I hate putting my car in Valet, and I only do it with places where I know the guys. Very seldomly do I leave it, and when I do, it's only when I know their parking lot is really really close by. I would rather drive around for 10 minutes, or sit patiently while someone pulls out of a spot. Furthermore, I think it's an absolute waste of money to pay some dude 20-40-50 sometimes 60 bucks to park my car upfront. I wont do it on principle, might as well pull out a gun and rob me. In Bal Harbor they have recently put in a valet out front, that charges $20 to park your car in the garage, and $40 to leave it up front, I always find a spot within 5 minutes. I think it's silly to pay that much.
Aside from all that I had a friend that worked as a valet, and he would tell me about the cars he took out "joy riding" . It's better to go around and park it yourself.

 

$20 is what it cost me to drive my car.

I know if I'm going to have to park somewhere with a valet, I got to pony up the cash, up front. I park my car, I take my keys.

I can't think of a time that a valet said no to me. But I always start the conversation with, "I'll pay you $20 bucks right now if you let me park my car right there and let me keep my keys!"

It always works. As for my X5.. It's a lease, they can park it on the moon for all I care.

B

 

I park mine where I want to and keep the keys.

 

This for the winner...

 

8 days after taking delivery of my Range Rover Supercharged, the valet at the Intercontinental somehow curbed all four of the just installed 22" CEC's. I didn't think that was even possible, but there was a huge event going on and they must have moved it several times. The guy took pride in peeling off the chrome. We left around 3am, and didn't notice until the next day.

It was such a pain in the *** dealing with the hotel and valet that I wound up paying for the repairs myself. Lesson Learned. Never let them park your car. I park myself up-front only.

 

Friend of ours had an assclown proceed to flog his cold '94 3.6 Turbo, which he found out about after proceeding to spend a few thousand on dinner for a party of 8.

What a wonderful 'treat' after a nice evening.

 

We only have one restaurant in town that valets,,the Chart House,, a nice place for Melbourne.

When we took the Cab I would give the Valet mgr $20 up front, he let me park the car myself in the front row and I never had to worry abt it while eating.

I dont think a big city restaurant would be that accomodating.

I look at it as part of the dining experience.


Cab

 

I am a cheapass, and frankly, why should I pay some stranger to drive my GT2? If anything if should be them paying me to drive the car.

So, whenever we go to some foo foo place for stuff like this, I always take the beater E30. It is always funny to see the disgust that the valets have for the E30.

 

I don't reward bad behaviors. I pay them the valet ticket price, and let them have my E30.

Since I drive my GT2 a few days to work, I don't miss it when I take my E30 to restaurants of iffy parking situation.

 

Thirteen straight years of driving nice cars here in AZ and not one ding. I follow these rules:

Drive, choose space and self park.

We are fortunate here in Scottsdale, we have many fine restaurants with great self parking, as a result we often pick our resturants by the quality of the self parking, If it's valet only (T-Cooks/Lon's) we dont go, or....if no other choice, drive the truck.

I will never give the porsche/bmw keys to a valet.

 

I will not go to a place that does valet parking only. That's easy, because there are none here. Nonetheless, I don't understand why you would go out and pay for an overpriced meal, then also have to pay for a service you don't want (valet), or pay so that you can park your own car! IMO, that's the most ridiculous concept ever. And the guy who posted about paying $100-200 to park your own car...you're kidding right? You have waaay too much money if that's the case.

 

Hahahah FTFW

 

i just tell them "it's a racing clutch and you probably can't drive it." they answer "oh, that's no problem" i stand and wait for 3-4 minutes while they stall the car 3-4 times. embarassed, they let me park it.

- chuck

 

I agree with you 100%!!! For the past 3 years I've avoided parking in valet at all costs. I do not trust valet men, especially after an incident cost me $3,200.

 

Reminds me of the 2 parking attendents in Ferris Buellers Day Off (yes, I realize this dates me!!)