I've moved house and the car isn't going to get driven daily anymore, so I was considering covering her up during the week to protect her.

My concern is that the cover might scratch the paintwork, as it's obviously impractical to wash the car before fitting the cover everytime.

A fully tailored outdoor cover claims not to scratch the car due to a soft lining and good fit, but I was wondering if anyone had any experience with them?

Tough call. A good cover that is lined will be fine, but if any grit gets into the lining, it will scratch the paint when it gets windy. I would get a decent coat of wax on the car, and after it's been sitting, use snow foam to remove as much muck in a non contact wash process.

In my opinion, evil. Even if you do was the car every time, there is invariably some dirt or debris that finds its way under the cover, and even the tailored ones do move about on the paint in the wind.

I'd just get a good few layers of an LSP like Collinite 476 on the paint, and wash as required.

The Octavia is hardly prone to corrosion and as mentioned above, snow foam would shift most of the crud that settles

Hope this helps.

Edited 5 May, 200917 yr by Leodhasach
Put Fabia in instead of Octavia

Cheers guys, I think your right.

Once the weather gets better I'll get some colly on her. I've had some for a while now but never used it! By the time I get the car dry it always starts raining!

Then I'll just keep the grime at bay using a local garage pressure washer.

I'd say not, and that they're only useful for longer term indoor storage. There's been plenty of cases of paint damage with even fitted car covers, used outdoors on clean cars. The cover will move and rub.

And even if it's soft lined, if the paint isn't clean then any dust/dirt will be rubbed in when the cover moves about.

There's also considerations with damp and not having sufficient air moving.

Steve