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93-year-old Florida woman retires her ’64 Mercury after 576,000 miles on the road
Yahoo news ^ | 4/5/12 | Eric Pfeiffer

Posted on 04/04/2012 9:51:06 PM PDT by Impala64ssa

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 FoxNews.com. "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 episode of the "Tonight Show,"

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: automotivenews; automotovenews; comet; mercury
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To: Lazlo in PA

My dad had bought it new and I got it seven years later with a 100k on it
I also loved the convertible of that model.
All the 57 models were great. The Corvette, the T-bird, the chevy.


41 posted on 04/06/2012 4:56:53 AM PDT by KC Burke (Newton's New First Law, Repeal and Restore!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]


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