There comes a time in the affairs of men when they must rent. A car.
I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of this sooner, for fun or utility and before the necessity, before the latest round of repairs took a household of three drivers down to a single set of wheels.
It’s a dream realized, this Enterprise-supplied 2024 Chevy Malibu four-door in a metallic taupe that’s pleasing in some nondescript way. I’ve always wanted an American-made car. And if this is not quite the old straight-outta-Detroit boat floating on cushy shocks with steering so powered a single finger will do, call me naive but I still feel better about myself driving it.
Doubly so given the Ohio plate adorning its rear end.
I remember having a burger, my first with a fried egg on top, with a professor I was friendly with in a restaurant in Rockton, just over the Illinois border from Wisconsin, where I was attending Beloit College, and how he told me he wouldn’t be caught dead in an imported car, such was the importance of the unionized industry to his hometown in Ohio.
He also told me, during a discussion of the deleterious effects of wealth on a particular couple of students, that growing up the son of a grocer was the best thing that ever happened to him. If I were quicker on my feet I would’ve said that by that standard I looked forward to being a U.S. senator.
It’s humble but effective, this Chevy Malibu — basic, middle-class transportation, smooth ride, comfortable black fabric interior, sensible controls and dashboard display, good sight lines, and the sharpest rearview camera I’ve had the privilege of backing up with.
But please don’t ask me if such a car will last as long as my 2008 Honda. In its case, I expect just one more thousand-dollar outlay will push it back from the junkyard brink and into the rarefied realm of the 300,000-mile club.
Because did I say three-driver household? In less than two months the returning college kids will make it five drivers. Which raises a question of alternative modes of transportation.
Is a Noyac Road bike lane too much to ask?
