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Turned Over 200,000

At 8:35 a.m. today, high atop the Tobin Bridge, my trusty 1994 Toyota Camry LE turned over 200,000 miles. Sadly, I was not in the car to witness this event. Becky had to drive my car in to Boston today since her Golf is having exhaust problems, but she was sweet enough to call me on the phone and give me a first-hand narrated account of the turnover. The turnover occurred just before she went into the tollbooth. Though I am sad to have missed the occasion, I am happy that my car has made it this far.

The car was originally purchased by my grandfather, Clark Keefer (my mom’s dad, Pop-Pop to us grandkids). He put the bulk of the miles on it, and took fantastic care of it. He retired the car in 2000, with about 147,000 miles on it. I received it as a gift in the spring of 2000, and I have since logged 53,000 of my own miles on it. That’s an average of 11,778 miles per year, or 226.5 miles per week. Appropriately, the Camry turned over 180,000 miles last August while we were driving to Pennsylvania for Pop-Pop’s 80th birthday celebration.

On an average day, I drive the Camry roughly 10 miles - the round trip from home to work and back. We frequently make trips into Boston, Cape Cod, and other parts of New England. Our longest trip, however, was a journey from Woburn, Mass to Dunedin, Florida for our friend Joanna’s wedding. That was over 3,000 miles round trip, and the Camry even made the trip with a crack in the radiator which I didn’t know about until I returned to Mass.

The Camry isn’t an exciting car to be sure - not fast, not sporty, not cool, not rugged. But it is what I need in a car: dependable, long-lasting, comfortable, spacious, and excellent gas mileage after all these years.

Here’s to the Camry.

You can get a full view of the Camry here. Though I wasn’t able to take a photo when it turned over 200,000 miles, I hope to take one later tonight when Becky returns.