Toyota Corolla that’s done 2,000,000km with original engine will ‘run forever’
- A man managed to clock more than two million kilometers with his 1993 Toyota Corolla
- He bought the car used in 2000 when it had around 80,000km on the odometer
- The delivery driver takes very good care of the car
Published on Jul 31, 2024 at 11:36 AM (UTC+4)
by Claire Reid
Last updated on Aug 05, 2024 at 4:20 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
A man who managed to clock up more than two million kilometers (1,242,742 miles) with his 1993 Toyota Corolla on its original engine said he thinks the car will run on forever – and he might be right.
New Zealander Graeme Hebley works as a delivery driver, which goes some way to explaining how he’s managed to rack up so many miles.
Hebley bought the Corolla in 2000 when it had a more modest 80,000km (49,709 miles) on the odometer.
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The 1993 Toyota Corolla averages around 5,000km a week
But that number soon flew up once the newspaper delivery contractor got behind the wheel, as he travels almost 5,000km (3,106 miles) a week for work.
Hebley travels from Wellington to New Plymouth – and back – six days a week for work, with the journey taking around four hours and 45 minutes each way.
The delivery driver said he noticed the car had hit the 2,000,000km mark back in March 2022.
Incredibly, the ’93 Corolla still has its original engine and transmission.
Hebley keeps it in tip-top condition by taking it for fortnightly services at his local garage – and that commitment to care is clearly paying off.
Mechanic John Sherman, who works at Guthrie’s Auto Care where the car is serviced, confirmed the impressive mileage.
A mechanic who worked on the car couldn’t believe what he was seeing
“If I hadn’t worked on it, I wouldn’t believe it,” he told the New Zealand Herald.
“I wouldn’t believe it could do two million without something going wrong.”
Sherman reckons it’s Hebley’s dedication to his car that has allowed it to hit such a mega milestone.
Speaking in 2022, Hebley said he had absolutely no plans to take his car off the road anytime soon.
“To be honest I think it’ll go forever,” he told Newshub.
While Hebley and his Corolla have put away some serious milage, there’s still a long way to go until it overtakes the highest mileage car of all time.
Irv Gordon put a somewhat unfathomable 5,230,781km (3.2m miles) on the clock of his Volvo P1800S over 52 years.
However, unlike Hebley’s Corolla, the Volvo did have two engine rebuilds during its record-breaking time on the road.
Meanwhile, a 2003 Honda Accord did manage to join the one-million-mile (1,609,344km) club with its original engine.
Claire Reid is a journalist who hails from the UK but is now living in New Zealand. She began her career after graduating with a degree in Journalism from Liverpool John Moore’s University and has more than a decade of experience, writing for both local newspapers and national news sites. Across her career she's covered a wide variety of topics, including celebrity, cryptocurrency, politics, true crime and just about everything in between.
