I avoid valets too. I also park far away when possible - not just door dings, but too many people walking between your car with jacket zippers, handbags, or whatever items they're carrying (like my huge hockey bag this afternoon) - not good. An extra 15 seconds of walking is fine. I don't care if it's a $50k car or a $20k car... that's just the way I roll with my personal property. If it's leased, I wouldn't care as much.

Did I mention my dealer banged up my car pretty good at some point under their care? The SA didn't know about it until I pointed it out at pickup despite it being clear as day. I had a thread on that and mentioned it a few more times for weeks after. If those guys can do it, any plain jane valet elsewhere can too.

As long as we're on the topic - I can't believe some places that have valet... like a slightly-higher-end family restaurant. It's a small property with the parking lots steps away from the door. WTF is the point of a valet there? All 3 of us drivers stood their waiting minutes for the 1 guy to drive our car up 20 feet one by one while our families stood behind us twiddling their thumbs - and we had the privilege of tipping him for it too.

P.S. Yes pre-LCI people are jealous of the new cams.

Hit a nerve ? Why ? is it because I respond to your stupidity ? Hardly. But I won't allow you to interpret the forum to me, or dictate what I will or will not post. A Buick Forum ? Hilarious. Don't make yourself seem so important.

To get this thread back on track. The 2011 camera is like HD movie camera compared to the 1970 Betamax home camcorder my 2007 backup camera looked like.

Excellent. Feel better?

But to recap, here was my post and your response:

I guess I was clearly WAY out of line.

kloogy: I don't think ard was messing with you personally, just making a sort of joke. Lighten up. Or not.

Count me in as one of those who WILL NOT use a valet, at least right now for my X5. When I attended an event recently that I really wanted to go to and I was already there in my new X5, and the only way to park was valet or walk 1/2 mile in the cold and dark, I drove the 9 miles home and got into my 8 year old G35 (which I still like but it's already got dings) and drove back. I didn't even like them driving that but there were FAR better cars at that event, and like I said I really wanted to go.

I don't like anyone fooling with stuff in my car, like radio stations, seat settings (I know, not much of a prob with memory), etc. Even the dealer's guy (I KNOW it was the @##$ valet) changed my radio station the last time I was there. WTF? To drive the car 100 feet you need to change the goddamn radio station? No wonder you're still a valet.

I've let valets drive my X5, Z4, and 535i, if they have a reasonable place to park them. They are just cars.

I think there are probably a wide range of skills and care taken by various valets. I worked for one school year as a valet at a high end restaurant in 1976, and we were trained to not adjust mirrors, seats, or radio. If we needed to move the seats or mirrors to park it we noted it to the owner when we returned the car, pointing out that we had wanted to make sure we parked it carefully. That was always good for a better tip. Fastest ride was a late sixties Corvette with a 427. Had to go the long way around the block to get to the lot. Best tips were always the older economy cars, with the guys taking their dates out for an anniversary, and they wanted to impress. Worst attitude were the Mercedes owners or the Rolls owners. Most memorable car was a mid seventies BMW Bavaria 3.0 with a stick. It was a whole level different than the 2002 models we saw more frequently. I decided then that I was going to own one similar to it some day. The 535 is the closest I got.

heh - similar thing happened to me... he put the seat all the way back and down ghetto style to drive the car up to me. And another valet that same trip to the dealer dinged my 214 rim REALLY badly. It was parked next to a curb. Perfect, thanks.

not trying to stir up heat, but why do y'all expect valets to be model citizens? they probably get paid minimum wage and don't care about your cars one bit. when you hand your keys to a valet, chances of dings, thefts, and etc go way up.

They get paid by their employers and tipped by the car owners to PARK the cars safely and efficiently. Implicit in this job description is an obligation, even if only a moral one, to do the best job possible in this regard (actually that implicitness exists in every job). This includes returning the car to the owner in the same condition as when they took custody of it. The only thing that should happen to the car is that it should have up to 1/4 of a mile extra on the odometer. Is that a whole lot to ask?

Maybe it is because they don't take that obligation seriously and don't take pride in their work, no matter how mundane, that the job is seen as "only a valet". I suppose there are some who do this job well, and as a result probably rise above it before too long.

This applies to pretty much all jobs btw, even if you are a business owner. Treat the customer's trust with seriousness and ownership, and your rewards will come. Eff around and you won't get far.

BTW from what I gather their take home pay can be considerably more than minimum wage, especially if they work at the higher-end restaurants and such.

More BTW, this is a useless discussion. It's highly doubtful anyone reading this is a valet, though it's possible some were in a previous career.

When people think about allowing valets to drive their cars or not (and valets may not be as careful as owners) they often forget that self-parking means that Joe Sixpack is also self-parking next to you. I worry about those potential dings and scrapes more than any caused by someone that I am paying to park my car. It isn't the valet you need to worry about, it is the lowest common denominator (and odds are that sometimes he will park next to you).