[gopa99]

Originally Posted by adroit

this reminds me of a facebook post where a biker took his hyosung 650 to workshop and the mechanic accidentally over revved the bike during the test ride.
by the way this surely give me a lesson for not to handover my car key to valet next time when i visit a hotel.

True, so can any body get officially trained to drive all the cars under the sun other than by "experience"?
I can imagine my first drive in a Manual Automatic Celerio was a scary affair, I pity the little valet drivers who are expected to know do drive everything that sets foot at their hotels ........ but without any means to get to that!!!!

[bhagathmp]

Originally Posted by joybhowmik

Over the years I have observed varying degrees to which cars are abused in reputed hotels of Dubai, New York City and in New Delhi

Going slightly OT here, but since this talks about valet’s rough handling of cars, thought to share this as well.

I have seen both cars and bikes with temp plates being raced around town. All of them (well 95%) are young chaps from the showroom getting these vehicles to the RTO for registration and back. They have utter disregard to traffic or anyone else on the road, ripping thru and in-between, not to mention the sudden and hard breaking. Some of them have pillion too!!! We baby our vehicles for the 1st 500/1000 KMs during the run in (and even afterwards), never revving even close to the red line, but these guys - well most of the vehicles would see them over revved in that 30 min or more of the drive!

Regards
Bugs

[scopriobharath]

I agree with Tanveer.

Most hotels dont allow self parking, however confident we are in driving and parking. They inisist on Valet, even though terms say Valet is not responsible for damage. They convince us telling nothing will happen sir. Its a double whammy. Again - Laws should be implemented here. I have a Santro.

This is Akin to the rule that bags from outside are not allowed inside a shop and also plastic bags are charged and no free alternative is provided. Double whammy to the customer.

I prefer to park myself, but on a 50-50 basis, i am asked to hand over keys to Valet almost compulsorily.

My views on how the case will / have progressed

• The Businessman would be an influential guy with Political/Police/Goon contacts and for sure would have used that influence.
• The in-house legal team would have sent a legal notice to the hotel, to sue them.
• The owner would have threatened to use legal and illegal means to damage the hotel. These methods are used even when the part is wrong, but here the Lamborghini owner is on the right side. Hotel should assume responsibility of valets.
• If the court issues a judgement, the hotel might be even shut down costing a loss in crores. Hotel would have though it is cheaper to pay 3 crore and close the issue.

Customer is Right here and not the hotel. Better consumer laws are needed in this country

• Hotel cannot mention that Valet is not thier responsibility. They should hire one professional driver and include his salary as a part of thier operating cost. Ultimately, customer pays for any service. Hotel is not impacted.
• Hotel cannot expect thier customers to come in low-end cars. 5 Star experiences come at 5 star prices and those people will be affluent.
• Customer should not need to have to bear insurance since the fault is totally on the hotel. Hotel should bear the full repair bill.
• Since hotel takes responsibility of quality of food, quality of housekeeping and other services, Valet should be a part of thier "responsibility". If i get food-poisoning in a hotel, they cannot tell that Chef is new or Chef is bad. Same should apply to Valets also.

[PPS]

Originally Posted by scopriobharath

If the court issues a judgement, the hotel might be even shut down costing a loss in crores.

This is a bit over-exaggerated! Judgments takes years or sometimes even a decade. The hotel has already got bad publicity, more so now that the CCTV footage has been leaked.

Hotel would have though it is cheaper to pay 3 crore and close the issue.

If indeed all parties have arrived at such a settlement then better sense has prevailed.

[raghubhaskar]

Could this NOT be the valet's fault? Maybe the accelerator got stuck or something?

Or I'm just being cruel to the Italian Engineers :-)

[Turbanator]

In all likelihood Starwood will have an Insurance cover which will include Damage to Property as well collateral including Guests & their belongings .

[Slush_Traveller]

Some of the guys at valets are really over smart I have often seen them revving the engine hard giving a wheel spin on smooth surface, just for fun, obviously when the owners have left, one small incident happened with me at indrapast shopping mall Borivali on a Sunday, the parking lot is small and was very crowded so I had to unwillingly hand over the keys to the parking guys to wait and then park my car in available spot, I somehow was uncomfortable so decided to stand away and take a glance until the car is parked safely. There were two guys from the parking staff were fighting over some issue and to add to my chill the manager handed over my car keys to one of the guy involved in the fight, he was still blaring and he angrily sat in my car and all of a sudden he came to again give a word of mouth to the other guy closing my cars door in the most possible hostile manner, the door closing thud echoed in my ears for several seconds, I thought for a while that the rubber seal on doors must have burst off, but he again sat in the car and revved it so hard that the font type spinned for a while until traction gripped in, I couldn’t control it longer and went to the driver gave him some good whipping then repeated the same to the parking manager, the only return gift I got was “ Sorry Sir.”

[scopriobharath]

Originally Posted by PPS

This is a bit over-exaggerated! Judgments takes years or sometimes even a decade. The hotel has already got bad publicity, more so now that the CCTV footage has been leaked.

If indeed all parties have arrived at such a settlement then better sense has prevailed.

Sir, I don't think it is over exaggerated. - there is a legal way where we can sue for mental peace and also get a stay order. This stay order will "seal" the hotel which is a business loss. We know what a pain the legal system in India is.

