Newspaper delivery driver has driven the same Toyota for 2,000,000 km with original engine and transmission, it might go on 'forever'
Published on Mar 18, 2026 at 4:19 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Mar 18, 2026 at 4:44 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
This newspaper delivery guy in New Zealand has been driving the same Toyota Corolla for over two decades and over 2 million kilometers.
And counting.
Most Toyotas are famously unkillable, and this one’s no exception.
And there’s something else about his story that makes this vehicle unique.
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One owner, 26 years, 2 million kilometers
Graeme Hebley is a newspaper delivery driver who’s been driving the same 1993 Toyota Corolla for two and a half decades.
Mr. Hebley imported the car to New Zealand – a JDM-spec Toyota Corolla – in 2000.
The car had already done 80,000km (50,000 miles) by then, but that was peanuts compared to what would come next.
Since then, for 26 years, Hebley has been driving the car from Wellington to New Plymouth (approx 350km) about six times a week.
The car has already done over 2 million kilometers – equivalent to around 1.2 million miles.
What’s truly shocking is that even though Hebley conceded he had to service the car twice a month, he made it clear that all the main components are still original.
A few ‘minor’ things had to be replaced – the cambelt, for example – but the engine and the transmission have never skipped a beat.
How did this Toyota survive this long?
In an interview with the Whanganui Chronicle, Mr. Hebley explained how his car had lasted so long.
“That era of Toyota has such built-in reliability. But if it wasn’t so frequently serviced, it just wouldn’t work,” he said.
Translated, minor things might break, but key components will last forever.
Hebley’s story was further ‘confirmed’ by Guthrie’s Auto Care, the workshop that has serviced the car every two weeks for the past 20+ years.
John Sherman of Guthrie’s Auto Care confirmed that Hebley’s Corolla’s reliability is unbelievable.
“It still has the original engine and transmission. If I hadn’t worked on it, I wouldn’t believe it. I wouldn’t believe it could do two million without something going wrong,” he admitted.
At this rate, Hebley might eventually beat the almost unbeatable record of the Volvo P1600 owned by Irv Gordon.
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After beginning his automotive writing career at DriveTribe, Alessandro has been with Supercar Blondie since the launch of the website in 2022. In fact, he penned the very first article published on supercarblondie.com. He’s covered subjects from cars to aircraft, watches, and luxury yachts - and even crypto. He can largely be found heading up the site’s new-supercar and SBX coverage and being the first to bring our readers the news that they’re hungry for.
