Hi

Does anyone have information on the total miles their Austin Seven has travelled during its life to date?

I have little history of mine prior to 1970 so cannot even guess at the total mileage.

Regards

Colin

(P.S. This is not directly related to the above question, but if the 300,000 Sevens have travelled an average 50,000 miles, this would give a total of 15,000,000,000 miles by Austin Sevens to date - about 80 times to the sun and back!)

I've no idea of the history of our cars and our mileometers roll over at 9999 miles. However in our ownrship we have done: No1 car 120,000 miles, No2 car 65000 miles No 3 car 15,000 miles and a special I sold in 1981 30,000 miles.
Dave Mann

I think that has become an irrelavency now, unless one can really show provenance that the car has done a low mileage, then I suspect the engine will not be in very good condition, let alone the rest of the mechanicals.

At circa 70+ years old, most wear and tear items will have been replaced, or you have a lot of problems, or the car is in a museum, or in a garage that's opened on Sunday mornigs to let the car have some air whilst your cutting the grass.

No, I think milage is irrelavent now - and I can supply speedo's with whatever milage you want on them, it's very easy, you don't even require to use a drill to wind the clock back.

Sandy,
and my opinion is my own at this moment, it may change later though!

Oh no not been to the local watering hole again///// Sandy

Hi

Whilst the total miles covered may now be lost in the mists of time, there seem from the Chassis Register to be a lot of cars that retain their original engines. Since the Ruby speedo records up to 100,000 miles (and the number of rebores may be apparent from the number of thou. over standard), I thought there may a few who had an idea of their car's total mileage?

The maintenance schedules I have are based the car not exceeding 500 miles a week (!) so I it is possible that the initial mileages could have been considerable in some cases, especially for vans, of which there are few survivors.

The speedo on my car spent over 20 years at 10198 and so these numbers are faded - this provides a reminder every time I complete 1000 miles!

However, I agree that in terms of running the cars today, the total mileage has little or no bearing.

Regards

Colin

A7, "...been to the local watering hole...", some say have I been home, recently?.

Colin, I have a few speedo's with a row of faded numbers too, main thing is to enjoy your car, get out there and let it enjoy the fresh air and enjoy the new/old friends who seem to have 'learnt to drive'/'their grandad had one' etc etc that approach you in public places.

Great fun, without to much expense.

Sandy

Hi

I enjoyed driving my car again today - from the moment I opened the garage with that particular smell of leather, oil, fuel and age - to the musical ticks, whirrs and whines when proceeding along, the glint of the sun off the long bonnet on a corner, the smiles and waves from passing drivers, and the joy of taking a racing line through the many roundabouts round here (at a sensible speed, of course). The pleasure of driving remains after seven years...

Regards

Colin

Colin... Quote "..and the joy of taking a racing line through the many roundabouts...."

Yes, that's the way to do it and if it's without changing down too, all the better, but it does require a good sight line of the other roads joining the roundabout.

I have a couple of favorites near Penzance on the A30.

Sandy

Coming back form the Lands End trial a few weeks ago , the air leak meant that flat out running was the only real option, Most other motorists must have thought I was a lunatic as I shot through Truro flat out trying not to stop or slow for the roundabouts!!! .

Steve

Colin,
My late father's 1932 RN was bought 3rd hand by him in 1936 and is still used by me so I have a fair idea of its total mileage for most of its life.I have the insurance certificates during and after the War (From 1940 to 1947)which show when it was used and when it was laid up.Also I remember he rarely used it for more than about 8 months per year during the period from the early 50's to 1967 after which I did a full body off restoration for 4 years. He then used it all year round until he gave up driving in 1983.I then gave it another body-off restoration which took until 2003 when it has done about another 2500 miles.
So unless it was used by a sales representative for its first 4 years I guess it has done less than 200,000 miles. This is based on say 4000 miles a year when my dad had it and 8000 miles a year from 1932 to 1940.

Hi Dave

Thank you for your reply. This shows how the distance can add up even for relatively low annual mileages over so many years.

It appears that, with the appropriate informed care, our durable Austins can be kept running indefinitely...

Regards

Colin