With proper care and maintenance, Honda cars boast of being able to travel distances equal to the moon and back. If you ever thought this was just a myth, a 2006 Civic that’s traveled more than a million miles on its original powertrain recently surfaced to dispel any doubts.
Popular brand representative and social media personality HondaPro Jason shared pictures of a blue FA-generation Civic sedan whose odometer maxed out at “999999” miles. It’s not uncommon to see Hondas wrack up six-figure mileages, but hitting the million-mile mark is impressive for any passenger vehicle. Doing so on the original engine and transmission elevates this one to the realm of legend.
Upon further digging, the Civic was sold to its one and only owner back in 2006 through Mathews Honda in Marion, Ohio, so we reached out to the dealership for the full scoop on this mighty little machine. The first thing we found out is that the car’s total mileage is unclear because the owner is still driving it every day. The real number has to be calculated via the trip computer since the digital display stops at 999,999. At last check, it was 1,001,043 miles.
“It’s been here since day one. We have all the service history. It has its original motor, original transmission, which is crazy,” the dealership’s assistant service department manager told us. “At around 500,000 miles it ended up needing a new head gasket. Obviously, he’s been through numerous sets of tires, numerous sets of front and rear brakes, multiple routine services that include tune-ups like spark plug changes and valve adjustments. Nothing out of the ordinary or major other than the head gasket. There was one instance where the engine’s computer went bad, but we replaced it and it was good to go.”
The Mathews Honda crew does see some high-mileage cars rolling through, but this is by far the most well-used.
“It’s proof that if you take care of your car, it’ll take care of you,” he said. “The owner comes in for an oil change about every three to four months and he follows his car’s Maintenance Minder system, which tells him when to service the vehicle.”
He also has no intention of replacing his Civic anytime soon. Meanwhile, the dealership would love for the car’s story to spread far and wide, all the way to Honda North America’s headquarters in Torrance, CA.
“I’d like to push the car out there for recognition, get the original salesperson, the owner, and basically anyone who’s touched the car together for a photo,” the service manager said.