drivetofive

This guy and the blog are amazing. Purchased the car at 95,000 (from the original owner?) and has put over 400,000 himself and has documented every miles since he took possession.

It makes me wonder if I should do this with the Fit (since I drive 38-40k miles a year)!

 

Back at my old job back home in the metro Detroit area our shop bought a brand new 97' Safari mini-van for tool delivery. It would go about 1500 miles a week, mostly freeway to get to his stops. I was in charge of the maintence for all of our vans. We ran the that van for 8 years until we outsourced our delivery service and that thing went 656k, here's what it had done to it:

-80k the original oil pump was replaced

-THAT'S IT, as far engine/trans work!

The original radiator and water pump lasted a little over 300k. I had the cooling service done twice a year, so I guess that helped. The trans service was done every 30k but at first all I able to have done was the filter and gasket and about 4 quarts of fluid but then the Valvoline place got the T-tech machine and I would switch between that and the filter and gasket service. Once we got rid of the van I went back there and that van was in there 129 times over 8 years, all the records too.

I was surprised the oil pump went bad, so the motor was opened up but all they replaced was the pump, not the bearings. I did switch over to synthetic oil when the van hit about 250k to save on oil changes since it was all highway, the boss liked that for sure!

These vans eat idler arms and those were usually replaced every 25k or so, along with an alignment that was also done every 25k. I only ran Michelin X-one tires since they had a treadwear number of 800, got 100k out of one set and changed them out due to winter coming and I didn't wanna take any chances. Tune-ups were done every 100k because of the plugs too.

I called GM to tell them about this van and they offered me a free oil change, WTF, come and pick this thing up and see what you guys did RIGHT!

 

Personally, I think life is too short to drive the same car for half a million miles.
One of my mechanics said that those GMC Safari / Chevy Astros were pretty reliable vehicles.

 

A good example of why Honda is the shit.

 

Alot of luck is involved as well. One careless driver and....smash!

I can imagine why GM offered you only an oil change....there's no incentive in building cars that drive forever. There is no profit AND nobody keeps their cars that long anymore.

Remember the old Toyota commercials from the 80s where it would show the owners, the cars, and the mileage?

 

Corrected for truth.

 

i would be more exciting if he was still running original parts.

 

They are reliable. That's why you see all the imbred trailer trash driving them around with tires shocks/struts! But they are workhorses...

I agree. As much as I would want to document something like this, I get tired with vehicles quickly because I'm always interested in new stuff. The longest I've kept a vehicles was 4 years. I'm fortunate enough to be able to afford to do this!

That is a fact. It's hard keeping them pristine! I'm a firm believer that a car "is not the same" after even the smallest crash. I'm a paint whore and have yet to see a job where you can't tell where there is new vs. old paint...

LOL They don't make 'em like they used to!

I agree. And if he'd purchased the car new.

 

Well, i know this is a very late reply from my side but that acura legend was such a piece of art as the new owner is dedication with the maintenance process. You know guys, this is much important since the miles our vehicle would take would always depend on the maintenance routine we have.