Graeme Hebley bought the Corolla in 2000. It had only done 80,000 km at that point. Photo / Bevan Conley
Graeme Hebley bought the Corolla in 2000. It had only done 80,000 km at that point. Photo / Bevan Conley
Graeme Hebley and his 1993 Toyota Corolla have just surpassed a very significant milestone in the last few weeks.
A newspaper delivery contractor since the 1960s, Hebley's Corolla ticked over the two million kilometre mark earlier in the month.
Hebley, who lives in Upper Hutt, drives from Wellington up to New Plymouth and back six days a week for his job, which includes delivering the Whanganui Chronicle.
His connection to Whanganui is through Guthrie's Auto Care, which has serviced his Corolla every two weeks for the last 22 years.
Hebley averages around 5000km per week, hence why he gets it serviced every fortnight.
"I broke down one morning in one of my vans. I rang John Sherman from Guthrie's and he came out and helped me. I have been getting all of my servicing done here since."
Hebley got the 1993 Toyota Corolla in 2000; it had only done 80,000 kilometres at that point.
"Apparently it was used to deliver chippies in Tokyo before I got it."
Besides general and frequent servicing, there hasn't been a whole lot of changes made to the Toyota.
The cambelt has been replaced almost 20 times and wheel bearings changed, but besides that the car is basically original.
"It still has the original engine and transmission," said Guthrie's John Sherman.
"If I hadn't worked on it, I wouldn't believe it. I wouldn't believe it could do two million without something going wrong."
Guthrie's Auto Cares Paul Rod (left) and John Sherman with Graeme Hebley's 1994 Toyota Corolla. Photo / Bevan Conley
Sherman said a combination of factors like the type of vehicle, frequent servicing and how well Hebley had looked after it were some of key reasons as to why the Corolla has continued to push on.
"That era of Toyota has such built-in reliability.
"You miss any of those out and it just wouldn't work."
The highest amount of kilometres Sherman had seen on a car besides Hebley's was around the 700,000 mark.
"But nothing like this. In my whole career, that is the highest I have seen."
Hebley, who has driven well over three million kilometres total since he started delivering newspapers in 1968, said he hasn't got sick of driving just yet.
