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Mercedes Giving Badges To Owners Of High-Mileage Cars
Mercedes-Benz Japan launches program that will award retro-style badges to owners of high-mileage cars.
Mileage intervals to qualify are 100k, 200k, 300k, 500k, and 1 million km, as well as 10, 20 and 30 years of ownership.
The most high mileage Mercedes is a 240D with 2.8 million miles, belonging to taxi driver Gregorios Sachinidis.
Sachinidis donated his 1970 240D to the Mercedes-Benz museum in 2004 in exchange for a brand-new C-Class.
Mercedes-Benz Japan is now accepting applications that will see the brand hand out retro badges to owners of high-mileage vehicles and to those who have had their three-point starred cars for an extended amount of time.
Customers who think their Mercedes-Benz cars are qualified for the program need to sign up on the company’s local official website to have the car verified by one of Mercedes authorized dealers.
Once the car has been verified by the Mercedes dealer, the customer will receive the appropriate classic badge for the mileage on the vehicle, as well as certificate of commendation and a letter of appreciation.
This program has been going on for a while in Japan where mileage intervals to qualify are 100,000, 200,000, 300,000, 500,000, and one million kilometers, as well as 10, 20 and 30 years of ownership.
The most high mileage Mercedes belonged to Greek taxi driver Gregorios Sachinidis, who donated his 240D with 4.6 million kilometres (2.8 million miles) to the Mercedes-Benz museum in 2004 in exchange for a brand-new C-Class.
“The current Mercedes-Benz High Mileage champ is Gregorios Sachinidis, a Greek taxi driver with a record of more than 2.8 million miles in his 1976 Mercedes-Benz 240D,” said Mercedes-Benz USA.
The latest Mercedes-Benz to pass the 1 million mile mark is a 1970 280 SE (W108 E28), which belonged to George and Luzstella Koschel of Orange County in California.
The 280SE, which was bought brand new and driven by the family for 1,019,000 miles (1.64 million kilometers), now resides in the Mercedes-Benz Museum Collection.
