Tim German doesn’t consider himself a celebrity, even though he has received quite a bit of publicity racking up more than 860,000 kilometres in his 2017 Hyundai Elantra delivering Canadian Blood Service products to hospitals in Atlantic Canada.
German is a courier on call to deliver the products in short turnaround time – STAT – to New Brunswick, P.E.I, and Nova Scotia, where he is based in Dartmouth. His shift is from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m.
“It is a specialized job and not many that actually do it,” he said. “I’m the only one that delivers right from the source to the hospital in question throughout the Maritimes. But I know there are many people who make these important deliveries daily and are dedicated and compassionate about the services that we provide. To help people in their time of need is a great way to make a person feel good, and personally like most of the people in this industry we are blessed and proud to be able to support the enormous and ongoing supply of the health care profession.”
He’s been doing it for 10 years, the last seven years in his Elantra, racking up 10,000 kilometres a month. He said his yearly gas bill is more than $20,000.
The car, which has more year left on the eight-year purchase plan, has absorbed several collisions with animals. There’s been three incidents with deer and a coyote. The car has also been hit with flying auto parts such as a steel hub cap from a Ford work van that hit him “like a shotgun” and a big panel of stainless steel from a transport truck. Though he has not sustained any injuries, the car has needed quite a bit of work because of the contact, in addition to all the mileage. The flying hub cap and the steel panel both resulted $2,500 apiece in repairs. He has not sustained any injuries because the air bags have not deployed, which he said have also saved the car, too.
“They say if the air bags deploy it’s a writeoff for the car,” he said. “It’s not worthwhile to replace the air bags because of the cost.”
He had a 2016 Hyundai car that had the air bags deploy from the driver’s door after he and his wife were going up a mountain towards Cape Breton in heavy rain and ran into a guard rail. He said the air bag gave him a “Mike Tyson to the chin.” The insurer decided not to repair the car and write it off.
He said the 2017 Elantra appealed to him because Hyundai advertised that the car had reinforced steel super structure and various safety features.
“I’m really happy that I bought I,” he said. “It’s a really comfortable car and also has heated seats, which is a great feature in the wintertime and I don’t know how I lived without them actually.”
He has an interesting story behind the nickname he chose for his car. It began after he had delivered specialty drugs to some individuals and they called him an angel.
“So I thought that maybe I would name the car Dark Angel because it’s black and comes out mostly at night and is probably more of an angel that I am, lol,” he said. “It’s been an angel to many people, getting these life-saving products delivered in a timely fashion. It’s helped a lot of people survive and the car has treated me very well. I absolutely love this car. It’s cost me some money to keep it going because of the high mileage and it’s still running well. Hyundai would like to see me get to a million kilometres. I expect to hit that mark in the next 12 months – if it stays together for me. There’s no guarantee a seven-year-old car (can last that long).”
He is the only owner and sole driver of the car, and said his high standard of maintenance has kept it roadworthy. It passed the recent Nova Scotia car inspection, making it driveable for another few years.
German said he has spent $3,5000 on repairs this year. He said there’s a huge deer population in the Maritimes, which come out in the early morning when he’s driving, striking one recently. The new windshield he’d just put in was smashed in the recent collision. He’s also struck a coyote that took off the front end. He said he’s replaced the front end five times already.
He has insurance but sometimes will fix the car rather than put in claims and see his rates escalate. He is the son of an auto mechanic instructor and considers himself handy, replacing filters, rotating the tires and changing the oil monthly. He also uses a red-seal mechanic to do the harder work.
“It becomes costly and time consuming, but this is a job that is very important and you have to have a safe, reliable vehicle,” he said. “I certainly want to be safe about things. When you have other people working on your vehicle, sometimes you’re really not in the know of what’s going on.”
A friend of his who works for Hyundai began pushing him to contact the manufacturer once he totalled 300,000 kilometres. Tim, who says he is humble, held off until he hit 700,000, but his friend insisted he call Hyundai, which has been doing writeups on its website and social media. Michael Currie, who had been General Manager of Steele Hyundai in Halifax where German purchased the car, became aware of the story and shared it with the dealership’s social media. Currie said it “blew up” because of the interest in that type of story. The dealership has supplied him with winter and summer tires and some parts.
“He’s like the poster child for maintenance,” Currie said. “We see a lot of cars with 300,000 to 400,000 kilometres. That wouldn’t be particularly uncommon. We’re not a stranger to high-mileage cars, but getting to one million kilometres takes a lot. It’s quite a feat to get a million kilometers.”
German has found his newfound fame “somewhat overwhelming” because he said he is kind of shy and a private person.
“I guess now I’m embracing it as I am excited to be able to achieve this mileage milestone with the Dark Angel,” he said. “I believe that everyone who works in the health care system is a hero and should be proud of themselves and the important work that they do.”
Perry Lefko is the Content Manager of The Car Magazine. He can be reached at [email protected]. Feel free to forward any story suggestions or comments.
