BMW 325i reached 1,000,000 miles in unconventional way in order to unlock secrets

An old BMW 325i was driven in seriously unconventional fashion for over a million miles in a bid to unlock the secret of eternal life.

That might sound like something that dropped straight out of the plot of a Cars and Marvel movie crossover, but – we promise – there’s no Lightning McQueen or Dr Strange involved in this tale.

Instead, there’s a fairly ordinary-looking white BMW that – in 2009 – would have appeared to have around 41,000 miles on the clock.

That suggests a careful owner, limited use, and a decent second-hand car option to a discerning buyer.

However, it was – in fact – an experiment by an oil company that intended to test the car to the absolute extreme.

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This BMW 352i entered a rare club for million-mile cars

Our story starts back in 1990 when Mobil bought a relatively unremarkable BMW 325i.

At the time, it would have been a fantastic purchase, with a 2.5-liter engine putting out an amount of power not to be sniffed at.

The plan was to see what would happen to it after it had covered 1,000,000 miles, but they didn’t intend to drive that distance at all.

It’s hardly a spoiler to say that this wasn’t an environmentally-minded experiment.

They stuck it on a rolling road set to a constant 85mph and fitted it with a never-ending fuel tank, running the whole operation for four years, day and night, to see what would happen.

There are a number of cars out there that have done the million miles – even more in this Greek man’s case – some of them even with the very same owner, but only one has done it like this.

The seal of approval for the BMW 325i

Incredibly, once the car had covered that remarkable number of miles, the car was taken apart for inspection and – it turned out – was still in amazing working condition.

As it happened, the car’s engine was still within the factory specifications for a new car, with no real wear to speak of.

BMW and Mobil were understandably very pleased with that outcome.

BMW because it proved their car was great, and Mobil because their oils did the job as well.

What was it all for?

Well, outside of the obvious marketing potential for those two companies, it teaches ordinary folks that changing your oil is important, and how road conditions can affect the wellbeing of your car.

Almost two decades in a perfectly controlled environment left this car without so much of a scratch, whereas the mean streets would have left some scars.

Ultimately, it proves that this car could theoretically have driven forever in that state, achieving eternal life.

Much like the whole experiment, it wouldn’t have been great for the climate, though.

Luckily, BMW – like many other automakers – is focusing predominantly on electric vehicles going forward.