Man hits 1 MILLION MILES in Ford F-250... in four years!!!

[Kal-El]

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/10/26/m...in-four-years/

Local news report...

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/weird/P...our-Years.html

Every now and again, we come across news that a vehicle has eclipsed the one million mile mark. The vehicles are typically very old, and they're often pickup trucks. That's only partly true for Phil Marsella, who uses his relatively new four year-old Ford F-250 to deliver greyhound dogs to racetracks and families across America. Marsella reportedly drives his gas F-250, "Betsy," between 7,000 and 10,000 miles per week, or more miles than many drivers log in an entire year. And it appears as though Ford never expected the F-250 would surpass one million road miles, as the digital odometer stopped working once the milestone was reached. Marsella says that he's tracking the miles, though, with another 12,000 miles or so since one million.

All those miles must make for a pretty big maintenance bill, as trucks typically need an oil change in fewer than 10,000 miles, and tires and brakes usually don't last for more than 60,000 to 70,000 miles, though obviously with that much highway mileage, the binders should hold on a bit longer than that. That's two or three oil changes a year and a brake or tire job every few years for most of us, but Maresella hits those milestones in no time flat. The career driver claims his four-year maintenance bill is a cool $67,000. If Marsella continues at this pace, and his beloved truck remains road-worthy, in the next six years he could challenge the all-time record of 2.8 million miles in a single vehicle; a record that required 40 years of driving.

[Kal-El]

This is pretty unbelievable.

I thought that Triniper4mance's 400,000 miles on his Yaris in 3 1/2 years was nuts.

So about $67,000 in maintenance costs...what about gas?
Let's say an average of 18mpg (might be generous), that's 55,555 gallons of gas! At today's price of $2.80 as a 4 year average, that's...wait for it....

$155,555 in gas!

So this truck has cost about $263,000.00 to buy and operate.
Hope the job pays well!

[why?]

If he is just the courier, i doubt he makes much of a net profit.

[Kal-El]

Originally Posted by why?

If he is just the courier, i doubt he makes much of a net profit.

This is much more specialized than regular couriering.

He transports grey hounds to racetracks and owners around the country. His truck is outfitted with air conditioned cages.

Still, at costs around $267,000 in 4 years just for truck operation, it is hard to believe he makes enough to be worth while. Most people wouldn't drive this much for less than maybe $80K a year.

[john21031]

7,000 to 10,000 a week is urnealistic. over 1000 miles daily for one person driving. that's 17 hours per day of driving at a minimum. Work like that for 4 yrs? I think this is a bunch of bull. On top of that, his odometer "broke". Just typical ford propaganda.
Having a v8 gas truck for even remotely similar use is pure dumb.

[nemelek]

Originally Posted by Kal-El

This is pretty unbelievable.

I thought that Triniper4mance's 400,000 miles on his Yaris in 3 1/2 years was nuts.

So about $67,000 in maintenance costs...what about gas?
Let's say an average of 18mpg (might be generous), that's 55,555 gallons of gas! At today's price of $2.80 as a 4 year average, that's...wait for it....

$155,555 in gas!

So this truck has cost about $263,000.00 to buy and operate.
Hope the job pays well!

For a gas truck pulling a 4-5000 pound load at highway miles he probably gets no better than 10 mpg. Probably 8. Our Dodge diesel gets 12 to 14 mpg pulling a 5000 pound trailer at 65 mph.

[Kal-El]

Originally Posted by john21031

7,000 to 10,000 a week is urnealistic. over 1000 miles daily for one person driving. that's 17 hours per day of driving at a minimum. Work like that for 4 yrs? I think this is a bunch of bull. On top of that, his odometer "broke". Just typical ford propaganda.
Having a v8 gas truck for even remotely similar use is pure dumb.

It certainly does raise questions.

Thing is, he has all his service records for his million+ miles. The local news even interviewed the shop he uses. And about his odometer, it's totally reasonable to assume that a digital odometer would freeze at 999,999. The old 5 digit analog ones right through the '80's would roll over at 99,999. Funny how automakers actually didn't think their cars wouldn't pass a low 100K . Now cars do that without a single repair (at least many Toyota's and Honda's). A digital one, however, probably isn't programmed to "rollover".

The report says 7-10K a week which does seem impossible for one driver. However, a more reasonable schedule that would achieve his 1 million miles would be an average of 686 miles a day (7 days a week, 365 days a year). Or a combination that would average 4,807 miles a week. This is very doable. Not sure where they got 7-10K a week. The lower estimate of 7,000 miles a week for 4 years = 1,456,000 miles. 45% more than he has. 10,000 miles a week would yield over 2,000,000 miles!