Meet the million kilometre Kia. Ben O’Connor is a Sales Manager for New Holland Tractors at Colemans of Millstreet in Cork and his Sportage Diesel GSE 4×4 has just crossed the million km mark, having been supplied as a company car 15 years ago by Colemans adjoining Kia dealership.
Regular servicing and maintenance have been attributed to the smooth performance of the Sportage, which does a fair amount of short journeys but occasional longer journeys to Kerry and Limerick allow the car to stretch its legs.
Intriguingly, the car’s odometer has only six digits so nobody knew what would happen once it passed the million km mark. As it turns out, it just stopped, so the trip computer is now the only way to keep track of distance travelled.
In all its time with John, the only major component replacement has been a new clutch. It has also had two new batteries and a starter motor and new tyres roughly every 50,000km.
John’s older brother is Billy Coleman, who was one of Ireland’s greatest rally drivers in the 1970s and 80s.
