Built Ford Tough

[marincounty]

Originally posted by: Pale Rider
Click.

Sometime in the next few days, Mr. Schell's van - which he bought used in Monroe, Mich., in 1996 and uses to deliver cargo across North America - will have been driven 1 million miles.

And according to a relatively recent odometer survey from Ford Motor Co., Mr. Schell's van has the highest odometer reading for any E-250 in the country. The van still has its original engine and transmission, neither of which has been rebuilt.

He works as an expediter for Toledo's Bolt Express, driving packages, auto parts, and even single envelopes from point-to-point across North America. "I drive between 80,000 and 100,000 miles a year. I'm always out on the road," he said.

His maintenance secrets for getting a million miles from his van would make most automotive engineers and mechanics cringe: He changes his oil every 10,000 miles, but one time drove it 55,000 miles before an oil change. He adds a quart of oil with every other fill-up, however.

He's also gotten amazing durability out of some of his van's components. He had well over 900,000 miles on the odometer before he had to put in a new exhaust system, and he got 500,000 miles out of his first serpentine belt.

Mr. Schell's regular maintenance provider backs up his claims, with service records that date to the purchase of the vehicle. "Our mechanics always love working on his van because they're always amazed at how many miles he's driven since he was last in," said Brent Gilley, owner of Mytee Automotive, on Holland-Sylvania Road south of Central Avenue. "He puts on more miles in a couple weeks than I put on in a year.".

Shove that up your Toyota and smoke it. 😎

He adds a quart of oil with every other fill-up, however.?
Sounds like he's already smoking. My Toyota Corolla has 210,000 miles and hardly uses any oil.

Take your Ford and rebuild it.😉

 

[canis]

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[Gillbot]

A guy I worked with had an Escort that had nearly a million miles on it. When he took it to a ford dealer to trade it in on a newer escort Ford bought it back for FULL PRICE so their R&D team could tear it down. Sadly, they no longer made the Escort so he got a Focus instead and he ended up giving it to his daughter because he didn't like it as much as his Escort.

 

[canis]

Originally posted by: Gillbot
A guy I worked with had an Escort that had nearly a million miles on it. When he took it to a ford dealer to trade it in on a newer escort Ford bought it back for FULL PRICE so their R&D team could tear it down. Sadly, they no longer made the Escort so he got a Focus instead and he ended up giving it to his daughter because he didn't like it as much as his Escort.

What year was the Escort? Auto or manual? Gasoline?

 

[Gillbot]

Yes, it was gasoline and I think it was an auto. Not sure on the year but would have to be an early 90's model, somewhere around a '94 I believe.

 

[Capt Caveman]

After owning a 95 Ford Explorer, I'll probably never own a Ford again.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: Gillbot
Yes, it was gasoline and I think it was an auto. Not sure on the year but would have to be an early 90's model, somewhere around a '94 I believe.

My word! If they were anything like the UK/Euro Escort he's lucky to get >60k out of it! 😀

 

[Gillbot]

I've seen many of the late 80's and early 90's escorts over 250k myself. The bodies usually fall off before then have major machanical issues assuming the owner keeps up with routine maintenance.