At a hotel this weekend I used valet parking. Made a point to hand the gentleman my fob before he left. Next morning I go to retrieve the car and a new driver asks me if I have the key. " Well no, I gave it to the driver." "He wrote "No Key" on your ticket." "Maybe he did, but it's just a fob, no physical key, but I gave it to him." "I'll see if it's in the car." So, sure enough, the guy left the fob in the inside door handle. I guess that's good. But, he left my car unlocked in a large city parking garage with the key inside. I also now wonder if he even turned it off? This generation of Prius with SKS has been on the road for almost 9 years now, & that valet parking attendants at a busy hotel in a major city are still unfamiliar I find very surprising. What did he think I gave him the fob for & how did he think it was running sans a key? iPad ? HD
good point, and i don't think toyota is the only one with sks now. i've seen a lot of cars advertised as push button start. i'll refrain from commenting on the intelligence of valets.
I hate valet and avoid it at all costs. I'll walk from where ever I have to park myself. I've heard far too many valet horror stories from friends and family than to be bothered with the aftermath. Ferris Bueller anyone?
Why? Given the state of the economy, it is quite likely that they have PhD.s in Anthropology. OK, so I won't comment on the intelligence of someone majoring in Anthropology...
FWIW, I posted this on my350z.com >2 years ago. VIDEO: Valet vigilante vandalism visualizes very vunerable vehicles YouTube Video Shows Valets Abusing Hotel Guests' Cars - KTVI (thanks to the Wayback Machine) There was a guy either here or on Tivocommunity that had in his sig "Valet park it yourself."
I would bet he valets for a living simply because all the jobs in Quantum Mechanics were already spoken for.....
I've been reading on this forum for quite awhile, but it still amazes me at how quickly some posters can take a thread off-topic - PH.Ds? astrophysics? But seriously, perhaps the valet simply placed the fob in the door, parked the car, turned it off, forgot about the fob, then, back at the valet stand he found he had no key fob, so he assumed (based on his great knowledge of the prius) that he had used the little known ability of the car to continue to run without the fob in the car, up until the point in time that the start switch is depressed, or it runs out of gas, whichever comes first. Hmm, if this scenario were true, it seems that the out of work astrophysicist idea isn't so far fetched either.
