Car Cover Advice, Please?

[Stephanie B]

For reasons, I will need to start parking my car outside. I'd like to get a decent car cover that will stand up against a five-season climate. (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Still Winter). The car is a `05 Accord that is in pretty decent shape, since it's been kept in a garage for the last seven years.

Thoughts/comments/brickbats?

[orionz06]

Are you driving it every day? Most car covers do more harm than good unless they're to keep dust build up down in long term storage. The contact with the paint, over and over, on a daily driver would be nuts, especially if you put the cover on and the car isn't spotless.

[Crow Hunter]

To echo the above:

If you are driving it all the time, don't worry about it.

My Dad was a classic car nut. Car covers were the "Debil" to him. They promote rust and mildew. His show cars were stored without covers for this reason. WE would just wash them before every show.

I am not a car nut, cars are tools to me and I don't worry about nicks, dings, rust, etc. I don't even wash them so take my view with a handful of salt. Washing them before every show and working in a garage during college washing cars is why I am not a car nut and don't own any classic cars.:cool:

Now my guns.... :)

[farscott]

To echo the above, the best car cover is regular washing and periodic waxing. Taking advantage of winter days that stay above freezing is key to stop rusting with the new brine solutions used to stop road icing.

[Crow Hunter]

I also just noticed you were somewhat close to me. I'm in NW TN.

So if you have similar weather/salting regimes. I would definitely just keep it washed periodically and leave it at that.

My wife washes ours cars 3 or 4 times a year, I help occasionally and we don't have any rust problems.

[Stephanie B]

OK. I'll look into seeing if I can erect a carport.

I appreciate everyone's thoughts on this.

[PearTree]

A carport is a much better option than a car cover. The cover will scratch the clear coat every time it's taken on or off unless you buy a very expensive one, which is a couple hundred dollars. At that price point you are close enough to go ahead and take the plunge for the carport.

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[orionz06]

The cover will scratch the clear coat every time it's taken on or off unless you buy a very expensive one, which is a couple hundred dollars.

All covers will scratch. Anything that touches the paint when the car is not spotless will grind whatever contaminants that are on the surface into the paint. If it's spotless then the cover will still have issues. Enough so that a winter storage will still require some touchup detailing to correct swirls. Matters less for a DD but it's still worth noting the damage they cause.

[JM Campbell]

Look into a ceramic coating like CQuartz.


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[ubervic]

I’ve been moderately OCD about the appearance of my vehicles for over 20 years. I’ve tried many approaches to maintaining excellent results and have settled on the following.

Garaging is best, but parking outside is definitely not cause for great concern. Forget car covers and simply wash the car at least once monthly, apply a good-quality was at least twice per year (4 times is noticeably better) and perform paint correction about once per year—-or pay someone to do it. Not much money, and the results are typically very noticeable and lasting.

[PearTree]

All covers will scratch. Anything that touches the paint when the car is not spotless will grind whatever contaminants that are on the surface into the paint. If it's spotless then the cover will still have issues. Enough so that a winter storage will still require some touchup detailing to correct swirls. Matters less for a DD but it's still worth noting the damage they cause.Oh I agree, car covers are the enemy of defect free paint. But given 99% of the population do not know what lsp or rid mean, I doubt they care about a little marring and swirls from a car cover. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm the weird one who enjoys detailing, not the other way around.

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[JM Campbell]

Oh I agree, car covers are the enemy of defect free paint. But given 99% of the population do not know what lsp or rid mean, I doubt they care about a little marring and swirls from a car cover. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm the weird one who enjoys detailing, not the other way around.

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And here I was thinking I was the only one (Tom doesn’t count ;) )


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