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Should I get the 1.7 million mile Subaru??


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Going to go see the Professor in NY. He's this great old fellow who's taught all around the world. One of those interesting people who for me,is hard to resist going to see.

 

He wants to "have a cup of coffee with me" and talk about his old Subaru.From our phone conversation I believe he's down to one,when he had four EA81 vehicles back when I saw him last in 2001.He tells me he's moving to Europe so .......

 

One of his cars has over 1.7 million miles on it. His wife came out and verified it.

 

This car has been refurbished on a rotisserie but apparently is rotting again in some places.I'll give you all the update,with pictures,after I go see him today...hopefully. I really don't have time,but this is one of those things I just can't resist. Just to sit and talk about the world with this guy is going to be a pleasure. He's a very special person with much insight.

 

The car as I knew it back then,is only on its second engine!!

 

He also has,or had,a hatchback that had over 450k on it with ALL original components he says.

 

The Brat he had is gone as well as another EA81 parts car he had.It was either a wagon or Hatch,can't remember.

 

He also has a couple of off the wall mini vehicles inside,and had a late 70's or VERY early 80's Toyota truck that was also in exceptional condition,which is near impossible to find around here.Even the 90's Toyotas are rotted out already.

 

See you all later with an update.

 

Meanwhile,let me know what you think about owning and caring for a 1.7 million mile car.

 

I'm going to try to get him to allow me to use his story with SOA for their Dive,I mean Drive magazine.Maybe I should see if SOA wants the car?

 

Cheers!

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if youre lucky SOA might send you a template-style email saying something like "we appreciate your enthusiasm in our vehicles but we currently do not have any use for your 1.7 million mile subaru. but as a token of our appreciation heres an sti key chain."

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I couldn't think of anyone on here that deserves it more Paul :)

 

I still think Subaru should know about it. Remember what 1.7 million means people. Not only is that 1 million miles, but another 700,000 miles on top of that :eek:

 

Oh, and Dennis! Haven't seen you post in a while!

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Should you get it.... yes why not? :)

 

Makes me think of AL Bundy and his Duster..... when it hit 1Mil dodge was going to give him a new Viper, but it rolled out of the driveway and the odometer turned over off of camera so he was driving around to try to get it to roll over again :lol:

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Should you get it.... yes why not?

 

Unfortunately parking is the issue.Besides,it appears he doesn't really want the 1.7 mil. gone.It's now the Hatch with over 450k on it that he's focusing on getting rid of.

 

This doesn't help either:

Img0244.JPG

 

Here's the Professor by his 1.7 mil. wagon:

Img0235.JPG

 

Should have asked him for the Helmut's license place holder.My brother was a Subaru tech there in the late 70's/early 80's.

 

You can see -for us up here- it's really not bad,the wagon,for what it is.Right now it's almost as rare in these parts as my '78 wagon.

But,since he had no children in his life I guess this is just like one.He's very attatched to it.

 

As for the hatch,that was his wife's car mostly.Trying to extract a price out of him was difficult,but when I mentioned $500 or so he said he thought that was maybe even a little low....so we'll see how long he waits before dumping it off.

 

He's selling his current house,going to focus on a less expensive plot of land and build a smaller house for he and his wife. He's 80 years old!! He's going to focus on staying in Greece -where he is from- and keep a small house here not too far from where he is now.So,he says the end of this coming week he needs to do something with the Hatch.

 

To me,he's nowhere near ready to move,but he has gotten rid of TONS of excess he had around.I actually drove past his house to his neighbor's because I couldn't recognize the yard without all the Subarus and stuff.

 

Great stories he has.From high ranking public officials to students he's had to just about everything this guy has seen a LOT in his years.He holds no real optimism for this country right now,and justifies that with substancial economic information. He's a Professor of Economics and was one of 28 leading Professors who Russia hired to consult with when going from a Planned Economy to Free Enterprise ....and he is the ONLY one they retained afterwards.

 

A great experience even though I'm not getting any cars out of this ....yet.;)

 

I will do my best to keep in touch with him and make sure that 1.7 mil. car stays around. But at this point,he wants no publicity and does not want to bother with SOA or anyone to write an article,etc. My camera and his related stories are all we have.No reciepts since he did almost 100% of the work ever done to the car. But I have no reason to believe he's not telling the truth. And his wife verified the mileage.

 

The odometers in both cars either don't work anymore or were changed.

 

I loaded some shots into my gallery if anyone cares to see some more but they aren't all that great.The cars as you can see were tucked into a fairly crowded garage.

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How on earth does he do it?

He must drive insane amounts!

 

He told me he always taught in places like U of Michigan,U of Florida,etc.etc...and he's stay there in a small apartment during the week,not have a Friday afternoon class or a Monday morning class,and blast home on the weekends. His routine was to get home,park the car,drain the oil,THEN go in and see the wife.Come back later and finish the oil.And if it was the fifth time he'd do a tune-up too.

 

He's a classic.

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I'd say run it for a couple years, then send in a story to SOA-

I bought this thing with only 1,7xx,xxx miles on it, and it was just getting broken in.

Might get you a free one!

 

SOA might bill the owner of a 1.7 million mile car for loss of income because they never bought a new subuaru.

 

Lets do the math, 1.7 million miles divided by 250,000 miles per car equals about 7 subarus worth of money the owner would owe SOA. No wonder he doesn't want any publicity just in case SOA comes a calling.:banana:

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SOA might bill the owner of a 1.7 million mile car for loss of income because they never bought a new subuaru.

 

Lets do the math, 1.7 million miles divided by 250,000 miles per car equals about 7 subarus worth of money the owner would owe SOA. No wonder he doesn't want any publicity just in case SOA comes a calling.:banana:

 

I dont like your theory. :grin:

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Doing some Rough math, I find that if it's an 84?

