Minneapolis Street Sighting: Chevrolet Lumina two door

First off, I usually don't blog cars this new, much less plain jane cars this new; but this is different. Sure, the Lumina is a mundane car, and rightly so; for much of its life, it was aimed primarily at rental agencies much like Ford's Taurus. Unlike Ford's Taurus, the Lumina (along with its W-Body platform mates) had something Ford never offered-- a two door bodystyle. In fact, despite being introduced in 1988 as coupes, the sedans for this platform came later, in 1990. All throughout the Taurus' lifespan, a coupe was never offered. I think Ford made a huge mistake. The W-body coupes tend to be popular with enthusiasts (of W Bodies, obviously) and family people alike. Plus, the coupes tend to look better than their sedan counterpart on many occasion, this one included.
Surprisingly, unlike most W-Bodies, not only is this Lumina a very early example, it seems to have been babied to death. Their isn't one single drop of missing paint nor a spec of rust. Even the original (and quite ugly) hubcaps still linger on, probably because this vehicle never gets driven hard enough for them to come flying off. It's not often that I see a Lumina that looks almost preserved. More often than not, these cars fall into two distinct categories-- beaters, or budget bling, or on rare occurrences, both. What I find intriguing (pardon the GM pun) is this example was fitted with base seats, base interior, but a maroon steering wheel and DIC. I don't think a DIC was an option on Luminas, I could be wrong though. Another cool aspect of this example was the intact trunk-mounted luggage rack. Surely, that's a rare item sought after by W-Body enthusiasts.
Overall, this is a very, very, very nice example--quite possibly the nicest Lumina I've seen since childhood even. Major kudos to the owner for keeping this staple of GM's midsize car era alive and running. Would I drive it? I did drive the successor to this car. So, technically, I have. I didn't mind it, but its not quite what I would call thrilling. I suppose these are good cars for someone though. But that "someone" better not be expecting spirited handling in any way, shape, or form.