Million Mile Trade

Toyota Takes in 2007 “Million-Mile Tundra” on Trade
Customer Victor Sheppard Drove Off in a 2016 Tundra

Quote :

A Toyota dealer in Louisiana took a most unusual trade-in on one of its new trucks, the famous Million-Mile Tundra owned by Victor Sheppard.

As you may remember, Sheppard made news a few months ago when his 2007 Tundra’s odometer stopped at 999,999, but it sounds like that's the only piece that's broken down. After purchasing the truck brand-new, Sheppard started racking up the miles, driving between Louisiana, North Dakota, Virginia, and Wyoming for his job. He averaged 125,000 miles per year, hitting the million mark less than a decade after buying the Tundra.

According to Greg LeBlanc Toyota in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Sheppard kept his Tundra well maintained, including timing belt replacements, oil changes, and manufacturer-recommended maintenance. The truck still sports its original engine, transmission, and paint job. “Most people can’t believe how much on this truck is original,” said Rod Weimer, the dealership’s general manager. “Victor has been loyal to his maintenance and kept it up.”

So what’s next for the Tundra? After all, a dealership probably won’t want the liability of selling such a high-mileage vehicle, regardless of its excellent current condition. Some dealers exhibit such vehicles on the showroom floor as a means to impart confidence in their consumers or advertise the effectiveness of good maintenance.

The most likely outcome, though, is that Toyota engineers would step in and take ownership of the vehicle, then inspect every mechanical part and accessory, evaluating how each held up. Such knowledge would help engineers make parts that are similarly durable for future vehicles.

“Having a million-mile truck in as pristine condition as this one with original parts is a truly rare find,” said Mike Sweers, Toyota’s chief truck engineer. “Our team plans to tear down the entire truck, bumper-to-bumper, top-to-bottom to evaluate how the quality and safety we designed, engineered and built into the Tundra has held up to over one-million miles of real-world driving and help us continue providing ever-better vehicles for our customers.”

For the record, Sheppard traded the 2007 Tundra in on a 2016 model. That’s consumer confidence.

Truck Trend

That will make for some good press as well.

You would think Toyota would have given him a new one outright just for the bragging rights alone.

That was impressive. But man I don't want to spend that much time in my vehicle. It cant be healthy.

pup wrote:

You would think Toyota would have given him a new one outright just for the bragging rights alone.

The father of an old neighbor of mine from twenty or so years ago, had a Honda Accord (1st generation I believe) that rolled 1 million miles and Honda did just that. Brand spanking new Accord for his old one. And the original one was ten or twelve years old. Sweet deal!

This article says that Toyota did give him a 2016 for his...just so they could tear it down and study it.
http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/toyota-million-mile-tundra-news-report-pics/

You can tell he does a lot of sitting and fast food. I would hate to know what I felt like being idle that much.

Sweet deal though!

Wow, 125k miles a year. That is about 350 miles a day. Every day. If he averaged 60 mph that would be about 6 hours driving a day! His work must be driving.

pup wrote:

This article says that Toyota did give him a 2016 for his...just so they could tear it down and study it.
http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/toyota-million-mile-tundra-news-report-pics/

That's cool.

I would like to have seen a Ram EcoD, Colorado Dmax or Titan XD run on that schedule and see what the operating cost would have been.