 3450 mlies per year. I'd say that's a low milage car!

[Ridge K.]

Re: High Mileage cars

In 1971, I went to work at a high-volume dealership as an auto detailer. Approximately 50 used cars per month came into the dealership. Back in the early 1970s, like many other states, rolling back the mileage on cars was perfectly legal. The law changed in Oklahoma, sometime around 1980 (possibly a little earlier). I would estimate that somewhere between 35% to 45% or so of the used cars coming into this dealership, had their miles rolled back. Sometimes I was given the assignment of taking the car to an independent speedometer repair shop, to have the mileage rolled back. If I remember correctly, the charge was $25 per car.
As a general rule, the public was unaware that this was going on at virtually every dealership in the state (in the early 1970s).
How many vintage Corvettes had their mileage rolled back in that era? who knows...
Lastly, one of the tell-tale signs of low mileage on GM automobiles from the 1950s and 1960s, was "did they still have the original front control arm (A-frame) ball joints". I had more experience with mid 1960's musclecars, but I can tell you that none of them had ball joints still usable after about 75,000 miles.

IMHO Ridge