At an age when driving even a decade-old car without problems seems difficult, a New Zealand man has clocked 20 lakh kilometers on his 30-year-old Toyota Corolla. If this seems like a feat, the owner of the car believes it is still running strong and will continue to ply the roads "forever."
The 1993 Toyota Corolla station wagon has set a record of sorts, after its owner Graeme Hebley, 72, used it for daily commute ever since he bought the car in the year 2000 with 80,000 on the odometer. He recalls the car was used to deliver chippies in Tokyo before he purchased it.
For the last 22 years Hebley owned the car, he has maintained it regularly and never had any major troubles. He said the car is serviced once every two weeks at a local car station. In fact, the car is still running the original engine and no major parts have been changed except for the wheel bearings and cambelt, which got replaced almost 20 times.
Hebley drives his Corolla almost every day from Wellington to New Plymouth and back six days a week. This adds 5,000 km on the odo every week, which is why he had to service it every fortnight.
For the unversed, the 1993 Toyota Corolla is a front-wheel drive station wagon powered by a 1.8-liter inline four-cylinder engine, which can churn 115 hp of max power and 156 nm of peak torque. It is a five-speed manual transmission.
Having spent such a long time with the car, Hebley says he still hasn't gotten sick of driving it. He believes the car can run "forever."
"The car might outlast me at this point," he said.
