Supermarket Wash'n'Valet: would you hand over your keys?

Hmmm. We used the airport parking at Manchester Airport and that involved handing over the keys, but of course they were an established, reputable company.
How long has the car wash man been there? is he a supermarket employee or a one-man band?
What about insurance? That would have worried me too.

It's been there a fortnight, Jane, no notice or explanation about insurance, and it doesn't say whether it's a one man band or a service provided by the supermarket.

I was worried about this too the first time I used them. It was busy at the time and they obviously needed to move them around. As it was at a well established supermarket car park and had been operating for a while, I took the risk and left my key. It was fine, I collected my key from the kiosk and the car was locked.

Think you did the right thing

I also asked for a receipt!

There's posh anno! The car wash man in our Sainsbury's comes to your car with a little trolley with a tank and squeegees etc!! How on earth does one spell squeegee?

I think you did the right thing when I would also be worried about the insurance side of things.

I wouldn't have left my key either. I don't trust any of them, in fact, I don't trust many people at all.

I do it whenever I have my car washed at an ex petrol station. The fellows have been there for years and they drive my car through the wash much slicker than I could do. They are the cheapest and the best for many miles around, making a superb job of the inside.

My large Sainsburys has a similar system to kittylester's. I do not need to leave my keys with the fellow because they do not need to move it and they do not clean the inside.

So, do you all wash your car yourself or get your OH to do it for you?

I live at the end of a muddy, long lane, full of potholes, so never, ever, clean mine...just wait for some heavy rain!

We wash our cars at home, sometimes it's a splash of water to remove mud etc. I would not give my car keys to a car park wash. How would you stand re insurance?
However, when touring in the USA we were more than happy to hand the keys over for valet parking! But then it wasn't our car! X

Deff would not hand over keys to anyone, only the garage of course when need be.

We never clean our cars ourselves. DH has his done inside and out at one of those carwashes that have set up everywhere. He stays and reads the paper.

I have mine done at Sainsbury's when the camera is so covered in mud that I can't see anything and the inside gets done when it has a service!

yes, done it often- but I do take off the house keys so they are not copied.

I've never had my car washed (other than by me!) either.

Good, I'm glad I'm not the only one. I normally do it myself but the winter was wet and muddy.

I would not leave my keys - for a start the carwasher is not insured to drive my car and supermarket car park are prime places for prangs.

Why not talk to the supermarket manager and ask what the situation is? She may not know that people are being asked for their keys and they are bound to have a view on it - they do not want to discourage customers.

I used to take our old car to one of those car wash places run by very fast enthusiastic Eastern European gentlemen, but DH has put a stop to that with our nice new car as a friend had the paint removed from his car by the power washers. Apparently the soil loosener stuff they spray on first is highly corrosive. He was told he wouldn't be able to prove it was caused by them, unlike a report I read of a bloke successfully suing for four new tyres after the soil loosener disolved the old ones.
(It's cleaning the inside that I hate.)

The only people that get our car key are the nice men at the Mercedes garage when they do a service. It always comes back clean inside and out. Not sure I would be happy with these supermarket washers, would they be insured to cover respray jobs ?

Doubt it.

Funnily enough, Harrigran my thinking about getting a quick car shampoo was motivated by my Mercedes being booked in for its service on Thursday. For shame, I couldn't send it in looking mucky, even though they'll valet it for me before I collect it. It doesn't get shampooed from one month to the next!

We have no shame when, the inside is usually quite dirty when it goes to the garage. I suspect they clean it before they go rootling around in case they catch something

I would never hand over the keys to have the car washed in the supermarket car park, it may be ok but then it may not either.