666,268km in Mirage and ready for more
Mitsubishi Mirage is powered by a 1.2-litre 3-cylinder DOHC engine featuring the latest version of Mitsubishi Innovative Valve timing Electronic Control variable valve-timing system that maximises fuel efficiency and power output
FRANKLIN: Jerry and Janice Huot drove their 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage 414,000 miles (666,268km) – through six gruelling winters in rural Minnesota – and the only reason they didn’t go farther was a too-good-to-refuse offer from White Bear Mitsubishi dealer principal Richard Herod III to trade in the Plasma Purple subcompact for a new 2020 Mirage earlier this year.
The Huots dubbed their Mirage the “Purple Won,” and outfitted it with a vanity plate that played off the car’s colour and the nickname of Minnesota’s favourite son and rock legend Prince. The paint colour also closely matched that of the Huot’s favourite NFL team, the Minnesota Vikings, which at one point, prompted Jerry to dress up the Mirage with Viking horn decals for Janice’s birthday.
On the way to 414,000 miles, the Purple Won was a commercial delivery vehicle, hauled rocks and mulch for a landscaping project and required nothing but standard maintenance. When asked about their Mirage experience, and their story is nothing short of epic. After getting the little purple car right off the showroom floor brand new, Janice drove it mostly for the first 7,000 miles or so, but when winter came, she wanted all-wheeldrive, so she got a 2015 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport. But then Jerry started using the Mirage for his business. As a courier, he delivered samples from various doctors’ offices to labs across the state. All the while, the Mirage never missed a beat. It got him up and out of their gravel driveway, even in the middle of winter, when others got stuck in the snow.
According to Jerry, they never had to even worry about maintenance, “It was stored outside year-round. I used it to haul rocks and mulch for our yard. All we did was routine maintenance. We had to replace the wheel bearings sometime after 150,000 miles (241,400km), and the starter motor was replaced at somewhere between 200,000 (321,870km) and 300,000 miles (482,800km), but that was all covered under warranty. Otherwise, regular oil changes seemed to do the trick.”
Speaking on the reason behind eventually selling the car he said, “I didn’t plan to. I had brought it in to the dealership for regular service and was saying hello to all the people we’ve gotten to know there when Richard (the local dealer principal) came by. When he heard about how many miles we had on the car, he said he wanted to use it for advertising, so he worked with us to get a great deal on a new 2020 Mirage.”
When asked what he thought about the new Mirage, he responded, “Oh, I love it! It’s similar to the old one, but it’s got HID headlights and fog lights, which are good for us living out on a dead-end road on the north side of the lake in Lindstrom (Minnesota). It’s really peppy and comfortable, and it’s got heated seats and a really nice stereo. But you have to understand, the Purple Won was the first new car I’d ever owned, and it was absolutely the best, totally dependable and economical. We still miss it. As long as Mitsubishi keeps making the Mirage, I’ll own one.”
In the Sultanate, the Mitsubishi Mirage is sold by General Automotive Company (GAC), the official distributor of Mitsubishi vehicles in Oman. The Mirage is powered by a 1.2-litre 3-cylinder DOHC engine featuring the latest version of Mitsubishi Innovative Valve timing Electronic Control (MIVEC) variable valve-timing system that maximises fuel efficiency and power output while greatly minimising exhaust emissions.
The engine was built with efficiency at its core, as such, it offers fuel economy of just 4.8l/100km. It also comes equipped with a wide array of safety features including dual front Supplemental Restraint System (SRS) airbags, four-wheel antilock brakes (ABS) with Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD), and Active Stability Control (ASC). Additional protection is provided by Mitsubishi Motors’ patented high-tech Reinforced Impact Safety Evolution (RISE) impact-absorbing safety cell technology.