‘Over a million’: The highest-mileage cars in Australia

When buying a used car, a low mileage reading is desirable. But when it comes to boasting about your own car, the higher the kilometre count, the bigger the bragging rights.

RELATED: World's highest-mileage police car retires

During a September 13 appearance on 3AW's Drive show with Jacqui Felgate, Drive's Publisher James Ward asked listeners to share their odometer readings – and received some truly astounding submissions.

Proving the old adage that 'they don't make 'em like they used to', the list of high-mileage cars was dominated by Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores.

However, at the top of the leaderboard was plumber Matt, who totalled 2.3 million kilometres in his 2000 Toyota HiLux – averaging 100,000km a year.

"I get it serviced every 10,000km and it still runs beautifully," he said of his steadfast ute.

Not far behind was a caller named John, who racked up "just over 1.5 million kilometres" in his 2002 Ford Falcon.

"I drove it from Portland to Melbourne [and back again] three times a week. Had one engine and one transmission replaced, and it only broke down once," John said.

Sadly, the long-running Falcon was lost when it was burnt out in the bushfires.

In third spot was another John, whose 1991 HSV Commodore had travelled more than one million kilometres.

"I don't thrash it like a normal person. I service it, change the oil, it's still got its original radio in it. I used to do a lot of building on the Murray and driving there and back clocks the kilometres up," he explained.

If we assume John's HSV consumes roughly 12L/100km – that's 120,000 litres of fuel over the course of its life. At today's prices, that's almost a quarter of a million dollars spent on petrol. Ouch.

Claiming the title of 'furthest travelled in the shortest time frame' was Kevin, an Uber driver who has managed to clock up 331,608km since he bought his diesel-powered Hyundai in October 2019.

That's roughly 82,902km a year, 6908km a month or 1594km a week. According to Kevin, he clocked that up over the course of approximately 14,000 Uber rides.

Other honourable mentions go to Nick, who's travelled 948,000km in his 1996 Ford EL Fairmont wagon, and Robert, whose 2005 Ford Falcon ute has done 541,000km.

Finally, Max managed just under 500,000km in his 2009 Honda Accord before it gave up the ghost.

Host Jacqui Felgate also had a few car hoarders in her family, including her uncle, whose Holden Commodore clocked 800,000km before he sold it to a new buyer – who is still driving it to this day.

The average Australian car owner drives between 12,000–15,000km per year, which explains why most manufacturers set their service intervals every 15,000km or 12 months, whichever occurs first.

While most callers said the secret to longevity was regular servicing and tyre replacement, one caller shared an alternative approach (that Drive does NOT endorse).

"We bought a 2003 Toyota Echo in 2010 and it had 25,000km on the clock and it was shared by different family members ... it's now got 195,172km on the clock and it's never been serviced," caller Fraser admitted.

"I know that sounds terrible. We have topped up the oil. I'm not a Toyota person, but I've got to say it's fantastic."

At last check, the highest-mileage car in the world was a 1966 Volvo P1800 owned by an American man named Irv Gordon.

Mr Gordon reportedly travelled 3.25 million miles, or 5.23 million kilometres, in his beloved red Volvo by the time he passed away.

In 2002, Mr Gordon revealed he had changed his oil 667 times and gone through 400 spark plugs and at least 80 tyres.

However, he managed to stick with the car's original transmission and engine, although the latter was rebuilt at 675,000 miles (1.08 million kilometres).

If you think you can beat any of the numbers mentioned above, boast about your car's odometer reading in the comments section for your chance to win a $100 fuel card.