01 roving mechanical peter davis million km discovery
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Carsales Staff17 Feb 2018
NEWS

One in a million: The unbreakable Disco

Former Qantas pilot's seemingly indestructible Land Rover Discovery defies the odds

Ever wondered what happens to a car odometer when a car reaches on million kilometres? Some of them flick back over to zero but for Harry Sirros' 2004 Land Rover Discovery turbo-diesel, the odometer is stuck on 999,999km.

Sirros now uses the short-range trip-meter to track his Disco's servicing requirements.

The Land Rover Discovery Td5 is probably the last car you'd expect to reach that milestone without falling to pieces, not least because it is driven by a former Qantas 747 pilot almost daily between Sydney and Bowral.

The million-kilometre Land Rover Discovery has also been around Australia at least three times.

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"The Discovery does some stop-start city driving and I used to do a bit of towing, but mainly it's been up and down between Bowral and Sydney, nearly every day," he said.

"It's been around Australia three of four times too … up to Darwin, around the Kimberley, down through Alice Springs.

"I used to fly around in the bush, so when I got the Discovery I went back to see all the old places I used to fly.

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"It's like a comfy slipper or a well-worn boot. That interior has been eaten in, slept in, changed clothes in… and it's never been garaged," said Sirros.

So what has required fixing? Not much, it turns out.

"I've serviced Harry's Discovery from almost new," explains Peter Davis of Roving Mechanical in the southern Sydney suburb of Peakhurst.

"It's had two transmissions but I haven't had to do any internal work to the engine; it has the original head and block," he said of the 2.5-litre inline five-cylinder engine, which pumps out 101kW/300Nm.

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"Harry will go 40,000km and not service it and then he might have us perform the next three 10,000km services in a row. It's surprising how well that engine has held up," said Davis.

The next challenge for the unbreakable 2004 Disco: Can it clock up one million miles? That's about 1,609,344km, for those of you playing at home.

What's the highest-mileage vehicle you've ever sat in? Leave your story in the comments section below.

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