The World's Highest-Mileage Car (2024)

When you buy a new car, it’s only natural to think about how long you’ll be driving it before it finally stops, or it becomes time to sell. For some cars, this number reaches the million miles mark, and believe it or not there are a few cars that have far surpassed even that mammoth mileage.

While there may be a few cars capable of making it to seven-figure miles, there is always one car that stands out from the rest and that car belonged to a man who lived and breathed driving; Irv Gordon and his Volvo P1800S, covering an enormous 3,250,257 miles.

We’re talking an average of over 60,000 miles a year for personal use (not business use) for over 50 years. When he bought the car back in 1966, he picked it up on a Friday afternoon and by Monday morning he was back at the dealership for the car’s first service at 1,500 miles.

The Three Million Mile Car

A Life Spent Behind The Wheel

Three million miles is no mere feat, especially for a small sports car from 1966, but that didn’t stop this Volvo P1800S from ticking along mile after mile for 52 years. Its owner, Irv Gordon, bought the car when he was 25, paying a whole year’s salary of $4,150 and unknowingly taking the first step in what would become a history-making adventure.

For the next five decades, Irv drove as much as possible, covering the equivalent of 120 laps of the planet or seven round trips to the moon in his little Volvo, breaking and re-breaking his record three times to stand out as the all-time highest mileage car in the world. His daily commute to and from his middle-school teaching job was 125 miles, but to hit the massive milestone of three million miles he was averaging just over 170 miles every single day.

In the words of Irv himself, there was always somewhere to go, and the drive was part of the pleasure of adventure for him, so the miles added up fairly easily.

The Car That Drove Three Million Miles

Looking at the Volvo P1800S, you wouldn’t guess that such a modest and compact sports car was capable of the immense feat of reaching over three million miles. However, everything seemed to click when Volvo moved production to Sweden in 1963.

Originally produced in England, the shift to Sweden to manufacture the 1800S (S indicating the new location they chose to build the cars) worked out for Volvo with the sporty 1.8-liter four-cylinder managing to surpass all other cars for durability and longevity. Possibly the most impressive part of this car is the strength of the transmission, with the four-speed manual surviving the entire 3,250,000 miles without breaking down, something that is unheard of with today’s cars.

While the engine had a rebuild at 675,000 miles and again just shy of three million miles, the engine block itself was still original which gives credit to the team behind the engineering at Volvo. With zero at-fault accidents during its lifespan and only regular maintenance work keeping it running for so long, it begs the question; was it the car or was it the meticulous care of the driver, Irv?

Performance Specifications

(Data was collected from Volvo and Carinfo)

Was It Car Or Was It Driver?

The Car

With only one Volvo P1800 managing to get such a high number of miles, it makes you wonder if there was something unique about Irv’s car in particular. While typical problems to expect from the Volvo are rust, fuel leaks, and electrical issues, this is not at all surprising and you would expect these problems to occur in any car with high mileage.

It’s when you look at the numbers that things get really impressive, and in part because of Irv’s strict maintenance schedule. Ensuring he kept his car running as well as when he bought it, Irv had some rules he abided by; no eating or drinking in the car, no one else was to drive the car but him, and (believe it or not) he followed the service manual’s recommendations for maintenance. 52 years of driving anything is impressive, let alone a car that has traveled so far, and the numbers are mind-boggling.

• Original gearbox and transmission: 3,250,257 miles
• Original engine: 675,000 before rebuild
• Original clutch: 450,000 miles
• 130,000 gallons of gasoline
• 3,714 quarts of oil
• 928 oil filters
• 520 spark plugs
• 180 tires

The Driver

For the first 500,000 miles of ownership, the Volvo P1800S didn’t need a single repair; likely due to Irv’s meticulous maintenance and careful driving. When he booked it in for its first engine rebuild, the Volvo mechanics said it wasn’t needed as there was nothing wrong with it, but in the spirit of preventative maintenance, Irv went ahead anyway and gave the car another two million miles of life (before the second engine rebuild).

