Jerry and Janice Huot spent 414,000 miles driving the Purple Won, but it wasn’t their first choice. When the Huots arrived at White Bear Mitsubishi in White Bear Lake, Minnesota to trade in a Cadillac, they wanted a vehicle with better fuel economy. They saw that a Mirage got 44 mpg and they ended up driving it home.
The 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage survived six winter in rural Minnesota. The only reason it won’t be surviving its seventh is because White Bear Mitsubishi dealer principal Richard Herod III offered to trade them the for a new 2020 Mirage earlier this year. When they arrived at the dealership that day, they didn’t plan on trading it in.
The Huots purchased the Mirage from White Bear Lake Mitsubishi.Photo courtesy of Mitsubishi Motors
“I had brought it into the dealership for regular service and was saying hello to all the people we’ve gotten to know there when Richard came by,” said Jerry. “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 great deal on a new 2020 Mirage.”
The Purple Won arrived at the dealership for trade wearing a “Purple Won” custom license plate and a purple paint job. The couple conceived the vanity plate’s message by combining the car’s color with the nickname of Price, who hailed from and lived in Minnesota.
The Huots had a lot of fun over the course of those 414,000 miles. One year Jerry dressed up the Mirage with horns for Janice’s birthday in honor of her favorite football team, the Minnesota Vikings.
The Mirage lived a full life of many acts. It served as a commercial delivery vehicle, hauled rocks and mulch for a landscaping project and required nothing but standard maintenance.
The car had over 414,000 miles on the odometer when it was traded in.Photo courtesy of Mitsubishi Motors
“Janice drove it mostly for the first 7,000 miles or so, but when winter came, she wanted all-wheel-drive, so she got a 2015 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport,” Jerry shared. “But then I started using the Mirage for my business. I am a courier. I deliver samples from various doctors’ offices to labs, so I drive up and down the state and around town in Minneapolis all the time. The Mirage never missed a beat. It got me up and out of our gravel driveway, even in the middle of winter, when others got stuck in the snow.”
The Huots with their 2020 Mitsubishi Mirage, complete with custom vanity plate.Photo courtesy of Mitsubishi Motors
The Huots never babied the Mirage. It was stored outside year-round. Naturally, it needed some repairs from time to time. “We had to replace the wheel bearings sometime after 150,000 miles, and the starter motor was replaced at somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000 miles, but that was all covered under warranty,” Jerry said. “Otherwise, regular oil changes seemed to do the trick.”
The Huots haven’t divulged if they have any mileage goals for their new Mirage.
