Man Buys Most Reliable Minivan Ever, Takes Annual Photos Of His Children Growing Older In It As It Accrues 330,000 Miles

In 2012, a Michigan man purchased a 2004 Mazda MPV minivan — a vehicle that most folks rarely see today, and frankly rarely think about at all. Over the next 11 years, the machine would blow him away with its unrivaled reliability, racking up 200,000 miles on the already 130,000 mile total, and rarely requiring any significant mechanical repairs (besides rust). Here’s the story of this incredible minivan, and of the family that grew up in it.

This 2004 Mazda MPV minivan was featured by our one and only David Tracy way back in 2018 on Jalopnik. Those of you who fan-girl over DT content will recall that he actually drove this MPV as the first installment of High Mileage Heroes, a segment I hope to continue in his legacy (he’s still alive, don’t worry). At the time, our hero Jamie Anton had amassed an impressive 140,000 miles on his MPV for a total of nearly 270,000 miles.

He originally purchased the vehicle in 2012 when it had 126,050 miles on the clock; he picked it up for $6,200 at what DT called “a sketchy used car lot.” Jamie has gotten his money’s worth out of this MPV, conducting only simple maintenance on  the 330,000-mile, 19-year-old car, in addition to some rust repairs. The van has been everywhere, Jamie told me over Facebook Messenger. It celebrated its 300,000 mileage anniversary in Big Sky, Montana back in August 2020!

Anyway, besides the fact that Jamie still has his MPV, five years after DT drove it, and 11 years after he bought it, why is it making a reappearance? Well take a look at this .gif Jamie sent me:

He’s taken an annual picture of his children growing older each year in the back of their family MPV. That’s dedication! Might as well count the MPV as a child. There’s a gap between 2012 and 2016. I guess Jamie shipped his daughter off to some ultra-worldly expedition to find a higher mileage MPV. She came back with a brother, whom Jamie drove home from the hospital in this van.

David’s Turn

Hi Autopians, it’s David Tracy, here. I sent our weekend youngster, Rob, this story to write up after my friend Jamie messaged me that he “Had [his] 11th vanniversary this week.” He continued: “Old girl just keeps on going.” Then he sent me the .gif of his family (shown towards the top of this article), and I knew we had to share it with you all. That’s some wholesome stuff that we all need to balance out all the negativity we’re getting from the media.

I drove Jamie’s van three and a half years ago, and wrote a whole article on it (see screenshot above). At the time, I noted just how few repairs Jamie has had to make:

What’s incredible is how few mechanical repairs Jamie has had to do to this machine in the roughly 140,000 miles he’s had it. “[I have never touched] ANYTHING related to suspension or driveline,” he me.

“Struts/shocks/axles/axle boots/axle seals/ball joints/swaybar links/wheel bearings/etc… I’ve never touched,” he continued, before saying that, other than the sway bar link boots being cracked, the rest of the car is in “like-new shape.”

I also described what it was like to drive the thing:

And after driving this amazing high-mileage MPV, I can say: Jamie’s statement is no exaggeration. The machine is incredible. The engine—the 200 horsepower, 200 lb-ft Duratec V6—is so quiet, I literally couldn’t tell it was even on. The transmission shifted beautifully through all five gears, and when Jamie told me to “floor it,” the acceleration actually felt more lively than I expected.

Though I didn’t throw it into any turns at high speeds, my time behind the wheel had me thinking that this thing was meant to be more of a cruiser than a canyon carver. With its front MacPherson struts and rear torsion beam, the MPV’s ride quality was great, and equally as plush were the wonderful leather seats.

I don’t have much to say about the brakes or the steering, as I didn’t exactly take this thing on a track, but they were good. (I know bad brakes when I use them, going back to my various sketchy Jeeps brought back from the brink.) The MPV felt brand new. Truly. Which is remarkable, since Jamie says he thinks the engine and trans are original.

The engine under the hood is a 3.0-liter “Duratec 30” V6, which you might also find in a Ford Escape, Ford Taurus, Lincoln LS, Mazda 6, Jaguar X-Type, or any number of Ford-family cars. Apparently co-developed with Porsche, and largely considered underrated by those in the know, it’s largely free from major weaknesses, with the biggest problem being catalytic converter ingestion (I did find a video about loose cam bearing cap bolts, though Jamie hasn’t had that issue).

You can see the valve covers off Jamie’s engine in the image above, as he replaced the leaky gaskets (it was a simple and dirt-cheap job). Here’s a look at Jamie’s van’s camshafts with 200,000 miles on them:

Jamie tells me he replaced the timing chains/guides as a preventative measure. He also took care of the seals while he was at it:

As for the issue of the engine sucking in bits of catalytic converter and then destroying itself, Jamie checked his exhaust early-on. “When I disconnected it from the front header, it then emptied itself out.” You can see that here:

Hopefully that’s all of the catalyst in that housing; given that Jamie has put 130,000 miles on it since, I think it is.

Jamie has had to do lots of bodywork on his van. You can see in the image above that the thing got sideswiped (he also had his front left side hit by a rogue tire, though he fixed that with junkyard parts). Jamie luckily found a silver parts van nearby for only $400:

The Michigander engineer and proud human-and-car-dad removed the parts van’s doors and hacked off its rear quarter panel:

Unfortunately, even though the replacement front door was dent-free, it did have some rust. Jamie hacked that out and welded in some new sheetmetal, then he sanded, bondo’d, primed, and painted it:

He also fixed his car’s rusty rocker pael/B-pillar base:

Luckily, the piece on the donor car was in much better shape. He cut that out:

He hacked/drilled out his old piece, then welded in the new one:

After sanding, bondo-ing, priming, and painting, things looked good:

Jamie even fixed some rust around the rear wheel well, though to hide what he thought were less-than-ideal results, he installed a flare from a Pontiac Vibe:

Jamie also mended some rust holes he found in his floor; this required dismantling much of the interior:

And after knocking on some brown spots, he found quite a bit of metal with almost zero structural rigidity left:

Jamie’s an engineer, so he’ll gladly admit that his repair is a bit janky. He ground down the rust and screwed on some patch panels, using sealant to keep moisture out:

An ideal fix? No. But it’ll hold.

Below you can see Jamie’s van’s maintenance log from 2012 to present, and directly above that is a plot showing how many miles he puts on the vehicle as a function of time:

Jamie has been road-tripping this van all across the country, oftentimes towing a camper. It’s an absolute highway-crushing machine:

When it hit 300,000 miles, it was a big deal for the whole fam:

Here are some pictures of the Anton family’s latest road-trip this past Christmas, which took the van from Michigan to Key West and back without any issues:

Jamie’s got loads of albums filled with every bit of work he’s done on the van, his service logs, and all the big road trips the thing has taken his family on. He’s also got this collage in there:

And he’s got this fake-advertisement that he made:

Jamie uses the van to each his children how to wrench:

And he even takes it to car shows:

“Most of the body panels from the silver [parts car] went onto mine after [mine] got sideswiped” Jamie told me, saying the hood, front bumper, front fenders, passenger doors, rear passenger quarter, and the hatch of his car are not the originals. Just the driver’s side sliding door and driver’s rear-left panels are original “due to a combination of rust and when that guy hit me.”

Still, though a Ship of Theseus it may be, it just keeps trucking along, taking Jamie, his wife Sarah, and their kids across this vast country in reliable comfort.

What a machine.

All Images: Jamison Anton