On September 22nd, 2012 Selden Cooper took his 1987 Volvo 240DL to Lehman Volvo Cars in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania for its factory scheduled maintenance...its 1 million mile factory scheduled maintenance to be exact.

Since he purchased his Volvo 240 new in November of 1986, Selden has been racking up the miles through commuting, vacationing and everything in between. Selden recalls, "For many years I worked in New Jersey while still living in Hershey, PA and I would make that commute every week. Years later I worked at the House of Representatives in Washington and made that commute from Hershey every day. The car has been to Nova Scotia as well as Southern Florida.  I've never had any trepidation about taking it on a long trip."                                  

The 240 is only the second Volvo Selden has ever owned. His first was a 1975 164E, which he bought new and kept over a quarter of a million miles until trading it in on his current 1 million-mile Volvo.  Selden recalls: "I thought 250,000 miles on a car was amazing and needless to say, at that point I wasn't going to buy anything other than a Volvo."                                   

To put in perspective just how far you could go in one million miles, you could cover the distance it takes to travel to the moon and back. Twice. You could also circle the earth 40 times, drive coast to coast 440 times or take a quick 3 hour round-trip journey from Pennsylvania to Ocean City, Maryland 2,242 times. In short, a million miles is quite a distance.                    

In its 26 years on the road, Selden's 240 has seen its share of bulbs, brakes, and relays. It has had 200 oil changes, 33 sets of spark plugs, 33 engine air filters and 20 timing belt changes. When the car hit 500,000 miles Lehman Volvo Cars had the car re-painted to restore it to the original luster (and to help combat the years of travel on northeast salt-covered winter roads). One thing Selden's 240 has never had though has been an engine rebuild. "We've never had anything more than the valve cover off this thing, and that is really, really remarkable" states Mike Danzi, Service Manager at Lehman Volvo Cars.                                       

Selden continues to rack up the miles on his Volvo. "Over the years, this dealership has become like family. And I will continue to bring my car here for service" States Selden.  He is confident the car has at least another million in it; he just isn't so sure he will be the one driving it at that point.  

Update:

In June of 2015, Selden donated his 1,014,000-mile Volvo to Lehman Motors, of course after purchasing a 250,000-mile pre-owned (that's low mileage to Selden!).  Lehman Motors has the legendary vehicle on display in their showroom, and plans on donating the vehicle to the Hershey Antique Automobile Museum on behalf of Selden.Â