Peter Kirchhoff , the "Kilometer King" from Sprockhövel near Wuppertal , was welcomed and honored today at the Skoda Auto headquarters in Mladá Boleslav . The reason was the record number of kilometers he drove with his first-generation Fabia .
Skoda Fabia 1.9 TDI (101 hp) from 2000 has a million kilometers on the odometer! Its owner, Peter Kirchhoff from Sprockhövel near Wuppertal, had carefully planned this moment for a long time: today, at 11:30 a.m. CET, he arrived in his Fabia in front of the company museum in Mladá Boleslav . The odometer accurately showed the sensational state of 999,999 kilometers . At this historic location, Mr. Kirchhoff was welcomed by the official representatives of the Skoda company, who congratulated him in the presence of many fans of the traditional Czech automobile company who completed the journey with him.
"Together with Peter Kirchhoff, we rejoice at this great performance. At the same time, we are very proud of the fact that he achieved this performance with a Skoda car. We couldn't ask for a better proof of the quality and reliability of our cars," says Dr. Martin Hrdlička , technical development representative of Skoda Auto. He himself participated in the design of the first generation of the Fabia model. "The Fabia caused quite a stir when it was presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1999," recalls Hrdlička. "In the same year, she won her first Golden Steering Wheel. He confirmed to us that we have captured the trend of the times with this car."
This report, unequivocal praise in the specialist press, a favorable starting price of DM 18,798 and the headline "Best in class in terms of insurance costs" were the impulses on the basis of which Peter Kirchhoff also decided on the Fabia. And on July 3, 2000 , he got the keys to his silver SKODA Fabia car for the first time.
"When we took over, the car had eleven kilometers on the odometer," recalls Peter Kirchhoff. Since then, the trained economist has been writing down every kilometer driven and costs down to the last cent. "Back then, I would never have dreamed that a million would appear on the odometer on the day exactly 13 years after taking over the car," he smiles. We owe it to his careful accounting that the entire life of this car is so carefully documented. Skoda Auto Deutschland has been in regular contact with Peter Kirchhoff since 2005. That was the first time he wrote to the editors of the customer magazine Extratour, which has been reporting on all his records since then.
When Peter Kirchhoff crossed the 500,000 kilometer mark with his Fabia in July 2007 , the idea arose to celebrate other records in extraordinary places. The brave Fabia was a reliable companion on the road for its owner: "Even after half a million kilometers, I still had the original exhaust on the car," recalls Kirchhoff. “The MOT with this car does not worry me at all! Defects? They just aren't!”
Peter Kirchhoff's Fabia has been taken care of by Skoda 's service partner Betgen & Potthoff in Hamm for years. During the preliminary technical inspection in June of this year, they thoroughly checked the car once again. Experienced car mechanic Werner Potthoff was delighted with the car's technical condition. "The car does not age and, especially when viewed from the outside, it is in top form. If I didn't know that the car had already driven almost a million kilometers – I wouldn't recognize it at first glance." Service advisor Matthias Lütkhoff : "The car is in original condition. The exhaust, engine, clutch and transmission were installed at the factory. With the help of regular maintenance, the car achieved this enormous performance," says Lütkhoff and adds with a smile: "In that time, I've touched every screw in the car." In order to ensure that there were no defects at all during the technical inspection on July 1, the Skoda service partner replaced the Hammu brake discs and pads. And the Fabia got another sticker. Only once during this long relationship did the car leave him stranded. "After driving 305,000 kilometers, the car stopped because of a porous cable harness," recalls Kirchhoff.
Members of the Skoda community, with whom Peter Kirchhoff has been in contact for many years, took care of the perfect condition of the "million dollar car" . They are all experts in automobiles and thus provided the millionaire Fabia with perfect care. The owner is delighted: “Now it looks like new. Only when I look carefully can I sometimes find a trace of a stone in the paint.'
Even after the millionth kilometer that appeared on the Fabie's odometer in his birthplace, Peter Kirchhoff will remain loyal to his car. He is already looking for a model from the next generation of the Fabia car from the Czech Republic. The odometer of his faithful car will no longer show anything after the millionth kilometer. After the number 999 999, only six horizontal lines will appear on the display . There is simply no place for the seventh digit. But the careful economist from Sprockhövel will continue to record the distance traveled according to the daily odometer. "If the car holds up – and I'm counting on it – I'll be able to claim another record," he hopes. When the third-generation Fabia comes on the market and Peter Kirchhoff takes it over, he wants to dedicate his car, which wrote a piece of motoring history, to the Skoda Museum in Mladá Boleslav .
Source: Skoda Auto
