Ranj Singh's '99 hatchback may not be worth much to most people, but when a thief sped off with his lovingly named "Purple Haze" nearly a month ago, he was crushed.

"I had kept my fingers crossed but as the days went by and then the weeks went by, I was getting more and more depressed saying, no, it's not going to happen," he said.

Singh says his daughter watched a man drive off with the car on July 13 near their home in Surrey, B.C.

On Sunday, RCMP called to say they found his car parked on a farm in Mission.

"Boom! All of a sudden, I was jumping on the phone!" he said. "Phoned my girls up, and they were all screaming and stuff. It's been really cool."

Valued at $400 in 2010

The Purple Haze has an astonishing 1.2 million kilometres on it and carries almost as many memories.

As a singer and musician, Singh relied on it to get him to tour stops and local gigs.

His daughters learned to drive in the car, and over the years it has become a rolling family album of sorts.

In 2010, he got into an accident and ICBC tried to write off the car based on an assessed value of $400.

He fought to keep the car. That was when it had 677,000 kilometres on it.

"I'm not a fan of people saying it's at the end of its life," he said.

"I'd drive it to Toronto tomorrow. I wouldn't even hesitate. That's how reliable that car is."

Even when the car does temporarily break down, and it's happened before, he says it always knew to make sure he was close to home.

Singh says police told him they now want to gather forensic data from the car and ICBC needs to have a look.

He hasn't had a chance to see it yet but is hoping it isn't damaged beyond repair.

"If that happens that will be heartbreaking, because we're back to square one again," he said.

However, an officer did tell him it's likely he'd still be able to drive it.

Singh says he is no stranger to cars with high mileage. He cranked out 450,000 kilometres and 575,000 kilometres on his last two Civics.