The vehicle will protect the HV battery at all costs. Once the bottom limit of the HV battery is reached it will just turn off the vehicle. Of course a number of codes have been set in the computer thus the dash is filled with warning lights. However the HV battery should be no worse for wear.
How did I get to 36 without ever giving my car to a valet... and, what kind of job do you have where a valet parks your car, but you somehow go fetch it? Do they bring the keys to your office for you or what? I'd have to be in a situation where I can't park my own car, but I have to stop at the destination for some important reason before I'd valet park. I can walk a few hundred feet and not pay 5 bucks plus have someone rifling through my glovebox and copying my keys. No thanks..
Never let anyone drive your Prius unless you know for a certainty that she/he knows how to drive it. Forget the valet card. The human brain turns to mush when it encounters counter-intuitive situations. That's why optical illusions work. In the case of the Prius, it is so unlike other cars, that a valet is likely to look at the card and simply not register the meaning of what it says. I once owned a t-shirt that said "Nuke a godless communist gay baby seal for Christ." It was supposed to be a sarcastic poke at the religious right. The first time I wore it, a sweet old lady looked at it for a long minute, and finally said, "Oh! You love the Lord. That's nice!" I never wore the thing again. And I would never trust a valet with my car on the strength of that valet card.
It sounds to me like its a garage where you park your car but you have to block other cars in and leave the keys in it so the valets can move the cars around so people who are blocked in can get to their cars. These garages are very common in Washington D.C. and I HATE them. For one I hardly ever let anyone valet our cars, and I hate having to leave cars unlocked because there are valuables inside and the valets have no idea who'se car is who'se so anybody can hop into any car and drive it out. They suck. BUT, if thats the only choice you have what can you do? If this is the case turning off SKS won't help because he'll have to leave the keys in the slot anyways.
This is a subject of concern for me because I would very likely be parking often in Manhattan, in public parking garages in which the majority of the parking attendants are Hispanic and speak no English (and I don't speak Spanish). Public parking garages in Manhattan are not self-park operations, and it would be almost impossible to ask to park your car yourself in one of them. It's nice to know there are Spanish instructions on the valet card, but like others here, I could easily envision the attendants not paying any attention to the directions and coming back to find the car dead. This is almost enough of a consideration to be a dealbreaker, as it doesn't seem as if there's any good workaround for it.
Just fill up the gas tank beforehand and you'll be fine. I have slept in my Prius overnight with the hybrid system turned on for air conditioning, and I think it used a few gallons of fuel. In daily driving I always fill up when the gas tank gets down to half full, just in case there's an emergency that requires me to get out of town immediately. I would think that half a tank should last about a day unless the ambient temperature was extreme, and I never leave my car in valet for more than that, so I have no worries.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tmorrowus @ Apr 24 2006, 03:27 PM) [snapback]244408[/snapback]</div> Hmm, thanks, tmorrowus. As I was reading your post, I was speaking to a bilingual friend of mine about this, and she too noted that I would probably rarely be leaving the Prius in a public parking garage overnight. I would probably be leaving it there for three or four hours, tops. So it might not be a big deal. She also pointed out that most of the main-office guys at public parking garages in NYC speak English "because they have to." They could in turn explain how to drive the car to the attendants, she said.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pjaymac @ Apr 24 2006, 12:40 PM) [snapback]244415[/snapback]</div> Just make a point to them, even if you don't personally do this with your Prius (as I don't), that the "key (FOB) has to be in the ignition slot" (I call it something they'll be sure to understand) for the car to be started, then they MUST remove the key from the car when they're finished parking it. The power button must be turned off before the FOB can be removed from the slot-the car will not allow you to pull out the FOB without first pressing the power button to shut it off. This ensures that the car is powered off and not left in the 'ready' state for the duration of the visit.
I valet park my car two or three times a week due to work. I usually leave the AC on midlevel so the ICE will stay on. Earlier this week, the car came back with the battery lower then I have ever seen it, so my idea didn't work. Very frustrating. BTW- where do you get the spanish version of the valet card?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Amyshubby @ Apr 24 2006, 04:22 PM) [snapback]244434[/snapback]</div> Thanks, rancid13. Amyshubby, I don't know; I was going by inventor00's post (No. 12) on the first page of this thread. Also, if you go to the thread "2006 Prius Valet Cards" and scroll down to post No. 6, you'll see another post by inventor00 in which he embeds a JPEG of the Spanish valet-card instructions. (http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=17423&hl=valet)
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pjaymac @ Apr 24 2006, 04:48 PM) [snapback]244448[/snapback]</div> Offer to train them on how to park a Prius in exchange for a break on parking fees.
ohhhh When I picked up my 2006 prius yesterday, I found a big stack of instruction cards for valet drivers in the side compartment. I was wondering why there were so many, but I guess I'll keep that in my car and pass it to a valet driver every time I need it.
I think a lot of it has to do with where you live too. In manhattan the valets should be fairly familiar with cars like the Prius, and cars in general with keyless start systems. These systems are becoming more and more common and now almost all luxury cars come with them at least as an option. Valets will be learning how to turn them on and turn them off if they haven't already.