 

That would make it roughly 23 years old.

 

1,700,000mi / 23yrs = 73,913/yr

 

73,913 / 365 = 202.5 miles/day

 

At an average of 50 mph that would be 4 hours a day,

 

EveryDay, rain or shine for 23 years, no days off,

 

no exceptions.

 

While technically possible, something in this equation does not pass the

"Does it make sence test":rolleyes:

 

Let me be the first to say, I doubt it!!!!:-\

My .02

Glenn

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Doing some Rough math, I find that if it's an 84?

 

That would make it roughly 23 years old.

 

1,700,000mi / 23yrs = 73,913/yr

 

73,913 / 365 = 202.5 miles/day

 

At an average of 50 mph that would be 4 hours a day,

 

EveryDay, rain or shine for 23 years, no days off,

 

no exceptions.

 

While technically possible, something in this equation does not pass the

"Does it make sence test":rolleyes:

 

Let me be the first to say, I doubt it!!!!:-\

My .02

Glenn

I must disagree, Our work vehicles (not subes) are 2006 models that have over 150K already, That would be 1.5 M in ten years.

Though I am sure they will be replaced at 300K (company policy).

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Doing some Rough math, I find that if it's an 84?

 

That would make it roughly 23 years old.

 

1,700,000mi / 23yrs = 73,913/yr

 

73,913 / 365 = 202.5 miles/day

 

At an average of 50 mph that would be 4 hours a day,

 

EveryDay, rain or shine for 23 years, no days off,

 

no exceptions.

 

While technically possible, something in this equation does not pass the

"Does it make sence test":rolleyes:

 

Let me be the first to say, I doubt it!!!!:-\

My .02

Glenn

 

 

 

Glenn,

That's all wonderful,but the guy is as unique as his car's mileage.

 

You do all the math you want and call it as you see it,that's fine.

 

I believe the guy.

 

So,between the two cars they have well over 2 million miles.That Hatch is rusty but salvagable.Could make it to 1 million too,with some help.

 

Anyhow....I'm going to call him later this week to see how he's doing.

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Doing some Rough math, I find that if it's an 84?

 

That would make it roughly 23 years old.

 

1,700,000mi / 23yrs = 73,913/yr

 

73,913 / 365 = 202.5 miles/day

 

At an average of 50 mph that would be 4 hours a day,

 

EveryDay, rain or shine for 23 years, no days off,

 

no exceptions.

 

While technically possible, something in this equation does not pass the

"Does it make sence test":rolleyes:

 

Let me be the first to say, I doubt it!!!!:-\

My .02

Glenn

 

It kinda does make sense.

If this gentleman worked in Florida and went home every weekend. You are talking about over 2136 miles or so.

Given that he is a teacher, he would work rough 40 weeks. 4 weeks off for Christmas and 8 weeks off for summer break.

That means he had to drive 1847.8 miles a week.

(1,700,000/23=73913) (73913/40=1847.8)

 

doing a 2136 round trip 40 times a year is 85440. (2136x40=85440)

That would take him 19.90 years to do 1,700,000.

 

Yeah I have too much time on my hands..

 

and evidently so did he...

BW

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It kinda does make sense.

If this gentleman worked in Florida and went home every weekend. You are talking about over 2136 miles or so.

Given that he is a teacher' date=' he would work rough 40 weeks. 4 weeks off for Christmas and 8 weeks off for summer break.

That means he had to drive 1847.8 miles a week.

(1,700,000/23=73913) (73913/40=1847.8)

 

doing a 2136 round trip 40 times a year is 85440. (2136x40=85440)

That would take him 19.90 years to do 1,700,000.

 

Yeah I have too much time on my hands..

 

and evidently so did he...

BW[/quote']

I just don't buy it...1,700,000 miles

 

Driving 2136 miles in a weekend...

At a constant 55 mph, no slowing, no traffic, good weather.

You'd spend 38.8 hours of your weekend on the road?

Or...19.4 hours each, way each weekend.

My weekends last 48 hours.

If his weekend did, he'd spend less that 10 hours at home?

Where does sleep enter into this equation?:-\

 

He may have done this but to me, it just does not pass the test.

:Flame:

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I just don't buy it...1,700,000 miles

 

Driving 2136 miles in a weekend...

At a constant 55 mph, no slowing, no traffic, good weather.

You'd spend 38.8 hours of your weekend on the road?

Or...19.4 hours each, way each weekend.

My weekends last 48 hours.

If his weekend did, he'd spend less that 10 hours at home?

Where does sleep enter into this equation?:-\

 

He may have done this but to me, it just does not pass the test.

:Flame:

 

 

Like I said,no Friday or Monday classes.Or at least not late Friday or early Monday. He's still married!!!! Devotion? Commitment? Some people will do that sort of thing. Especially when you have a trustworthy Subaru.

 

BTW he lives in NY,not CT and if you look at a map it's just into NY from Danbury,CT so it's a good 35+ miles north of NYC.

 

If you met him,you'd believe him.;)

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  • 5 years later...
Should you get it.... yes why not? :)

 

Makes me think of AL Bundy and his Duster..... when it hit 1Mil dodge was going to give him a new Viper, but it rolled out of the driveway and the odometer turned over off of camera so he was driving around to try to get it to roll over again :lol:

 

I recall reading about an elderly gentleman who was near 1 million miles on his VW bug when it was crushed, like a bug, but a big truck. He was devastated.

 

I'll have to try and find the original article and if I do I'll post a link. Happened in the early 80's I think in the Pasadena, California area.

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