This venerable Volvo won’t get off the road.
Long Islander Irvin Gordon bought the P1800 in 1966 and since then has driven more than 3 million miles in the cherry red beauty.
The 74-year-old retired schoolteacher from East Patchogue fell in love with the car during a test drive and plunked down about $4,000 to buy the convertible.
“I just couldn’t get out of the car. I was having such a good time. I spent all Friday night, all day Saturday, all day Sunday and came back Monday for a 1,500-mile check-up,” he said about his beloved car, according to Barcroft Media.
Gordon cares for the car like a parent would a newborn child. Over the years, he’s gotten 857 oil changes, 30 drive belts and 120 bottles of transmission fluid — and thanks to all of this maintenance, the car has never broken down.
“Most people think it’s crazy that I’ve clocked up so many miles, but driving is my drug of choice,” he said. “Where other people get rid of their cars after a few years, I’ve never got tired of mine. I used to go on driving holidays and had a 125-mile commute to work every day, so the miles just added up.”
The globetrotter, who averages 60,000 miles a year, has driven through the US, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France, Holland, Canada and Mexico.
Gordon hit 500,000 miles in 1976 and celebrated a million miles in 1987 by driving around Tavern on the Green in Central Park. He made the Guinness Book of World Records in 1998 at 1.69 million miles — for most miles driven by a single owner of a noncommercial vehicle.
In 2002, he hit 2 million miles, and marked 3 million miles in September 2013.
“I’m sure I’ll feel very bad once I find out how much I’ve spent on maintaining the car — I spent thousands of dollars every year on gasoline,” the divorced driver said.
“My friends used to think I was slightly nuts for driving as much as I do, but now that I am getting all of this attention for my Volvo, they are very impressed.”
To put his mileage in perspective, he drove the equivalent of about 120 times around the Earth — or six times back and forth to the moon.
“I don’t see my ex-wife or my kids. I can’t say if that is because of the driving,” he said.
