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MERCEDES-BENZ HIGHLIGHTS MILLION-MILE CAR AT NAIASDETROIT, January 9, 2005 – Mercedes-Benz underscored its renowned vehicle quality and durability at the 2005 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) by displaying a 1970 280SE sedan model that it recently acquired for the Mercedes-Benz Museum Collection in Stuttgart, Germany. The car’s original owners, George and Luzstella Koschel of Orange County, CA, bought the car new 35 years ago and drove it for more than one million miles – 1,019,000 miles, to be exact.“We believe the Koschels and their car personify customer satisfaction and vehicle quality, which are fundamental values and high priority goals for Mercedes-Benz,” said Paul Halata, President and CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA. “We invited them to join us with their car at one of the world’s most important auto shows to help us convey this message.” The Koschels join a growing group of Mercedes-Benz owners whose cars have reached more than one million miles. However, even they are still far behind high-mile champ Gregorios Sachinidis, a Greek taxi driver who holds the known record of 2,852,000 miles in his 1976 Mercedes-Benz 240D. “While not every Mercedes owner will keep a car for one million miles, our goal is to ensure the levels of vehicle quality and customer satisfaction that make such a milestone a possibility for any Mercedes with proper maintenance and care,” said Paul Halata.Mercedes-Benz USA learned about the Koschels and their 280SE while contacting owners for its early-2004 advertising campaign called “Faithful.” The campaign highlighted proud owners and their cars from around the world. The Koschels were among the many to write letters to Mercedes-Benz describing their cars and experiences with them, and the final TV spots featured the couple with their car.-more-The Koschels picked up their 1970 Mercedes 280SE in Germany as a European Delivery vehicle. Although the car holds more than a million miles of memories for the couple, they are "considering" a 2005 CLK320 Cabriolet in exchange for putting their beloved car in the museum.HERE is a pic of a 280 SE...

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Forget leasing!!! Ha Ha! The article does not mention engine or trans work but still a worthy accomplishment! I joined Chevrolet's 100,000 mile club once, all I got was a T-shirt and a letter. (Seriously I did, not kidding, better then nothing I suppose)

That's quite an accomplishment, for certain. I know a guy here who has a Mercedes about that age with over 200,000 but that hardly seems like anything now.

Never got over 150K, still 200K is a lot to me!I think one of these 280 SE's was in Indiana Jones!

Well, my father's Ranger has 205,000 on it and is still running strong. I think the 280's have been in a lot of movies. There are quite a few still on the roads around here too.

Boy, I was REALLY gonna be impressed if a Merc went a BILLION miles.I don't think any human has lived long enough to DRIVE a BILLION miles: Assuming a 116 year life span, and driving 100 of those years, that works out to 10,000,000 miles a year. I suppose there could be a few pilots who have FLOWN 10,000,000 miles in a single year, but even that requires constant supersonic speed: 1140.7 miles per hour x 24 hours x 365.25 days!Only astronauts/cosmonauts aboard the international space station for six months could easily surpass the required 5,555 miles per day for 180 days to get to a million. Even moon mission astronauts probably didn't exceed a million miles travelled in a year. I believe it's about 250,000 miles to the moon, so figure 500,000 round trip plus a few orbits on each end, and a few thousand extra miles for the proper trajectory, plus a few thousand miles of terrestrial driving and flying, and you're still probably 100,000 to 200,000 short.First car 63,000Second car 130,000Third car 121,000Fourth car 128,000Wife's first car 1,000Wife's second car, 8,000Wife's current Car 5,000Vibe 9,000 so farLifetime mileage 465,000 and counting...

Not bad Kostby!For this Mercedes...At every 3000 mile oil changes that is over 333 oil changes!

And at Mercedes dealership prices for oil changes, the poor guy has already PAID FOR the new CLK they're 'giving' him! ROFLMAO!

Quote, originally posted by kostby »And at Mercedes dealership prices for oil changes, the poor guy has already PAID FOR the new CLK they're 'giving' him! ROFLMAO!LOLOL...indeed