One owner – 82 years

Posted on February 17th, 2013 by James Higham

Courtesy Ian:

one owner 82 years

Can you imagine even having the same car for 82 years!

“How Long Have You Owned a Car?”

Mr Allen Swift (Springfield , MA.) received this 1928 Rolls-Royce Piccadilly – P1 Roadster from his father, brand new – as a graduation gift in 1928.

He drove it up until his death last year…..at the age of 102 !!!

He was the oldest living owner of a car that was purchased new.

Just thought you’d like to see it.

It was donated to a Springfield museum after his death.

It has 1,070,000 miles on it, still runs like a Swiss watch, dead silent at any speed and is in perfect cosmetic condition. (82 years). That’s approximately 13,048 miles per year (1087 per month) …

1,070,000 that’s miles – not kilometres!!

That’s Best British engineering of a bygone era.

I don’t think they make them like that anymore.

Filed under: History & Culture, Leisure, travel & sport

6 Responses to “One owner – 82 years”

  1. A K Haart, on February 17th, 2013 at 10:14 Said:

    Great story, great car – almost a pity the car is going to a museum somehow.
    A K Haart recently posted…That luminous modern thingMy Profile


  2. microdave, on February 17th, 2013 at 12:37 Said:

    My gob is well and truly smacked!


  3. microdave, on February 17th, 2013 at 14:33 Said:

    I’ve been looking into this some more, and it seems the mileage has become rather exaggerated. Two different sites put it at 170,000 miles, NOT 1million+. Still a respectable amount. It’s also had a complete rebuild during his ownership, but that is only to be expected. It’s also an old (2005) story.
    More here:
    http://www.automotiverestorations.com/case-16-rr-picadilly.html

    http://www.e3sparkplugs.com/news/tag/1928-rolls-royce-piccadilly-p1-roadster


  4. Amfortas, on February 17th, 2013 at 15:10 Said:

    I bet he added a few years to his age too.


  5. James Higham, on February 17th, 2013 at 16:26 Said:

    Hmmmm.
    James Higham recently posted…Aluminium underpantsMy Profile


  6. IanPJ, on February 17th, 2013 at 21:43 Said:

    I dont think the figures in either the original story, which I had received from a.n.other and passed on to James, and the links kindly provided by Microdave don’t seem to add up right somehow.

    After 78 years driving, a quick calculation would put his graduation at age 25, ‘Swift drove his head-turning roadster regularly’, the figure of 170,000 on the analogue odometer does seem a little low (2,100 miles per year, 5.5 miles per day).
    It would seem that he just moved it from the garage to the front of the house every day, or the wonderful machine had done several circuits of the odometer and is perhaps a bit closer to the 1m miles at 13,000 per year.

    Either way, its a wonderful car and still a pretty good story.


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