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INTERSTATE BOUND: Phil Marsella’s special Greyhound transporter – an ode to Ford bakkie endurance.
Bakkies are made to work and in the United States they work them pretty hard.
Take Floridian Phil Marsella’s four year-old Ford F-250 as an example.
The petrol powered F-250 has found the upper limit of Ford’s digital odometer’s endurance by tallying 1.6m km in only four years of ownership.
Ford never expected F-250 owners to surpass six figures in terms of mileage. As such the digital odometer could not record Marsella’s journey beyond the 1m mile mark; it stopped working at 999 999 miles.
On the road - all the time
Unpack the statistical implication of driving 1.6m km in only four years and you realise that Marsella spends an inordinate amount of time behind the F-250’s wheel. In fact, he averages around 8 000km a week - akin to commuting from Bloemfontein to Pretoria daily for work…
Factor in the service costs and consumables (brakes and tyres) and it is hardly surprising to find Marsella’s F-250 having cost him a chunky R480 000 to run in four years of ownership – excluding his fuel bill.
What does Phil Marsella do in order to rack-up such incredible endurance mileages? Phil delivers purebred Greyhound racing dogs to various events around the United States.
Considering the popularity of Greyhound racing Stateside, it is unsurprising to find Phil’s expert services in high demand – consequently leaving him on the road and behind the wheel of his trusty F-250 nearly all of the time.
This Saturday Phil will be celebrating his record mileage by partying away at his local tyre dealer and service outlet.
Buddy Hawkins, manager of Total Tire in Palm City, said: "I’ve serviced the truck since Day One, and we’re just going to have a customer appreciation day saying thanks for 1 million miles of service."
Quite fitting, as Phil is undoubtedly Total Tire's best customer.
Take Floridian Phil Marsella’s four year-old Ford F-250 as an example.
The petrol powered F-250 has found the upper limit of Ford’s digital odometer’s endurance by tallying 1.6m km in only four years of ownership.
Ford never expected F-250 owners to surpass six figures in terms of mileage. As such the digital odometer could not record Marsella’s journey beyond the 1m mile mark; it stopped working at 999 999 miles.
On the road - all the time
Unpack the statistical implication of driving 1.6m km in only four years and you realise that Marsella spends an inordinate amount of time behind the F-250’s wheel. In fact, he averages around 8 000km a week - akin to commuting from Bloemfontein to Pretoria daily for work…
Factor in the service costs and consumables (brakes and tyres) and it is hardly surprising to find Marsella’s F-250 having cost him a chunky R480 000 to run in four years of ownership – excluding his fuel bill.
What does Phil Marsella do in order to rack-up such incredible endurance mileages? Phil delivers purebred Greyhound racing dogs to various events around the United States.
Considering the popularity of Greyhound racing Stateside, it is unsurprising to find Phil’s expert services in high demand – consequently leaving him on the road and behind the wheel of his trusty F-250 nearly all of the time.
This Saturday Phil will be celebrating his record mileage by partying away at his local tyre dealer and service outlet.
Buddy Hawkins, manager of Total Tire in Palm City, said: "I’ve serviced the truck since Day One, and we’re just going to have a customer appreciation day saying thanks for 1 million miles of service."
Quite fitting, as Phil is undoubtedly Total Tire's best customer.
