16SSA8

Find someone there that has jumper cables - use their spare tire jack to jack the car up and put the positive cable on the starter's positive. ground the black cable and bingo - FOB works

Magilla

AND the Valet...he/she only had it for 5 minutes

Bill Dearborn

Even if he had OnStar if the battery is dead OnStar is dead as well.

Bill

Icetoad

this thread sums up why i bought the automatic..... suckers! j/k ( dont hit me )

The_Tibulator

They ended up getting a locksmith to pop the trunk and open the doors. Way cheaper than getting it towed to dealer I'm sure.

Great lesson now I know to travel with the key.

I knew the key would open it. But on vacation I didn't take it with me.

The valet should have known something was up as accessory is on, and you cannot just open the doors. Screen also says to put in reverse. And you have to manually unlock the doors to get out. But anyway, proble, solved and lesson learned.

C3 Vette Fan

Glad it worked out for you. Enjoy your vacation.

It was a bad experience that could have been worse. The only other bad experience was the response you received from some members of this forum. Sad when a guy is looking for help, and gets some of the responses you got.

1FUNC5

1FUNC5

I guess i had a brainfart on that one Bill!!!!

The_Tibulator

Ha. Thanks. I was a little surprised with a couple of the responses but you always know someone is about to be a dick when they say, I'm not trying to be a dick or not to be harsh..etc. lol. But it's all good.

C3 Vette Fan

You're welcome.

It was way out of line when a fellow member and Corvette owner is looking for help or has a problem. Not what you would expect from humans.

RobLo

el es tu

hope the trip goes well. the spare key is a lifesaver.

btw you might want to reconsider using valets with anything that's nice. Its kind of obvious, but many valets dont care about your property and tend to use the opportunity to try out the "skills" theyve learned playing video games...

I remember seeing a show last year where some people went under cover and caught the valets from several restaurants taking sports cars and drag racing them (for money) while the customers were having their meals...

LEAVINU

Maybe the OP should take some accountability in not personally informing the valet. If you know it can be an issue why not speak up and say something to save both parties the grief.

WAwatchnut

If the fob is in the passenger part of the cabin, the car won't lock automatically. It's a completely different story (as many owners have found out) if the fob ends up on the rear hatch area. Common story - 'I put my keys in my coat when I went into to the gym, and then got back to the car, opened the trunk and threw my gym bag and coat in the hatch...'. For me it was the third day of Jury duty, so I got 'smart' and put my keys and coins in my backpack to help speed up the metal detector line, and when I got back to the car...

If the OP knew it was an issue, I'm sure he would have said something.

I would suggest that this should be a lesson learned, and in the future the OP should definitely remember to mention it. Valets only have to think about the shut down sequence on less than 0.01% of the cars they park, so I don't think it's reasonable to assume they'll know to do it. First time is just an accident, now the OP knows it can cause grief and I'm sure will remember to mention it.

C3 Vette Fan

The valet is supposed to be doing this for a living. Not to mention a lighted display tells the DRIVER to put the car in reverse.

bolivar

With valet parking, I would first hope they don't krunch the car or take it for a little 'drive'.

And, I don't think anyone has said anything about this - A 2005 manual supposedly can have the 'computer/s' reflashed to cure the problem of killing the battery is not in reverse. If your car hasn't had this done, I think I would pay Chevy for the re-flash. I think in a thread a while back, someone tried to get this done for free, but because the procedure is somewhat old, the dealer they took to car to would not do it free.

And I know, there have been postings on here about reflashes supposedly not curing this problem. But if you really think not putting the car into reverse killed your battery, I would pay for a reflash to not have to go thru this again in the future. My guess, would be $150 or less.

Also, is it possible you just had a battery fail? Valet played the radio for an hour, with the door open? The batteries are small, and don't have much reserve. Leaving all the electronics 'alive', with a door open, etc will drain a battery.

CBRXX

Good point, you would think maybe he parked a vette before. On second thought, maybe this was the 1st guy that ever let him.

Seriously, I wouldn't let one of these idiots park my prior old truck, or my new one, or anything else I cared about.

C3 Vette Fan

That I do agree with. The only time I use valet is on vacation with a rental car and without any valuables inside.

txsugar08

When I valet, I always get my fob back. Last year during the Holidays, I stayed at a hotel in downtown Houston. I gave the fob to the valet guy and told him I would wait for him to return to give it back. He tells me that he can not give me my key because its against the hotels policy. He says, they must keep the key in case of fire, they would move all the cars. YEAH RIGHT!!!! I request to speak with the hotel manager and all of a sudden it's no longer a issue and it will be no charge. While checking in, the hotel manager came and introduced himself to me and asked about my vette. He was also a vette owner, red C6 so we talk vette for a while. He told me he noticed that I appeared upset with the valet guy and wanted to know if there was problem. I told him what happend and it all went down hill after that. Not for me, for the valet guy. He tells me just last weekend a guy was upset because the valet guy gave him a hard time about wanting his keys to his NSX. Approximatley 30 min. later I see the valet guy walking to the bus stop. I guess his joy riding days are over.

RobLo

My son used to valet at an upscale area restaurant, he told me most of the valet's (hopefully not him, I know I raised him better) used to rummage through the cars looking for spare change, if they found the coin holder they would take MOST of the change out, they'd leave a few coins behind because who really knows how much change you have in those things. I never valet park, not with the Vette or my DD, I usually drive in, give the guy a few dollars and tell him I'd rather park it myself and ask him where I can put it. They're usually pretty receptive to that because they know I'm not cheaping out on them and they usually direct me to a pretty good spot.....and it would cost me the same few dollars whether I give it to them upfront or pay at the end.