Car has 603,500 miles in 5 years

Corolla owner sings praises of his auto's low maintenance

Posted:June 5, 2010 - 12:06am

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JON M. FLETCHER/The Times-Union

Jacksonville resident Scott Ose stops at a Gate Station off Interstate 295 for coffee and gas for his 2005 Toyota before making his daily commute to work. The Corolla S has racked up 603,500 miles in five years.

By Dan Scanlan

Scott Ose has a pretty common commuter car - if you discount the fact that it's racked up 603,500 miles in the past five years.

Now the world will learn about the St. Marys man's 2005 Toyota Corolla S, and the reason why he commutes about 230 miles each work day to and from his job in Savannah.

In a year when Toyota has gotten some bad press for brake and throttle problems and subsequent recalls, the fact that Toyota Connections magazine is doing an article on Ose and his marathon commute for the September issue is "great" according to its daily driver. He intends to hang on to it, for a number of reasons.

"It's so dependable, and quite honestly, I am still making payments on it. I still have a year, isn't that ironic?" said Ose, an aircraft certification inspector at Gulfstream Aerospace. "I will probably go and hang on to it. I want to break a million on it, or pass it down to the children."

Brian Cook, who is writing the "Me and My Toyota" column on Ose's Corolla, said he writes lots of stories about Toyota owners and their cars. This one is a bit different.

"This stuck out," he said. "He's a Toyota owner who had a pretty impressive track record, and it stuck out with the high mileage and the compelling story with his daughter."

The world record for high mileage on a car has been handed to retired New York teacher Irv Gordon's 1966 Volvo P1800 Coupe, with 2.5 million miles on its original engine.

So Ose's vintage isn't fancy. The compact 4-door gets a 130-hp four-banger, cost about $14,000 when new, and can manage 30 mpg or more.

Ose said he bought it while living in Jacksonville, because he needed something cheap and thrifty for those daily commutes to Savannah. He endured the commute for his youngest daughter, Zoe, who has cystic fibrosis and needed to be near a care center at Nemours Children's Clinic in San Marco.

He works at Gulfstream Aerospace because no job locally has the pay and medical benefits his seniority brings him there. His only concession - moving about a year ago to St. Marys, 45 minutes closer to work, to save some gas and shorten a commute that still starts at 2 or 3 a.m.

So far the Corolla has only needed some rear axle work and "a lot of tires and maintenance," and doesn't burn any oil.

"Inside's great. The outside looks great, but it's a bit scraped from highway miles," he said.

Ose said he's amazed that Toyota Connections, a 10-year-old magazine published by Southeast Toyota Distributors and mailed to owners in its five-state Southeast region, is doing a story.

He believes they got the tip from his dealership, and now it will be memorialized in print.

"It is great," he said. "It is good for Toyota and good for us."

High mileage runs in the family - the minivan has 145,000 miles on it.

Toyota Connections is also readable online at www. toyotaconnections.com.