Car covers for outdoor parking?

[Gabe79 410]

I'm looking for recommendations for a car cover that I can use for my car which is parked outdoors.

I'm looking at the Supercheap options here:

https://goo.gl/Y9gB2S

Anyone ever use these? If not these, any suggestions on something that'll be waterproof, won't blow away, and will protect my car for weeks at a time when it isn't driven and birds are trying to crap all over it?

Thanks!

[M3_Power 636]

I used to keep a car covered under a cover outside and to be honest I wouldn’t recommend it.

The trouble with car covers is anything that’s waterproof retains all the moisture under the cover and when it’s sunny it heats up the car like an oven. So you have a double whammy of extra heat and moisture within the around the car - results are never pretty under prolonged use.

Another thing is any wind and the cover moves around acting like sandpaper with any dust particle wrecking havoc on your paint work.

and there’s no such thing as one that doesn’t blow off, they are like a parachute in windy conditions, even if you tie it down onto the car have a brick on top.

Personally just leave it in the elements and move it around and open the windows when the sun is out. 

Buy a cat to scare the birds away or use a scarecrow : )

[Gabe79 410]

13 minutes ago, M3_Power said:

I used to keep a car covered under a cover outside and to be honest I wouldn’t recommend it.

The trouble with car covers is anything that’s waterproof retains all the moisture under the cover and when it’s sunny it heats up the car like an oven. So you have a double whammy of extra heat and moisture within the around the car - results are never pretty under prolonged use.

Another thing is any wind and the cover moves around acting like sandpaper with any dust particle wrecking havoc on your paint work.

and there’s no such thing as one that doesn’t blow off, they are like a parachute in windy conditions, even if you tie it down onto the car have a brick on top.

Personally just leave it in the elements and move it around and open the windows when the sun is out. 

Buy a cat to scare the birds away or use a scarecrow : )

Thanks for the advice Tom. I think my kids would like the cat idea very much, but then I might end up with cat paw prints all over my hood!

[E30kid 19]

It's the claws on the roof that are worse!

[39KiwiTouring 2]

Leave under a tree evergreen that is gives it some protection, agree with the no car cover option 

[Buklemaschu 32]

Was just thinking about getting a cover myself. My car sits in a carport, but was looking for a little more protection... but from whats been said here, not sure a cover is a good idea anymore... especially in windy wellington.

Guess i just need to wash her more regularly.

[M3AN 4016]

I agree with the above, it's a difficult proposition if you really need to store the car outside and can't keep it cleaned regularly.

I had a "good" cover from SCA, it's not on the page you link to as I got it a few years ago but it was the best they had at the time. In the end I used the car too regularly to make the cover practical but I did notice a few things:

• You need a "breathable" cover, they still retain moisture but not as much as others
• They do scratch the paint
• You still need to remove it for a few hours every week to let the whole car air out

Ideally you want to keep the cover off the paintwork to a] allow it to breathe properly and b] to keep scratching to a minimum. I had some success cutting up some polystyrene blocks, wrapping them in microfibre cloth (gluing the cloth to the blocks) and then gluing the covered blocks to various places under the cover. About 10 blocks was enough to keep most of the cover off the car most of the time. But it also made the cover a bit more difficult to get on and off.

I don't think there's a perfect solution, it's probably a matter of the least of two evils. If you can keep the car out of the sun and wash it once a week I'd do away with the cover idea.