Have Volvo, Will Travel (And Travel)
By AARON DONOVAN
Ed Betz for The New York Times Irv Gordon at the wheel of his Volvo P1800S. Nearly 2 million miles later, the 1966 model still hums. The Volvo P1800S received a medallion in 1987 to mark its one-millionth mile.
EAST PATCHOGUE, N.Y. -- A light, steady rain was falling and Irv Gordon's windshield had begun to fog, so he cracked his side window to chase away the humidity. The light at Montauk Highway turned green and he shifted into first, the engine growling like new. He revved into second, accelerating through a left turn in heavy traffic. "No hesitations, no coughs, no sputters," he said. "I try to keep it that way."
The radio played Billy Joel's "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant." The odometer read 98,102 miles, a respectable number but one that barely hinted at the journey Mr. Gordon's shiny red 1966 Volvo has taken. In Mr. Gordon's travels, the five-digit odometer has reset itself to zero no fewer than 19 times.
If it had space for sixth and seventh digits, that odometer - quite a famous one, in some circles - would have read 1,998,102 miles, according to service records kept at Volvoville USA, the dealership in Massapequa, N.Y., where Mr. Gordon bought his car in 1966 and has had it regularly serviced since.
A retired middle school science teacher and divorced father of two, Mr. Gordon, 61, plans to see five zeroes again next month. He is carefully rationing his driving for six weeks so the odometer will record its two-millionth mile on March 27, as he drives through Times Square as part of Volvo's 75th anniversary celebration.
To be sure, that will only be the car's two-millionth recorded mile. His odometer cable has broken several times, and he said that over the years he has driven thousands of miles for which he received "no credit," meaning he is probably well past two million already. Now he keeps a spare odometer cable in the trunk. "I decided I'm not going to lose any more miles," he explained.
He has also had his odometer serviced. "For me, that's part of the maintenance, because the mileage is important to me," he said. After he dropped off the odometer in Mamaroneck last month, he had to drive back to his home here, on Long Island, without one - losing credit for the 75-mile trip.
In a world where the average car is scrapped after nine years, according to the AAA auto club, and where most owners of vintage cars keep them in storage, saving them for collectors' shows, parades and other special occasions, Mr. Gordon's Volvo P1800S is an anomaly. It has been in continual, heavy use for 36 years.
After all those years and some two million miles, Mr. Gordon is practically part of his car, his car practically part of him. "If I wasn't comfortable in this car, I wouldn't have taken it all the places it's been," he said.
And it's been to a lot of places - to all of the contiguous 48 states as well as 7 foreign countries: Canada, Mexico and 5 nations in Europe. (A British Volvo dealer flew the car across the Atlantic for an auto show.) Mr. Gordon and his P1800S have survived two accidents: it was rear-ended on the Long Island Expressway, and once, on Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania, a tractor-trailer accidentally latched onto the front bumper of the parked Volvo, inadvertently towing it several miles - with Mr. Gordon inside - until the truck went over a bump and the car was dislodged.
The secret to automotive longevity is routine maintenance, he said. "Most people don't take good care of their cars," he said, "but they expect a lot from them."
Mr. Gordon, however, takes meticulous care of his Volvo, whose vanity license plates read "Milnmilr." The paint gleams and all the moving parts are well lubricated. He has the oil changed every 3,000 to 3,500 miles, the spark plugs replaced every 20,000 ("it takes 15 minutes to do that") and the carburetors rebuilt every 900,000 miles ("whether they need it or not"). He inspects the brakes and transmission himself, and periodically examines all the hoses, belts and fluid levels. "I look for bubbles in hoses and anything that is showing signs of deterioration," he said. "It's easy."
The engine is spotless, like a show car's. Unlike a show car, the Volvo is kept outside. His garage is for his two "antique" cars, implying that the '66 has not achieved the status of his '29 Packard and '49 Crosley.
When he was teaching, Mr. Gordon drove the Volvo 50,000 to 90,000 miles a year, he said, much of it on the L.I.E., with a round-trip commute of 100-plus miles to Roslyn Middle School. Since retiring in 1996, he has increased his driving to about 100,000 miles a year. Long- haul interstate travel has become his full-time passion.
He first noticed that his mileage was higher than most when his car reached 250,000 miles. It was 1971, and he wrote a letter to Volvo. "This happened by accident, not by design," he said, referring to the remarkably high mileage, which is included in the Guinness Book of World Records as "the highest certified mileage driven by the original owner in noncommercial service."
In 1987, when Mr. Gordon's odometer ticked past one million miles, Volvo, thrilled with the publicity, gave him a brand-new red 780 coupe. In the 15 years since, he has driven that car just 250,000 miles while his '66 P1800S has gone another million.
How much of the car is original? The fenders and headlights, destroyed in the accidents, have been replaced. The engine was rebuilt in 1978, when the Volvo reached 680,000 miles. The fuel pump was replaced at 1.6 million. That's about it.
As for whether the P1800S will make it to three million, Mr. Gordon frames it as a question not for the car, but for himself. "By then I'll be getting Social Security," he said. "I'll be lucky to have my teeth and all my hair
