How long is a long time to keep a car? Most Americans replace their car every four years or so, which doesn’t seem all that long. Some muscle car aficionados have held on to their cars for decades at a time, though they rarely drove them. Yet cars are meant to be driven, right? Well a Washington man certainly took that to heart.

43 years ago, Lee Bates bought a 1967 Mercury Cougar XR-7. This news report by KomoNews tells us that he still drives that car everyday, and has so far racked up 718,000 miles and is still going strong.

Back in 1967, Bates wanted to buy a car that would last him forever. The ’67 Cougar was the Motor Trend car of the year, and Bates like the styling and features of the “gentleman’s Mustang,” so he bought one. He has driven the car every day since 1967, and the car has become something of a local status, proving good design can last forever.

Having bought the lifetime warranty, Bates has been getting free replacement parts for his Cougar for over forty years. After his ninth muffler, the dealership asked him to please, stop coming back. While the car appears to have a bit of a smoky start, it still sounds healthy and gets up and goes…and it is also in damn fine shape too. This car will one day be in a museum, that is for sure, but until then it will keep on driving every day, just as it was meant to.