I finally pick up my velocity red 8 next weekend and given she will be parked outside most I the time I thought I should invest in a car cover.

Can anyone recommend a good car cover. Also it would be great if there are covers that offer protection against hail storms as the last time I bought a new car it got destroyed by the Sydney hail storm.

 

Don't really like car covers other than as a means of keeping dust off and light at bay for l/t storage, but others may have different views.

The car covers that prevent hail damage are called … car ports or garages

 

If the car has any dust on it I think a car cover out doors would probably scratch the paint work.

 

you can get them from mazda in america for a ok price considering the exchange. I to would like one that had some padding, to prevent hail damage. in toowoomba we get lots of hail and it only takes a blanket to prevent damage. work dosn't provide undercover parking and it's just before I leave work that the hail and storms strike.

if you got the cover from america a canvas goods place should be able to attach some padding. this is what I'm thinking off at the moment.

 

I agree with Timbo and Deano.

When I first got my 8 I bought a mid-priced car cover because our carport gets pretty dusty.

For the first couple of weeks I kept carefully putting it on and off, but as Deano says it can be a bit counter-productive with the dust.

Really, covers have too many jobs to do and some of them seem to conflict with each other.

The material is reasonably soft (good from one aspect) and has some ability to 'breathe' (good to help stop condensation forming underneath). But this means that, unless the car is spotless, a certain amount of road grime, dust, brake dust, etc will start to stick to the inside of the cover. This is the last thing you want - silding a gritty surface across your car as you fit the cover. Perhaps they can be washed, but you'd need to be keen.

Similarly, if they are 100% watertight then there is the risk of condensation building up underneath the cover, which helps promote rust.

The blurb on the packets claim that they can manage all these tricks at once, but I'd be a little sceptical about the claims.

I'd agree with Timbo's assessment that they are best for long term storage of a clean car, and would have some down-sides for daily use. I no longer use mine.

There may be more expensive ones around that somehow overcome some of the difficulties but I didn't see anything when I looked.

EDIT:
Maybe, as the last poster suggested, some sort of multi-layer job would be good. Perhaps a very light soft sheet first (king sized bedsheet perhaps?) that could be easily washed fairly often, and then something waterproof with a bit of padding on top. Condensation shouldn't be a problem if it's being regularly taken on and off - I would think??

 

Out Toowoomba way, I'd suggest getting protection from the non-melting variety of stones

Cheers,
Hymee.