I just went on my first long roadtrip with my Prius. Both Hotels that I stayed at had valet parking only. At the first hotel when I asked the Valet if he knew how to stop and start a Prius, he sort of rolled his eyes as if to say "oh, you Prius owners and your instructions" and then he informed me that he had driven plenty of them and knew what to do.

At the second hotel, I didn't say a thing to the Valet guy, and when I was getting my car back to drive home, he smiled when he got out of the car and said "This is a fun toy you have here".

The funny thing is, it was about a 250 mile trip for me to get to the second hotel, which was in NYC, and I had reset the trip meter on the touch screen to zero when I first left home. After about 1.5-2 hours into the ride home, I noticed that the trip meter only read 100 miles! I think the second valet guy must have been playing with the touch screen and pushing all the buttons, Funny! (I would have liked to have the trip long stats, but , oh well!)

Anyone else have any good Valet stories?

 

I do, but from the other end of the technological spectrum, or rather, time tunnel...
When valet parking my 1973 MGB-GT, I had to tape instructions on how to start a car with manual choke to the dashboard. Even so, I had several instances where the valets would return with a sheepish look on their face, unable to start the car.
(what's a choke anyway????)

 

My 04 Prius came with operating instructions that can be attached to the keyring. It seems that by now, valets have a pretty good idea of how to operate a Prius, at least at hospitals and hotels since those would drive many car types.