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200,000 Miles is a Start: Four Thousand High Mileage Cars and Trucks Registered at Enthusiasts' Web Site

    HACKENSACK, N.J., March 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Not long ago, most cars sold
in the United States didn't even have a sixth number on their odometer.

    Today, in a testament to how far automobiles have traveled on the road
to quality and durability, the Allpar 200,000 Mile Club claimed its 4,000th
new member. The club is exclusively for high mileage vehicles, including
one van still going strong after a million miles.

    Car number 4,000 was registered on March 9, 2010 by Robert O'Neill, an
IT trainer in Florida. The 1986 Dodge Daytona is his daily driver, getting
32 mpg with 296,349 miles on the original engine.

    The cars are a testament to their owners, many of whom do their own car
repairs. Club leader David Zatz observed, "Using the right fluids and parts
helps prevent big-ticket repairs and can keep costs down. Doing the work
also adds to the owners' pride of ownership, which keeps people from
trading their cars in for newer models."

    Dr. Zatz, an organizational consultant, has only reached 101,000 miles
on his 2000 Chrysler 300M - so far. His lifetime high was 165,000 miles on
a Plymouth Valiant. "I flit from car to car more than I should," he said.
But what were once high numbers don't qualify him for a club whose
membership is growing less exclusive by the day.

    The Allpar 200,000 Mile Club has a searchable database at
http://www.allpar.com/. It only includes Chrysler Corporation brands,
including Dodge, Plymouth, and Jeep; a similar club run by toyoland.com
(for Toyotas) has just over a thousand entries.

    The average car on Allpar's list has 260,000 miles; the most popular
years are the 1990s.

    Dr. Zatz randomly verifies entries, and checks every car with over
350,000 miles. When owners cannot provide evidence, the entry is deleted.
Extraordinary entries are profiled by social historian Jessica Eustice.

    Dr. Zatz started out by manually retyping information from emails;
after a thousand cars, he automated the system, but each car and truck is
still approved by hand.

    The club is hosted by Allpar.com, a widely-regarded,
independently-operated web site started in 1998. The site has news, forums,
and over 1,800 Web pages covering cars from the dawn of Chrysler to rumors
of future vehicles.

    The club is at http://www.allpar.com/old/club/