Eagle Gets Owned

Generally speaking, no one’s allowed to drive my cars except me, and I avoid valeted events for this reason. In New York City, however, this kind of preciousness doesn’t get you very far. Still, when this burly parking jockey jumped into the Eagle’s driver’s seat like it was a bumper-car at the schutzenfest, Suzy Bruisy was understandably nettled. And as if the sight of some stranger firing up my Eagle like it was his own wasn’t nerve-wracking enough, the bozo immediately started lurching and chucking like he’d never driven stick before, stalled it, and then fired it up again and ground the gears putting it in reverse. I had to storm out of kiosk where I was settling up the bill (40 bucks), and yell through the car’s window that if he was going to drive it like a teenager, he’d better get out and let me park it myself. This being New York, the guy made like he wanted to brawl with me over it, and things might’ve ended badly if the lot owner hadn’t intervened. Nonetheless, I made a big show of snapping some photos, just to let the guys know they weren’t going to get away with anything.

Here in the Big Apple, driving isn’t as much of a problem as people make it out to be.  Cruising the streets of Manhattan is kind of like playing a low-speed video game in which a whole lot of taxicabs are trying half-heartedly to wreck you. The real killer is the parking situation, which consists largely of scrungy car lots and crammed parking barns operated by an assortment of seedy characters. But even this scenario beats the on-street parking, which can be done if you don’t mind circling the block for half an hour for a metered space, and then spending the rest of the day either worrying about getting towed or moving your car every two hours. My recommendation, especially if you’re downtown, is to bite the bullet and pull into one of those sketchy high-dollar parking lots.

So long, NYC! The Auto Show has been fantastic, and if you’re in the area I definitely encourage you to check it out now that it’s open to the public. No hard feelings about the parking either, since my Eagle got away without a scratch.