We all know how dangerous Mother Nature can be for our vehicles: sap, bird droppings, ice, you name it. She’s an expert at making your nice car look not so nice. One of the first lines of defense against these maladies is a good car cover—even if your ride takes shelter indoors.
If you need to protect your car inside and out for a long period of time, a car cover is a necessity. But which one should you buy? As with most things, there is an overwhelming number of options to choose from. We here at the Gear Team aim to help clear up the confusion.
You are watching: Tested: The Best Car Covers for 2023
Things to Consider
A car cover is more than just a tarp; you can really get engulfed in the options. Let’s break it down.
Indoor vs. Outdoor Car Covers
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Indoor car covers provide protection from dust and mildew that can accumulate on stagnant vehicles. Typically, they aren’t built to withstand high winds or subzero temps. Thus, these tend to be cheaper, especially on the low end, but you can really go crazy for the ultimate protection of your prized possessions.
At the low end, an affordable canvas or nylon indoor car cover is sort of like a windbreaker for your ride; it provides an initial line of defense and not much more. High-end indoor car covers (like the CarCapsule we tested here) protect a vehicle from everything—including critters. This style is more of an inflatable mini-garage that can filter incoming air. If your ride deserves the ultimate indoor protection, that’s the kind of car cover you’ll want to consider.
Outdoor car covers are built to be far more hardy than indoor covers. Typically, they strap underneath the vehicle, and that secures the cover, even in harsh winds. Outdoor covers are also built to protect your car from sunlight and rain. Cheap outdoor car covers are something to be wary of, however. Oftentimes, they’re not much more than a rebranded indoor cover. If you’re looking to cover your vehicle outdoors, you’ll definitely want to invest in a good one.
Decide where your ride will be resting in its off time, and purchase a car cover that matches your needs.
Car Cover Sizes
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Fitting the correct size car cover is extremely important. You don’t want the cover too tight, risking scratches, or too loose, risking it breaking free in a gust of wind. Universal car covers fit pretty generously per specified size (sedan, SUV, truck), but you should measure the dimensions of your vehicle with a tape measure before purchasing a cover.
Your best bet is to get a model-specific car cover that’s sized to fit your exact vehicle. This can be as easy as inputting your vehicle’s model information online to get a correct fit. These can get pricey, but the ideal fit is a safer bet than with a universal cover.
How We Tested Car Covers
Since car covers come in all different shapes and sizes, we opted for a more individual test rather than a head-to-head face-off. We obtained five distinct car covers and fit each onto a vehicle that matched the cover’s sizing. We picked two vehicles to be our test subjects. First, we cleaned each thoroughly to remove exterior dust and contaminants—a step that should never be skipped before covering your car for an extended period of time. We then secured each cover and let our test subjects sit outdoors at the Gear Team Compound for a month through a stormy late summer. Once the contenders were assembled, we took notes on the following parameters for each cover:
- Durability
- Fit
- Construction
- Material
- Performance
Here are the results from our test of the Best Car Covers. (Note that prices listed may vary, depending on the size cover you need.)
Source: https://gardencourte.com
Categories: Outdoor