85fortheDrive

My dear wife and I had a chance this evening to join some friends down in Lincoln Park for a little Tapas food and a show at the Vic Theater. So we take the 928 down to the city and I elect to have the car valeted at the restaurant.

As we come back out of the restaurant, I hand my ticket stub to one of the valets and we set about waiting for the delivery of the car. About five minutes later, I hear the BWAAH approaching from my right. "Okay, hon', here's our..."

The guy flies past us on Sheffield like he's forgotten where the restaurant is. Five MORE minutes later, he returns from the opposite direction and sheepishly steps out of the car.

No dings.
No scrapes.

No tip.

Andre Hedrick

Should have said $50 please for the thrill ride junior!

SeanR

My 1st valet experience was funny.

We pull up and the kid that steps up says "wow, 928 S4" he knew what it was and I had no problem giving him the keys. (this was last year)

We come back a few hours later, same guy jumps up to get the car........he could not figure our how to put he head lights on/off and was very sheepish. He got a good tip for knowing what the car was.

Mike Frye

Sorry, ever since 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off', I always park my own car.

Besides, it's harder and harder to find someone who can drive a stick, let alone with a different shift pattern.

ew928

If not explained to valets about the dogleg shift pattern, may find one's car going in reverse at a high rate of velocity at something immovable.

So will the odo reverse mileage off it's reading if jacked up and run in reverse.

84-928S-inChicagoland, did you call up the restaurant manager and thank the valet staff for the very efficient Italian Tuneup. (If it works on Fiats, Alfas. It must work on Porsche's too.)

85fortheDrive

That is a must, for me. I won't let any valet get in the car without the obligatory "first is DOWN and to the left." Our ODO is busted, so I haven't the wherewithall to see how far the car has travelled.

FWIW, after we left the restaurant, we headed over to the Vic theater. I'm told by our friends that there is valet parking one block north of the theater. As we pull up to the valet sign behind another car, I hear the valet guy tell that driver that the lot is full. The valet then ambles back to our car and I note that he is using a cane and is walking with a fairly pronounced limp. He tells me the lot is full, but that he can make room for our car.

Even after a few sangrias, I knew this was not a good situation. So I declined and drove around looking for parking; I was 20 minutes late to the damn show.

I don't know how people can live down there. Too many people in too little space...

Ed Hughes

It costs me $13-15 to valet my car when we go out.

$10 on arrival to have the guy park it right in front, $3-5 for the guy that gets it ready and opens the door for my wife. Works well in that they don't get to take it out of my sight, I get to keep and eye on it, and I get to show it off. Money well spent, IMO....kinda like an insurance policy.

Andre Hedrick

Has nothing to do with showing up looking like your avatar does it?

perrys4

Look who's talkiing, LOL!

Fabio421

I used to valet at a very nice golf and yacht club in Va. Beach. I can tell you from experience that the valet will take a fast car on a joy ride. I have done it tons of times. We used to cruise the strip in some of the nicer cars and show off for girls. I had the owner of a Ferarri F-40 tell me that I should tip him for letting me drive it. At the time I thought it was a dick head thing to say. I now know that he was probably right.

Marcquito

I have a friend who works for a valet company in Atlanta. He's taken a few cars on joyrides. I sometimes get a funny phone call, "Hey man guess what? I'm in a sweeeeeet Ferrari Dino!" *rev rev rev*

I then ask if there are any job openings.

928ntslow

I used to park cars (Valet) in my senoir year of High School. They hadn't releaased the 928 as of yet, but my dream car was a 936 at the time. Low and behold, one evening, some guy pulls up in one and I think I almost pissed all over myself. Letting the clutch out on that thing was scarey! It just WANTED to go!

I drove Rolls to Ramblers in those days and thoroughly enjoyed the experience/opportunity. Met a lot of nut case owners and met some Honey's I ended up going out with. Probably one of the best jobs I ever had in my life as I worked for a service and parked cars at many places and affairs. Made some good money too!

However, I never took any cars out for joy rides and neither did anyone else who worked there. That's just not cool and I'll save my comments about you guys that did...just plain wrong!

Eclise

I'm with NJSharkFan. These guys have permanently opened my eyes regarding the valet industry:


On a serious note, my dad and I went to Detroit last year to the auto show. We stayed in a Holiday Inn (IIRC), and the valet service scraped the side of his new Tahoe's running boards. The valet said "we had a hard time getting it out of the garage," and he had the aforementioned "sheepish" look on his face. We didn't see the damage because everything was covered in salt from the winter season. Things eventually worked out, but the best advice here is if your valet looks like he has done something wrong, he probably has, so inspect your car thoroughly! Or just don't use a valet.

Ed Hughes

Actually, I used my tactic today at the Mansion on Turtle Creek for my wife's b-day. The guy only drove it 20 feet, and parked it right in front...

davek9

I would NEVER hand my keys to a stranger, like Ed I would rather flip out a $10 or $20 and say "where can I park it?".