European cars have long carried the reputation among some Filipinos of being low-mileage, high-maintenance machines best kept for city driving. The common belief is simple: the more you drive them, the more painfully expensive they become to maintain, which is why many barely make it past the 200,000-kilometer mark before ending up in the used car market for half their original price. As the saying goes, “let the next owner deal with the headache.”

But it turns out that when these cars are actually driven the way they were engineered to be driven, some of them can clock well over half a million kilometers without needing major repairs.

Just recently, YouTuber Hamid Tailormade Cars (link here) visited a man in Stuttgart, Germany, who owns what could be one, if not the only, modern Rolls-Royce Phantom with the highest mileage in the world.

Despite being a 2019 model, the ultra-luxury sedan has already clocked an astonishing 775,404 kilometers, and remarkably, it still looks almost showroom-fresh, complete with full service records and barely a noticeable scratch on its body. Even crazier, the Phantom is now just 224,596 kilometers away from hitting the mythical 1,000,000-kilometer mark.

Odometer shows 775,404 kilometers

For context, that mileage is roughly equivalent to driving from Aparri to Davao City and back (round-trip) 204 times, or averaging a mind-blowing 110,772 kilometers every year for the past seven years. Even crazier, using the Rolls-Royce Phantom’s claimed 6 km/L fuel economy of its 6.75L twin turbo V12 engine, the ultra-luxury car has likely burned through roughly 129,000 liters of gasoline in its lifetime.

The owner even showed Hamid the car’s complete service history, revealing that the Rolls-Royce Phantom religiously visits the dealership every two months to keep it in pristine condition. Even more impressive, the owner claimed the car still runs on its original engine, twin-turbo setup, and transmission despite already clocking over 775,000 kilometers.

The only notable replacement so far? The soft-close mechanism on the driver’s door.

The Phantom's service history

The owner says he has already taken his prized Rolls-Royce Phantom across Scandinavia, Siberia, and even the harsh landscapes of the Western Sahara, and he has no plans of slowing down as he chases the 1,000,000-kilometer mark.

Maybe this owner took the Overdrive anthem a little too seriously because he doesn’t treat his Phantom like a garage queen. Do you think Ely Buendia would approve?