You know that feeling of foreboding when you let someone else drive your car. For some, that feeling turns into a strong sense of impending doom when you turn your M4 over to valet parking. Most of the time, nothing ever happens, your car is handled with the care it deserves, the valet gets a nice tip, and everything is fine. Most of the time.
Then there is this valet; the one that gives the other 95 percent of valets a bad name. To add insult to injury, not only is this valet reckless and uncaring, but he also doesn't know as much about the car as he thinks he does. On top of that, he apparently doesn't realize or doesn't care that actions have consequences, because he posts the whole thing on YouTube as a car review.
We're not going to rake him over the coals because his knowledge of the BMW M4 falls short of accurate. Even a reputable car magazine once acccused a BMW it reviewed of having a V6 in the engine bay. The M1 and M2 buttons on the steering wheel can be confusing to someone who never had the new-car orientation at a BMW dealer. It was news to us that the M3 and M4 have different-sized steering wheels, but then, we never measured them. And it's possible that at the extreme limit, the "shark fin" roof antenna might have some small aerodynamic effect on the car. Let's give the guy credit for his safety advice of never turning off traction control unless you're on the race track. At least he's concerned for the well-being of his video followers, if not for the M4's owner. And to his credit, he does cut in some of the M4-on-an-aircraft-carrier-footage that we enjoyed so much last year.
Fortunately, you probably don't have to worry about handing the keys to your M car over to this gentleman. He's no longer employed as a valet at the company where he was located when he took this video. From this message posted to Bimmerpost, it appears he's not a valet anywhere in the area. This valet is obviously an enthusiast but there's a time and a place to be enthusiastic about a BMW. While you're valet parking it is not that time or place.—Scott Blazey
[Photo and video courtesy of luvm4power via Bimmerpost.]
