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Tue Aug 12, 2008 3:06 pm

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2008/08/12/wooldridge.million.mile.car.ksnt

If this guy can get 1,000,000 miles out of a Lincoln, we have nothing to worry about keeping ours running for that long. I suppose some of the early busses have twice that by this point, but gives me faith I can let Ruby run for quite a bit longer.

Any idea as to who has put the most on their Vanagons? Aircooled or WBX?

Rob G

Tue Aug 12, 2008 3:10 pm

I remember this came up on the vanagon.com list a few years ago, and there were a couple reports of 500k+ vans.

Tue Aug 12, 2008 3:20 pm

I'm winning so far! Just passed 288,000 this weekend. Only 5000 or so by me, but I'll get it over the 300k mark eventually...

Tue Aug 12, 2008 3:30 pm

The Vanagon group has a long way to go to catch up to NY's Irv Gordon and his 2.5+ million mile Volvo 1800.

Tue Aug 12, 2008 3:40 pm

loogy wrote: The Vanagon group has a long way to go to catch up to NY's Irv Gordon and his 2.5+ million mile Volvo 1800.

dude, volvos will win every time in this contest.

I had 174k on my last one when I sold it and it ran like new.
when I was growing up we had 400k+ on our family station wagen 240...what a great car that was.

I bought my '86 in March...it has about 192k on it, only about 2k by me. Engine and trans were replaced in 2003 about 40k ago, and are doing well.

My old '83.5 only had 126k on it when I sold it, and only 7k on a new 2.1 wbx.

Tue Aug 12, 2008 4:25 pm

'85, I have 250K
'87, I have 160K

Can I add them up? :D

Tue Aug 12, 2008 5:07 pm

well... when i bought it in 5/06...
185K...
but when I get my Camper Special Kit from Jake in Sep and get that in...
the only thing not replaced or rebuilt will be the tranny...
and it was done 25K before I bought it...
since the restoration was finished...
10K

Tue Aug 12, 2008 5:36 pm

201,000, but only 16K by me. All good times, even back and forth to work, every day.

Tue Aug 12, 2008 6:56 pm

274k on my '87. Bought it at 130, all the rest driven by me. OEM engine went out at 160k, then an AVP longblock for almost 90k, the last 25k or so on two different experimental 2.2 waterboxers.

Tranny was replaced about 2-3 years ago, after a used replacement for the OEM that held up for a few years until it's 3-4 slider started to go, too, which was what killed the OEM box. The freeway flier from Bugtrans is doing very nicely, must have 30k or more on it.

Damn, I've been thru about everything else in the driveline.

Oh, and the '86 Syncro has about 170, I think. None of them by me. It's still sitting where we towed it three months ago. >Sigh<

Tue Aug 12, 2008 7:12 pm

Colin at the IAC has 500+ on his '73. Looks brand new, too. Beautiful. Just beautiful. I miss my '73 (scanned picture coming tonight).

Best,

Lanval

Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:45 pm

326K on mine, bought it in '91 with 60K. 3rd engine, 3rd tranny. Now I'm prepping it for a well earned (by the van) paint job.

Tue Aug 12, 2008 10:26 pm

2nd owner here, had almost 200K when I got it a few months ago. Now has 203K...No sign of letting up. 8)

Tue Aug 12, 2008 10:33 pm

I have just under 300K on a Syncro, somewhere around 250K on a Mulit, and an unknown number on an 83 1/2 with a worn out factory rebuild.

Did I say my wife drives a lot?

Tue Aug 12, 2008 10:36 pm

My '89 GL has about 220K at the moment. Dad bought it new in the summer of '89 and gave it to me as a graduation gift after high school (in '98 ). All of the miles have been driven by my dad or me. The engine and trans are original and have never been out. There have been several heads replaced so far including 2 done under warranty in the early '90s. If the fates and my checking account allow, when the WBX finally gives up the ghost in several years (I foolishly hope), I'll put a Bostig kit in the back and keep on driving.

Tue Aug 12, 2008 11:08 pm

Almost 200k miles on my 1.6NA Diesel Vanagon The last 110 by me on a poorly rebuilt original motor and the last 50k on a real nice rebuilt.
Clear back when the internet was new to me (1997 or 98) I corresponded with a British National living in the US who had a RHDrive Vanagon diesel. He had almost 600k miles on it I think. He'd driven it all over the western hemsiphere, and perhas some in the eastern before that. He'd been to Tierra Del Fuego. climbed some mountan road in Peru where he drove like 6 hours in second gear!
I lost the hard drive with those emails, unfortunately.
With regard to Volvos: I have a restorable 87 DL wagon, 5 speed, that I would just about give away. Way too nice a car to crush. I'm in Iowa.
Al

Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:20 am

327,008 before the odometer stopped 6 years ago in my '82 diesel westy
259,000 in my '89 wolfsburg gl
Do I get to add them together? :)

Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:28 am

captainpartytime wrote: 327,008 before the odometer stopped 6 years ago in my '82 diesel westy
259,000 in my '89 wolfsburg gl
Do I get to add them together? :)

:shock: wow

Wed Aug 13, 2008 8:21 am

Jamos wrote: loogy wrote: The Vanagon group has a long way to go to catch up to NY's Irv Gordon and his 2.5+ million mile Volvo 1800.

dude, volvos will win every time in this contest.

I had 174k on my last one when I sold it and it ran like new.
when I was growing up we had 400k+ on our family station wagen 240...what a great car that was.

I bought my '86 in March...it has about 192k on it, only about 2k by me. Engine and trans were replaced in 2003 about 40k ago, and are doing well.

My old '83.5 only had 126k on it when I sold it, and only 7k on a new 2.1 wbx.

Getting a lot of miles out of a car isn't really that mysterious- it's just a matter of doing all of the scheduled maintenance - religiously. There was a story a while back on CNN about high miles (can't remember how many but it was way over 200000) on a Ford Aspire without a single breakdown.
The thing is most people don't do the maintenance- it's amazing how many people I talk to change their oil maybe once or twice a year. Also people are led to believe that a cars life is over at 100,000 miles unless they want to start putting more money into it than it's worth. I guess that's one way to look at it. I always figured that a 1-2000 repair bill once a year or so is way cheaper than a new car- no matter what the car is worth.

Anyway, if your car keeps breaking down or having the same problem then obviously the root of the problem was never fixed. For instance- a good example is on the gowesty page where they describe why they always put in a new coolant system (new pipes etc) before installing a new engine. You can buy a new engine every few years when it keeps overheating and blame it on the age of the car or you can replace the coolant pipes and solve the problem.

Right now my Jeep has 190,000 miles on it (I bought it when it had 56000) and I haven't had any problems. I don't know how many miles are on my van because the odometer was broken for about 5 years before I bought it- right now it says 132000.

Wed Aug 13, 2008 8:33 am

captainpartytime wrote: 327,008 before the odometer stopped 6 years ago in my '82 diesel westy
259,000 in my '89 wolfsburg gl
Do I get to add them together? :)

Holy moly! We'll make a one time exception. Nicely done.

Wed Aug 13, 2008 8:40 am

Quote: captainpartytime wrote:
327,008 before the odometer stopped 6 years ago in my '82 diesel westy
259,000 in my '89 wolfsburg gl
Do I get to add them together? Smile

Holy moly! We'll make a one time exception. Nicely done.

O.K. then.... 586,008 it is! :shock: