My impending fatherhood hasn’t
really hit me yet. We’ve got less than 6 weeks to go, and though I’ve felt my
little daughter kick and punch dozens of times within her mama’s belly, I still
don’t think I’ve fully realized we’ll have another person (a very small, very
cute person) living with us come October.
*GULP*
(yeah, it's a pink Star Wars onesie with a Ferrari 288 GTO parked over it. What of it?)
My wife is the worry wart of our
budding family. She worries about everything, and I worry about nothing. But
that’s not really true. I worry; I just do it in secret. And ever since Tate
got pregnant, that worry has grown a little more each day. I worry about her
birth, her health, her walking and talking. I worry about her schooling, her
activities, and her friends. But I also know that, at the end of the day,
everything will be fine.
But, recently I let my worries
fast-forward way out of reach: about fifteen years, to where little Miss Mellberg
has passed her learner’s permit test. Cue the tragic music. Ugh, now I have to
worry about this, too?! Who knows, in fifteen years we could all be zipping
around in hover cars; or, it’s very possible that automotive autonomy will cast
a prevalent shadow over the transportation landscape.
Assuming the above scenarios
haven’t come to fruition yet, the actual hurdles will be getting our daughter
a car and of course, teaching her to drive. Let’s tackle the car first; I don’t
have enough words in me to describe what it’ll take to teach her how to drive.
As for the car; my first car was a 1991 Red Chevy Lumina with a cheap paint job
that looked decent when I bought the car from my parents for $1500. I bought it
in 2001 when I was 16 years old. If we mirror my experience for our daughter, the assumption will be that
we’ll help her somehow get her hands on a 10-year old car once she’s
ready. So, if baby Mellberg is born in the fall of 2014 that means that by
2029/2030 she’ll be ready for a car. And if we’re going with a 10-year old car,
we’ll be looking at around a 2019 model. While the Chevy Lumina died out long
ago, the Chevy Malibu is still alive and kickin’ (some would say unfortunately)
and has more or less replaced the Lumina. By 2019 the Malibu will be due for a
mid-cycle refresh, if not an all-out new model, but for arguments sake we’ll
assume it’ll look and feel like a current 2014 Malibu.
What will her car have that mine didn’t? It’ll be safer, for sure, with full ABS at all four wheels, possible lane departure warning technology, lots more airbags, and a government-mandated backup camera (as of 2017 in the US). Good, I feel better already. Fuel economy will definitely trump my old, thirsty V6 Lumina. The current (and assumedly future 2019 model) Malibu features engine start-stop technology to aid in fuel sipping, and the Malibu only offers a four-cylinder engine. This 2.5Litre inline-four makes a stout 196hp (waaaaay more than the Lumina’s 160hp V6 engine) and swaps gears using a six-speed automatic transmission. There is also a turbo I-4 option that makes 259hp; my daughter will not be getting that. And the price difference? Well, I don’t know how to calculate for inflation and all that crap, but it appears my old Lumina retailed for around $15,280 (in 2-door Euro Sport trim). Today’s 2014 Malibu starts at $22,340 (LS trim). The car comes standard with a host of options that my Lumina hadn’t even dreamed of, like a CD/MP3 player and front bucket seats (mine was a bench). I would say that the new Malibu’s full power (locks, windows, steering, brakes) and cruise control were a step ahead of mine, but the Lumina had them as well. But I’ll bet a base model Lumina from 1991 probably didn’t. Options like navigation and Bluetooth connectivity also weren’t around in my day. Good thing, too. If my daughter is anything like every other woman under thirty with a driver’s license, she’ll divide her time behind the wheel between watching the road and watching her cell phone. That is, until I catch her.
If your imagination cannot conjure up what the old '91 Lumina looked like, I have attached a link to help paint a picture (not that you'll regret not looking)
And for those who would like to see the current 2014 Chevy Malibu in the flesh, I invite you to the link below.
-Thanks for reading The Wheelspin Journal-
photo by the author
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