The business man can sue the hotel for damage of property (3 crore repair estimate) + Mental harassment + initial refusal to compensate for damages + Legal charges for this case. With the right lawyers, you can win the case in your favour.

Originally Posted by Slush_Traveller

Some of the guys at valets are really over smart I have often seen them revving the engine hard giving a wheel spin on smooth surface, just for fun, obviously when the owners have left, one small incident happened with me at indrapast shopping mall Borivali on a Sunday, the parking lot is small and was very crowded so I had to unwillingly hand over the keys to the parking guys to wait and then park my car in available spot, I somehow was uncomfortable so decided to stand away and take a glance until the car is parked safely. There were two guys from the parking staff were fighting over some issue and to add to my chill the manager handed over my car keys to one of the guy involved in the fight, he was still blaring and he angrily sat in my car and all of a sudden he came to again give a word of mouth to the other guy closing my cars door in the most possible hostile manner, the door closing thud echoed in my ears for several seconds, I thought for a while that the rubber seal on doors must have burst off, but he again sat in the car and revved it so hard that the font type spinned for a while until traction gripped in, I couldn’t control it longer and went to the driver gave him some good whipping then repeated the same to the parking manager, the only return gift I got was “ Sorry Sir.”

Yeah - Agree - Once I went to Le Meridien hotel in Chennai and my fender and bumper were damaged by the Valet. I noticed it only when I came home. I did not bother to go back and for sure they would deny that the valet had done that. Thankfully, rubbing compound + polish removed those scratches.

[ajmat]

According to a small column in the Economic Times - negotiations are going on. The hotel has engaged Luthra and Luthra to discuss with Jatin Ahuja of Big Boyz Toyz (the car dealer)

[pgsagar]

Feel sorry for the car and feel sorry for the poor valet, too, unless he caused it due to his carelessness. As for the lambo owner, guys driving such cars in India are worth at least 10,000 crores. No problem for him. 10-15 crore must be a pocket-change. He will soon have another new one flown in in a chartered plane.

I think repaired Lambo will still be a write-off because no matter how much you try to fix it, the lightweight chassis cannot be brought back to its original shape and will affect its high-speed dynamics. And what good is a super car with dynamics having gone out the window.

[SirAlec]

Originally Posted by smartcat

Although the Lambo was starting from near zero speed, it still managed to push away the car in front like it was made of cardboard!

i think launch control may have been accidentally pressed.!!

[cncity]

Rs 10,000 crore makes him a $ billionaire worth more than say, even Vijay Mallya... But I agree, If he can accord a lambo, he can easily afford a new one or even get this fixed with insurance...

[pgsagar]

Originally Posted by cncity

Rs 10,000 crore makes him a $ billionaire worth more than say, even Vijay Mallya... But I agree, If he can accord a lambo, he can easily afford a new one or even get this fixed with insurance...

You will be surprised how rich some Indians are. No, I am not talking about Tatas/Ambanis and Birlas and other known white-money billionnaires. There are a whole host of anonymous, son-of-soil rural rich folks with loads of black money, may be truckloads, especially those in politcs and real estate. These guys are not known beyond borders of their home towns but their anonymity provides them ample opportunity to go to big cities in India and abroad and stay in 5/7 star hotels and horse around to their heart's content. They can buy all the Lambos and Ferraris of the world. But very few of them do. Actually, now they are doing. You spot their type driving down to big cities and visitng malls in their swanky SUVs and ogling at city-slicker females and passing lewd remarks.

[SedatedDrive]

Here is my guess about what happened:

The valet was bringing the car to the lobby entrance. Judging by the way he brought it, I don't think he had any issues driving it up. Just as he opened the door to get out, the accident was initiated.

Most tall men have issues getting out of cars that are low slung. Sometimes, people use their right foot to press down to push themselves up and out of the car. It is fine when you push against the floor, but some unknowingly press against the accelerator pedal. Whuuurrrrrrrrr! Then BANG!

Not sure about the position of the hand brake or the automatic. Pundits who have driven a Lamborghini could share their insight on those two aspects.

[SnS_12]

Originally Posted by Scorcher

While that being a possibility, what if his heel got stuck on the gas and under the brake pedal while trying to egress?

I'm not trying to add to the confusion, but something eerily similar happened to me recently when I tried to exit a friend's R8 V10 while wearing some hefty footwear. Thankfully, I'd put the car in N and for the onlookers I just seemed like a massive showoff, revving the car to the redline before getting out

NB: That day I wasn't planning on driving the car and hence was wearing a comfy large footwear. Since this incident I always wear more slender footwear if there is even the remotest possibility that I might need to drive.



If anyone had a clue about that the discussion wouldn't be three pages long, mate.

There are only so many ways a guy can stuff a car

I too had a similar experience on the R8 V10 (LHD), when I was driving it on the Buddh circuit. As I parked and was exiting the car, I accidentally pressed the accelerator. Only difference was that, I was not wearing any bulky footwear.

But in the video, you can see the car accelerating once the driver gets back in and shuts the door. So, it could be possible that he stepped on the accelerator a little more than required and was taken aback with the sudden acceleration. Maybe, if we could hear the engine in the video, we could pinpoint accurately what exactly happened.