If there was ever a man destined for driving three million miles, it was Irv; in fact, he drove quite a lot more. Volvo gifted Irv two cars during his record-setting streak; a 780 Bertone coupe in 1987 when he hit one million miles, which he drove for 450,000 miles before selling, and a fully loaded C70 coupe in 2002 when he hit two million miles, which he then put a tidy 130,000 miles on. In total Irv drove Volvo’s for just shy of four million miles, so he was always going to be setting a record one way or another.

Over his P1800S’ 3,250,000 miles (and change), Irv would have burned through over 130,000 gallons of gasoline at the modest 25 miles per gallon he squeezed out of the Volvo, but this means for a car that he paid just over $4,000 for in 1966, he would have spent around $187,000 on gasoline across the 52 years he drove his P1800S (based on historical gas prices).

The Mercedes Mileage Machine (In Second Place)

The 240D, Mercedes-Benz's Crown Jewel

Unlike the Volvo P1800S, the second-highest mileage of all time is held by a taxi driver whose car was used entirely for business, a 1976 Mercedes-Benz 240D by a man named Gregorios Sachinidis who drove 2,850,000 miles. Mercedes-Benz is known for making cars that will happily stay on the road deep into the hundreds of thousands of miles, with multiple models hitting the million-mile mark.

Gregorios’ 240D isn’t even the only one to pass one million. One thing that holds true across these models is that hitting large milestones seems very straightforward; keep up with oil changes and maintenance and Mercedes-Benz’s excellent engineering does the rest.

Performance Specifications

(Data was collected from Mercedes-Benz)

Where Is It Now?

After reaching such a significant milestone in just 28 years compared to Irv Gordon’s 52 in his Volvo, you would assume Gregorios would be on track to far surpass the record (although it would be a separate record as it is business mileage). However, in recognition of his achievement, Gregorios donated his Mercedes-Benz 240D to display in the Daimler-Benz museum in Stuttgart, and in return they gifted him a brand new C-Class as thanks.

If he had kept driving the car at 100,000 miles a year, the odometer would be just about to hit the five million miles mark, assuming it was still running as smoothly as it had for its 28 years on the road.

Another impressive example of Mercedes engineering is Magnus Sæle’s 1991 E-Class W124 which clocked up 2.1 million miles during his taxi driving career. However, at 86 years of age, he is enjoying not having to drive around quite as much as in the past and his W124 is showing signs of its age and distance with some rust damage and wear and tear slowing it down in recent years.

The Future Of Mileage Monsters

Can Anyone Surpass The P1800S?

Since setting his records, no one has come close to overtaking Irv Gordon for non-business miles, and as time passes the likelihood decreases as cars become more complex and replaceable. While some cars have raced to the million miles mark, few have managed to keep up with the demands that put on a car and it begs the question of whether it is even possible to exceed the record.

This is even further put into question as electric cars increase in popularity, while some models should last more than 300,000 miles, no one is really sure how long they can keep driving. Some of the million-mile cars have also had significant work done, like the 1.5 million-mile Tacoma which had the engine and transmission fully replaced, so like Theseus’ ship; is it still the same car? Should having a stock engine or stock body be the qualifier?

However you decide to measure the highest mileage car in the world, it’s clear that Irv Gordon’s impressive Guinness record is going to stand for many years and he leaves behind an incredible legacy of driving and a great example of how looking after your car will pay you back tenfold.

While Irv was a man dedicated to his car and the enjoyment of driving (he sadly passed in 2018), his impressive odometer record begs the question; was it the man, or was it the car? With the next-best vehicles coming in at 2.8 and 2.1 million miles, there’s something in Irv’s record that stands out from the rest.

Another factor to consider is that Irv set his record initially in 1998 and re-set it again in 2014, yet since then no one has topped it or even surpassed the three million miles mark. Ten years on from setting such an impressive record, we’re taking a deep dive into the man, the myth, the car legend, and his outstanding Volvo P1800S.