Anyone ever received a valet key when buying a car, or heard of them infact?

 

do you meen a plastic one? if so then yes i have one for my bmw.

 

it should only work in the drivers door and ignition. i know bmw do them but dont know what other manufacturers do? the idea is so that people cant snoop around in your boot of glovebox (if they are locked!)

 

Apparently puts the car into a reduced power mode aswell?

 

i have a valet tune for my car so they can't flog the fooker when it go's in for a service

 

sorry i dont know about that? maybe on some more modern cars? i didnt think they would do this as i think the valet/service key is the same thing, and if they need to roadtest a vehicle, shouldnt it be in full power mode to get the real road experience (to discover any faults or whatever, which may not show up or be relevant in a detuned mode? i.e. a flat spot in a rev range)

 

Only ever had experience of it on an XJR which would be 15 years old now, so maybe things have changed since then, but there were a pair of standard black keys for normal use, and a green "valet" key. You activated valet mode by pressing a button in the centre armrest and then you could lock the boot, glovebox and any other storage compartments and the green key could only be used to operate the drivers door and ignition.

I guess it makes sense that on some more modern/expensive cars that if there's a valet mode that it could be programmed so the car need never go above 10mph or whatever, and only cover a limited distance. Sounds like a good security feature for the few that would ever use it.

 

Mike, cheers for the info.

Obviously not as common in the UK, but here is Dubai you valet park everywhere!!

 

whats a valet key

 

well a possibility is that different markets (different contienents/countries) may have different features on their cars so you might be better off asking on a dubai forum, or phone the local dealer for the make of your car and ask them if you have one for your car, and what exactly it does