Where do you guys park your car at work?

[Batmobile123]

I work in downtown/financial district San Francisco and I drive to work, but not my M5. The car has been eating dust in the garage. I've been on a wait list for a reserve spot where I don't have to leave my keys for 6 months now, but it doesn't look like it will ever happen.

Should I just say screw it and let them valet my car everyday? My current car that I valet has all sort of dings and I've seen worst. Or should I keep the car at home where it's nice and safe? My main purpose for selecting the m5 was that it could be a daily driver. What do you guys think? How do you guys deal with it? Haha.

[Rohardi]

Keep it at home. I hate door dings. I feel if someone dings your door and they take off, I should be a felony.

[Stash21]

Drive it. A daily driver you don't drive to work seems like a waste of money.

[py0413]

Never a good idea to have people valet parking your car especially something like a M5.

[wisesoul]

Relegating the M5 to a garage queen is a no no in my book. I say drive the hell out of it.

[MJones3]

Door dings and scratches can be fixed. If you have an M5, drive it!
Life is short so enjoy it as much as you can!

[rjb5183]

I also work downtown in the Financial District and drive my M5 in a few times a week. I park in my building (valet) and have no problems. The guys in my garage are very careful and deal with high end cars all day. The garage is private, only for tenants though.

[nybimmerfan]

I work in Long Island and there is plenty of space in the office parking lot, however, I park my M5 the furthest to avoid other cars that may inadvertently hit my front or back bumper and also avoid any doors hitting the body when people park too closely. I also try to park close to the trees for sun shade and in the afternoon when the sun shifts, I move it again to where the tree line shadows shade the car. Also parking it far from the office entrance is good walking exercise. Only problem was early this summer, all the pollen from the evergreens covered my car in yellow dust -- that does not happen anymore.

[PatrickC23]

Fortunately I take the ferry to Manhattan, or else Id need a daily driver to get to work. Id never take my M5 to NYC for parking. Valet for me is a no-no.

[M54ccibo]

I have an "executive" assigned spot, short walking distance from my building entrance - but I don't park there. Rather, I park it out at the end of the lot, all by it's lonesome and take the extra 3 minutes to walk backwards and check out my ride. Interestingly enough, there are three or four cars (P-cars, M's) that all park next to me obviously keeping plenty of distance between our rides. Guess that we all see value in keeping to ourselves at the far end of the lot

[ManhattanBMW]

I live in Manhattan, and the only nearby garages are all valet parking -- no choice. So what I have are bumper guards for the front and back bumpers, and bumper guards for the side doors (that are attached with suction cups since the doors are aluminum), and every time I drop the car off I put all of the on. It does help to minimize ding and dents. I agree with the others about how these cars should be driven, so maybe getting bumper guards helps.

[cjackson1906]

Find a close self-park garage, park it yourself and walk the extra 1-2 blocks. I would rather walk a couple of blocks in the rain (you all don't get snow) than have all kinds of dings on my car. If you know the valet people are prone to ding cars and then they ding your M5, then you only have yourself to blame...they've shown you who they are...

[boots]

I don't drive mine to work. Dont need everyone knowing what I have.

[Bimmer6]

Assigned parking spots for the executives no issues.

[SANguru]

there are plenty of parking lots in downtown SF that don't require you to valet...

[Batmobile123]

The biggest thing I can't stand are door dings. You can always repair front and rear bumpers, but it's never cost effective to replace a door for a ding. The car is still in pristine condition. Maybe if I get a scratch (which will happen), I'll loosen up.

[skrambles297]

Originally Posted by Zlaatan

Door dings and scratches can be fixed. If you have an M5, drive it!
Life is short so enjoy it as much as you can!

+1

The annoyance of getting dings/scratches is far outweighed by the fun and satisfaction of actually using the car every day.

[s4awd]

I beat the crap out of mine. Unfortunately so do the valet guys. But honestly, I don't care. It's a car. use it. The more you use it for every day, errands, the more you'll love it. All the compromises are there so you can use it everyday... HELLO!?!?!?!

[DrewM5]

You don't even want to know what valets do to cars. They park them so close to each other that the doors do not open. Then they crawl through the open windows on the consecutive cars to get out - if you are lucky. Otherwise they simply walk across the hoods/trunks.

If I ever have to valet - lot, restaurant, whatever - I tip generously when I drop the car off and get assurance that the car will be up front and away from others. No sense in tipping after the fact. If you can, find the senior guy and tip him $100 at the start of each month and I guarantee that he will baby your car. That is a lot of extra coin for him and he knows the tap will turn off the moment there is the smallest imperfection in the car.

[ManhattanBMW]

I tip generously at Christmas, with the garage manager alone getting $250, and further tip a buck just about every time they bring out the car. At restaurants outside NYC, always tip before and after dropping off the car. But you still need those bumper guards for the parking garage.

[Steel Blue]

M5 daily drive. I hv an assigned single lot, ie. one which is on its own surrounded by pillars and up against a wall, so no worries for me at all. But I see all your points, and I agree that given your situation, I would have second thoughts driving the car to work daily too

[Un Gato Malodoro]

Having no faith in humanity, I park at the far end of the farthest lot and walk/PT twenty minutes to my office. When I return, there are no cars within 50 meters. Makes me smile.