Pickup Reaches Million-Mile Mark in Four Years
Man is still miles away from the world record
By SCOTT FITZGERALD and TODD WRIGHT
Updated 5:18 PM EDT, Mon, Oct 25, 2010
Most of us would be thrilled if our cars made it to 100,000 miles, but Phil Marsella in Palm City has rolled over the odometer on his Ford F-250 to the one-million miles mark.
Marsella spends a lot of time on the road. He delivers greyhounds to racetracks and to families all over the United States.
The dogs are kept in climate-controlled comfort while Marsella makes the trip across-country a couple of times a week with the truck he calls Betsy.
So after four short years, Betsy hit the 999,999 mark last weekend and even though Marsella still turns between 7,000 and 10,000 miles a week, the odometer stopped.
"It just won't do anything," Marsella said.
Marsella said he is still keeping track and the truck has 1,012,572 miles on it now.
Marsella credits his truck's longevity to the guys at his local tire shop for the constant oil and tire changes. The total maintenance bill: $67,000 in four years.
"I've never seen a truck with this many miles besides a semi-truck. Never on a gas engine," said Buddy Hawkins, the mechanic who works on the truck.
We wouldn't be surprised if the truck and Marsella end up on a Ford commercial in the near future.
A million is a lot of trips with dogs, but the world record for most miles on one vehicle is 2,800,000 miles on a car that was 40 years old. At his current pace, Marsella would eclipse that mark in about six years.
But he has to get that odometer fixed first, then that record might be going to the dogs, too.
And Betsy won't be retiring any time soon.
"She will last forever," Marsella said. "She'll keep running."
First Published: Oct 25, 2010 12:51 PM EDT
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