Oh I have a great valet story.- and it involves a E60 BMW 530xi. I was valeting cars before a wedding at a hotel that is grossly understaffed to be doing valet service for hundreds of people during a wedding, so the cars were waiting to be parked had formed a line 8 cars deep. I ran up the hill (because the parking lot is down the hill and across the street from the hotel), and jumped in the first car that had been left to be parked, the BMW 530xi. It was silver, had 54,000 miles, and cosmetically it was in average condition for a dd BMW. I jump in and start it and the whole instrument panel looked like Times Square on New Years Eve. The car was lurching and revving every few seconds- IN PARK. The info panel said something like "Severe Engine Problems- Reduced Power". I had to move the car though- it was blocking the hill and other cars couldn't be parked. So I eased it down the hill and to the stop sign, just realizing that our main lot was full and that I had to park in the overflow lot, which was about 300 yards away. I pressed the gas pedal and it did nothing. The car would only move under idle speed and was still lurching every few seconds. I parked it and wrote on the valet tag to tell the owners of the vehicle that their car needed to be fixed and that it was not safe to drive.

Fast forward to the next day, and I saw that we still had the key in the valet key holder. The people had stayed the night. Eventually the people had asked for their car and another person had grabbed their keys and told the people what it said on the tag. The other person grabbed me to explain why I had written about the problems. So I suggested that the owners of the car hop on a golf cart and ride over to their car with me and another valet so I could show them how it was. They got in and started the car and it did the same lurching that it did when I drove it. They turned off the car and got out and the guy said that this had happened before and he knew exactly what to do. He went into the trunk and pulled out a BMW branded bottle of fuel injector cleaner and poured it into the fuel tank. He said that it was no problem and thanked me for informing him about the problem. I drove away laughing with the other valet baecuse there was no way that a bottle of fuel injector cleaner could solve what probably was a severe fuel pump problem. I also felt bad because these people had been duped into pouring injector cleaner to fix a problem that the BMW techs probably knew would get worse and worse. They probably did it so that their warranty would run out and they would get paid more to fix it. I hope not. I hope that it was just a dumb car owner. I hope that there's not too many more people like that driving out there- but I know there is.

"The 2012 Daytona 500 on FOX. A Michael Bay Production"

I just successfully drove a manual for the first time without stalling once. I taught myself how to do it- I have been working as a valet for about 4 months and kinda taught myself on a few cars. An audi a4, pontiac solstice gxp, toyota yaris, honda cr-v, and my most sucessful drive a few days ago in a scion xb. It was probably not the most ethical thing to do using other peoples cars to teach myself with, but I always got another person to drive it if i stalled it more than once trying to move at first. And after I parked that scion and also when I retrieved it, I had the biggest smile on my face. I love driving a manual.

The "Goat Trail". Route 6 / 202 in New York between the Bear Mtn. bridge and Peekskill. It's pretty terrifying during rush hour with its blind curves and giant trucks going 40 around them. It's on the edge of a cliff about 200-400 feet above the Hudson river. I thought it was a nickname my dad had come up with, but about a year ago, I saw an electric road work sign that said "Goat Trail closed tomorrow for construction 7-10am". It didn't even say the actual route name for the road, which probably confused out of towners. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&am...

#20 - Chive On West Point from right outside Thayer Gate!!!

#29
"John Conner, I must get you on time to the PROM!!!"

Most of those were proudly assembled at the beautiful GM Tarrytown Truck Assembly in New York. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarrytown_Truck_Asse...

It's now a large open concrete space next to the Hudson bisected by train tracks though. http://www.gmsalariedretirees.com/GMplantHistory....
(scroll to middle of page)

Nice, but I absolutely hate red interiors. Also, to be fair, the 2008 Ford E-350 vans still had the pull switch headlamp controls. Needless to say, it confused the hell out of me for a few minutes after driving late model Chevy Express vans with a regular twist switch.

"Hey everybody, we're all gonna get laid!"

I feel like i need some Penicillin just from looking at that....but, it would totally be worth the pain.