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Wow, those are some seriously bad reviews. Driving valet cars and using up all the gas. Driving valet cars and damaging them. Stealing things out of the cars. Using the ExpressPay dongle on the key chain to buy gasoline. Wow.
Chrisizzle
Member
I can't recall where I saw this but, I remember seeing a photo of a dust covered roadster plugged into a wall outlet. The caption seemed to be from a non-EV friendly source who's purpose was to get the owner in trouble. The caption said he saw the car plugged in at Toronto Pearson airport and thought he was 'stealing' power. Follow up was that Pearson had wall outlets for this purpose and they were aware the car was plugged in.
It was so long ago, I don't remember where I found it and frankly, can't be sure it was Pearson they were talking about. I just remember taking note because I live in Toronto, travel often and was pondering an electric car. I wouldn't have noted an article about... let's say... New York's airport. That's why I still believe it was a Toronto location. (Small chance it was Toronto Island Airport)
It was so long ago, I don't remember where I found it and frankly, can't be sure it was Pearson they were talking about. I just remember taking note because I live in Toronto, travel often and was pondering an electric car. I wouldn't have noted an article about... let's say... New York's airport. That's why I still believe it was a Toronto location. (Small chance it was Toronto Island Airport)
I am receiving my Tesla in about two weeks so I don't have experience at this yet, but do you need to plug in if you are going away for a week or two? I live about 40km from YYZ - if I am fully charged when I leave home won't I be good for a long time unplugged in a parking garage? How much does the vehicle drain when parked?
mrElbe
Active Member
Try to search for Bjorn Nyland video. He parked his P85 in Oslo for 28 days at the airport and I believe his range loss was 20%.
Thanks for posting that info. I was going to use the Valet service at Pearson this Friday when I leave for a week. Now I am not sure. I liked the idea of my car being plugged in while I am away.
I think the battery should last for a week without being plugged in if it is close to fully charged. Although not ideal..
So then what's the big deal about needing to plug in at the airport unless you are driving hundreds of kms? And if you are leaving your car for a month or more you are better off taking a car service to the airport anyhow.
By the way for those using the Valet service at YYZ, if you have a Platinum Amex, like the Aeroplan Platinum card then the Valet fee of $25 (or so) is waived and you get 15% off. I use this regularly when I drive to the airport but usually I take a car service rather than drive myself.
I leave my car at the airport routinely, unplugged. I would be completely comfortable leaving it there for two weeks, except I wouldn't do that because after about 4 days it's cheaper to take a taxi. (Even at stupid expensive Ottawa taxi rates.)
bsd
Member
To be clear, these comments were about the Park N Fly valet, not the Pearson airport valet.
I typically lose about 8-10 km of range per night when I forget to plug in when it's hovering around 0°C. I figure worst case for YYZ should be 15 km. I'll be away for two weeks and figure worst case is I charge at the Hilton at YYZ to top up a bit, or Milton.
SlyWombat
Member
If you use the Valet service, they do not plug your car in until usually the day before you arrive, so a few tips:
1/ remove the charge timer for the location, they sometimes move the car after midnight and the car will wait to charge to the following day
2/ give them your arrival time 12 hours earlier
3/ when you drop off, they try to upsell you on a car wash, but make sure they write down you want your car charged, it is not automatically done
4/ watch with your mobile app, if you dont see it plugged in just before you fly home, give them a call, they will move it over (phone number is in fine print on your ticket).
5/ they have their own adapter, so when you unplug (if it still was plugged in), you need to look at the adapter and return theirs back to the desk.
6/ track with visibletesla to ensure you have a log of activity. I have not seen any abuse and have used the service at least 15 times this year.
SlyWombat
Member
It would be nice if they allowed you to leave a key at the valet desk so the few chargers do not all get clogged up.
bsd
Member
Reality seems to enjoy poking holes in theories: this cold spell combined with a petulant car that refused to sleep (!) meant that we returned to find just 5km of range remaining.
We limped to the Hilton Garden Inn for an emergency charge (whose charger only provided 193V/51A once warmed up; still better than YYZ's 30A chargers) to get sufficient charge to make it to the Toronto Supercharger and then home.
I don't think we'll do this again. The time required for charging would easily justify a taxi. Or valet, I suppose.
Good point. I've been monitoring my car with Visible Tesla for some time now, and I do notice that it doesn't always do what it is told. It appears it can go to sleep when you have sleep disabled, and not sleep when you have it enabled. Not 100% reliable.
Ideally there'd be a whole whack of 110V outlets at the airport, so the car could keep topping itself up.
Ideally there'd be a whole whack of 110V outlets at the airport, so the car could keep topping itself up.
I used the valet service at T1-YYZ over the weekend. When I landed this morning and turned on my phone I saw that my car started charging at 7:30am - my pickup was 9am. Given the slowish chargers (240/30 I think) it didn't give me much juice but I didn't really need any to get to work and then home.
But in the P row of the valet service there were five Model S's lined up - my red one plus four black ones. I haven't seen that many together outside of the Service Center. Does anyone know if they leave them all in the same area to make it easier to move/charge? I didn't notice if the others were plugged in but I didn't notice that many chargers. I would be surprised if there were 5 Tesla owners picking their cars up around the same time from the valet service.
But in the P row of the valet service there were five Model S's lined up - my red one plus four black ones. I haven't seen that many together outside of the Service Center. Does anyone know if they leave them all in the same area to make it easier to move/charge? I didn't notice if the others were plugged in but I didn't notice that many chargers. I would be surprised if there were 5 Tesla owners picking their cars up around the same time from the valet service.
i don't know, but i do know that they are very erratic about plugging the car in while i am away. you really cannot rely on them to do so, even when you specifically ask them, and they explicitly agree, to do so. i do find that my car is almost always in one of those spots when i pick it up. at least it is a short walk, even if they forget to plug it in.
CYoa
Member
So they just let you take up a charging station for the duration you're out? How do you even get into the valet area without dropping your car off to the valet?
