Chrysler CEO calls owner of million mile Dodge Ram
Robert Swan’s wife rung up
Chrysler one day on the off chance the automaker might be interested to know her husband’s 1995 Dodge Ram 3500
just passed its millionth mile on the odo. Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda was interested enough to leave the plush confines
of his office at the Chrysler Group headquarters and take a trip down to the company’s call center down the road.
LaSorda and Maggie Gentry, a 20-year call center veteran, rang up Robert Swan to speak personally with the prolific
driver. The Dodge Ram’s durability earned Swan a copy of the book “Forward: The American Heritage of DaimlerChrysler” inscribed with the words, “Please enjoy this great book on the history of our company. Tom LaSorda, CEO.”
A book! Get this guy a new truck, Tom.
[Source: DaimlerChrysler]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
kobalt1963 10:51PM (2/14/2008)
I'm with you! In my line of work, I know guys who rack up the miles in "gas guzzlers" by pulling their trailers or hauling materials to out of state jobs. And that 160mph twice on the speedometer is definitely freaky.
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lamebear 12:35AM (2/15/2008)
Tsk! Tsk! Some of you people amaze me, do you actually think everyone lives in a city, and drives back and forth to work? I'm in Wyoming, how would you like working a 20,000 acre Ranch? Don't think they exist? Come on out, we'll show you! I can put 300+ miles on my Dodge Diesel everyday, especially when the weather is bad, and feeding livestock, and the weather is always bad in Wyoming in the winter, and when we stop to put out the feed that Diesel motor keeps on running. My truck doesn't get shut off until around 16 hours everyday. Hardly any upkeep either, except for fuel filters, and changing the oil and filter regularly. Gasoline motors SUCK!
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Charles Rooney 8:13AM (4/03/2006)
Impossible, He would of had to drive 83,333.3333 miles a year for 12 year's strait.
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Steve C. 8:14AM (4/03/2006)
I remember VW and Volvo running bid advertising campaigns years ago about the number of their cars on the road with ridiculously high mileage. Many of those car owners appeared in the ads.
With the issue of long-term quality of American vehicles in the headlines every day, you have to ask why isn't Mr. Swan going to be appearing in a Dodge commercial?
An autographed book? Gee, thanks . . .
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Elliott 8:34AM (4/03/2006)
Proof?
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Devin Lussier 8:42AM (4/03/2006)
At the very least, he should get a mention on their website. Volvo's High Mileage Club website mentions Irv Gordon's '66 P1800 with over 2,000,000 miles. http://www.volvocars.us/_Tier2/Owners/HighMileageClub.htm
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Christian J 8:42AM (4/03/2006)
To "impossible", Charles Rooney: you are a moron. I know of many people that do >50,000 miles in a year just straight commuting. 80K+ is not such a stretch. Also note that its a 3500, he probably uses it for work. Go ask a taxi driver or a delivery van owner how much they do in a year.
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Puff Chippy 8:45AM (4/03/2006)
An autographed book is cheese. DCX should be finding and parading these guys all over national TV as part of an ad campaign touting the high quality, long lasting Dodge products. Sometimes you can't see the forest for the tree's.
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Josh 8:47AM (4/03/2006)
Where is this guy driving? He has averaged ~200 miles a day for the past 12 years!
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Kowell 8:47AM (4/03/2006)
For chirst,s sake lets not be cheapstakes...give the man a brand new Ram.... Mercedes gave a brand new E class to the taxi driver with the 1 000 000 odometer....
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G. Snyder 8:53AM (4/03/2006)
back in the 90s. Mercedes Benz bought back an early 70s diesel from an owner who drove it over a million miles so that they could use it as a promotional tool. Oh, and they also gave the guy a brand new S class Super Diesel. Good grief Dodge.
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bernie 9:16AM (4/03/2006)
Let's be honest... if you had to drive 200 miles a day,
1) Would you choose a Dodge pickup?
2) Would you choose a gas guzzling Ram 3500?
God only knows how much the guy spent on gas, let alone all the repairs those vehicles need. My nephew is a mechanically-inclined engineer and he gave up on his before it hit 60K.
April Fools is my guess.
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Seabass 9:21AM (4/03/2006)
Umm, my dad has a 1997 Ram with 600,000 miles on it. He travels nearly every day to textile mills around the country for machien servicing.
And is it jst me, or did anyone else notice that the speedometer has 160 mph listed twice?
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Optimus Prime 9:34AM (4/03/2006)
This sounds like a bad April Fool's JOke. Where's the link to the original source? Where's the press release? Why hasn't any other publication reported on this? And, a book for all his efforts?
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Don 9:39AM (4/03/2006)
This is not as hard as it sounds. I delivered RVs fron the factories in Northern Indiana to dealers throughout the entire country for 3 years using a Dodge Ram 3500. I only did it part time as compared to many others who did the same thing and I put over 300,000 mile on my truck. The only major problem were clutches and transmissions. The 5 speed transmissions (New Venture, I think there are called) are crap. Fuel mileage ran about 12 to 16 loaded and about 20 empty. The Dodge chassis and the Cummins engine are terrific. I know of other drivers who had over a million miles on their 3500's. At least one of them is a woman.
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Whiplash 9:51AM (4/03/2006)
Well, obviously the picture is a fake. But I'm sure wasn't meant to pass as a photo of the real odometer.
As for 200 miles a day... that's nothing for a lot of folks that live in farm country. I have several friends out here in Cali that work in the ag industry and they easily do that kind of mileage.
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David 9:54AM (4/03/2006)
Most likely this is a delivery truck, that would easily explain the 200 miles a day, and why it's a 3500. I would guess he delivers farm equipment to rural areas or something like that. A couple 40-50 mile trips a day add up really quickly.
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Mike 9:57AM (4/03/2006)
Why is it so hard to believe a deisel went over 1,000,000 miles? It is fairly common for a light duty deisel trucks of any make to reliably last that long. There is a dealership down the street from me that just took in trade a 2003 Ram 3500 with 450,000 miles. The guy who traded it in is an auto transporter who drove coast to coast with a gooseneck 3 car trailer performing custom deliveries. Many/most ranchers will put upwards of 500k on a deisel as well.
everyone, put down the bong and step away from your ethnocentric mypriusisbetterthanyourtruckandyouareevil attitude. believe it or not, some people actually need and use a truck for what it is intended for.
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Finished.Law.School 10:00AM (4/03/2006)
One million miles is great but including a speedo that has 160 twice is stupid. I would say that maybe that is actually a GM or Ford speedo but then a Ford or GM would not make it to one million miles. Maybe photoshop...
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Howard Kerr 10:01AM (4/03/2006)
If this was a picture of a real Ram speedo, maybe this guy didn't really do 1 miilion miles. As another poster points out, on the "face" of the speedo is 0 mph to 200 mph, in 20 mph segments...except there is no 180 mph, just 160 mph for a second time.
I've known a few people that have commuted to jobs in other states and as a consequence, drive a couple of hundred miles a day, 5 days a week. It is possible this is legit. My cousin is a sales rep for a can company and his company "car" is a Dakota. It has 4 wheel drive so he can drive great distances in nearly any weather. He doesn't put quite as many miles / year on his Dakota as this guy put on his Ram, but it could be close.
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