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American Morning

Man Puts Two Million Miles on His Volvo

Aired March 28, 2002 - 08:58   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: I guess you could say that Irv Gordon is a driven man. Over the years, he's managed to turn his odometer into a line with six zeros, twice.

Here's CNN's Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's enough to give a regular car odometer envy. Arriving in Times Square, Irv Gordon's Volvo posted nothing but zeros for the 20th time, which means Irv has become...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The two million mile man!

MOOS: The Long Island, New York resident brought his Volvo for about $4,000 in 1966, the same year "The Sound of Music" won best picture, the year "Star Trek" debuted on TV.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To boldly go where no man has gone before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOOS: Just as Irv has gone boldly into "The Guinness Book."

So how do you two million miles on one car? Irv calls it an accident.

IRV GORDON: I still enjoy driving it, 36 years later I'm still driving the same car, and the miles just add up.

MOOS: Especially when you're crazy about driving. This retired science teacher has toured 48 states in his Volvo, not to mention Canada, Mexico and Europe.

GORDON: It's like having a movie picture on the front of your eyes all the time, and it just keeps changing.

MOOS: You can practically eat off Herb's engine. All these years, he's been servicing the car at the same Long Island dealership where he bought it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a fanatic, yes.

MOOS: The Volvo still has its original engine, though it has been rebuilt. You can't drive all those miles without having a few accidents. Once at a rest stop at night a tractor trailer backed up, hooked Irv's bumper and took off down the interstate, not realizing the Volvo was in tow.

GORDON: He was going down the road, and I'm banging away.

MOOS: Eventually a bump caused the bumpers to unhook.

GORDON: I wound up a couple of feet from the edge of the road, right over the Delaware water gap. looking straight down.

MOOS: As Irv approached the two million mark...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-seven miles to go.

MOOS: ... the Volvo folks started having his car towed around so he wouldn't go over the momentous milestone with no cameras to capture it.

Irv does have a few rules about his car, no eating in it, no smoking.

GORDON: And I certainly don't let anybody drive my car.

MOOS: So hands off valet parkers.

GORDON: Most people today don't know what a choke is.

MOOS: Folks at Volvo were so choked up over all the free publicity, they gave Irv a brand new Volvo. He even got to see his head roll across Times Square.

The next time you glance at your measly, pathetic odometer reading, reflect on the man who truly deserves to blow his own horn.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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