These days, most
people consider themselves lucky if a new car lasts 5 to 10 years. Make
it to 100,000 miles in your vehicle, and the car company might make a commercial about you.
That makes 93-year-old Rachel Veitch a notable exception. Veitch is
retiring her 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente after more than 576,000 miles
on the road.
"I am legally blind, so I can no longer drive my lovely Chariot," Veitch told.
"They don't have to take it away, I would not dream of driving that car
again." The car itself is fine, but Veitch has macular degeneration in
both her eyes, making her legally blind. After running a red light in
March, she decided to voluntarily give up the vehicle she's been
driving since Lyndon Johnson occupied the White House.
"I have taken it in stride," she said. "I don't have cancer, I don't have Lou Gehrig's disease. I am lucky."
Yet for all the miles she has put on her vehicle, it doesn't come close to the world record. The Truth About Cars
blog wrote that Irv Gordon's 1966 Volvo P1800 is scheduled to reach 3
million miles this year. Gordon has held the record in the Guinness
Book of World Records for most miles on a noncommercial vehicle since
1998.
Even without the world record,
Vietch is fond of noting that the car has outlasted three marriages.
Mechanically, it's worn through three sets of shocks, 18 batteries and
eight mufflers. Veitch bought the car in February 1964 for just $3,289.
She credits the longevity to a
"near-obsessive" approach to the car's maintenance. "I've never been a
destructive person and I've just taken care of everything, except my
husbands," she told FoxNews.
Veitch, who appeared with the
vehicle on an August 2010 episode of the "Tonight Show," said she would
be happy to sell the vehicle to host Jay Leno, a known car afficionado.
She's not sure if Leno would be interested, but her four children, nine
grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren, aren't in line.
She told "It wouldn't matter if they did, they're not going to get it. They couldn't take care of it like I did,"