# Carport or car cover?



## mknight (Mar 5, 2012)

At the end of the month I will be moving to a new town. The community is rather small and all the apartments with garages are taken, along with the storage facilities. I really do not want my cruze sitting out in a Midwest winter. I have been thinking about purchasing a carport or a cover. Does anyone have any suggestions? Will a cover scratch my car? Can a cover/carport handle a Midwest winter?

Also does anyone have any suggestions on quality brand names?

Thanks!


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

There are advantages to both. 

The car port will help keep debris from falling, but the midwest can get some pretty strong winds, so you'd need a way to secure it. The car cover will provide better protection, but as you noted, has the potential to create minor scuffs. Not anything you can't buff out with a waxing in the spring. I don't believe they're intended to be constantly fitted and removed as the underside will start to pick up all of the dust on the car, and moving it across your hood, roof, and trunk lid will end up rubbing dirt against the paint.


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## Scarecrow26 (May 27, 2012)

google will know


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

Scarecrow26 said:


> google will know


What's the point of directing people to google if they probably used google to get here? Community discussion boards aren't in the "business" of directing people away. Why don't *you *instead use google to provide the OP with an answer? It teaches you something, and it allows you to help someone else at the same time. Win-win if you ask me...


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## mknight (Mar 5, 2012)

XtremeRevolution said:


> There are advantages to both.
> 
> The car port will help keep debris from falling, but the midwest can get some pretty strong winds, so you'd need a way to secure it. The car cover will provide better protection, but as you noted, has the potential to create minor scuffs. Not anything you can't buff out with a waxing in the spring. I don't believe they're intended to be constantly fitted and removed as the underside will start to pick up all of the dust on the car, and moving it across your hood, roof, and trunk lid will end up rubbing dirt against the paint.


I was thinking about staking the carport down and anchoring it with sand bags if I go that route. I didn't think a cover was meant to be taken off frequently, but it was a thought. I will only be in this town for one winter. During an average Midwest winter(I know it depends on how severe the conditions are) will the weather take a toll on my car?


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

mknight said:


> I was thinking about staking the carport down and anchoring it with sand bags if I go that route. I didn't think a cover was meant to be taken off frequently, but it was a thought. I will only be in this town for one winter. During an average Midwest winter(I know it depends on how severe the conditions are) will the weather take a toll on my car?


The snow won't. The temperature won't. What will take its toll over many winters is the salt they put on the roads in some localities. In that regard, the only thing a carport will do is keep you from having to brush snow off your car to get somewhere in the morning.


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## mknight (Mar 5, 2012)

XtremeRevolution said:


> The snow won't. The temperature won't. What will take its toll over many winters is the salt they put on the roads in some localities. In that regard, the only thing a carport will do is keep you from having to brush snow off your car to get somewhere in the morning.


Good point! So I should pretty much try to keep it as clean as possible during the winter or at least get the salt off my car.


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## Cips (May 21, 2012)

If you get a car cover do yourself a favor and get a good one like one from California Car Cover. I bought their WeatherShield many years ago to cover a car through the winter and it really was top notch. It wasn't cheap ($360) but I felt it was worth it. It depends how serious you are.


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

mknight said:


> Good point! So I should pretty much try to keep it as clean as possible during the winter or at least get the salt off my car.


On days that are above freezing, take it through a touchless car wash that also washes the underbody of your car. That will help get all the salt that has built up off of the car. Past that, there's not much else you can do short of covering the underside of your car with POR15.


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## Scarecrow26 (May 27, 2012)

My experiment is now complete!


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## sciphi (Aug 26, 2011)

XtremeRevolution said:


> On days that are above freezing, take it through a touchless car wash that also washes the underbody of your car. That will help get all the salt that has built up off of the car. Past that, there's not much else you can do short of covering the underside of your car with POR15.


There's stuff called Fluid Film that sprays onto the underside of the car. 4-5 cans of it will cover a Cruze's underside and inside the doors. It does a nice job of keeping salt off the underside. The downside is that it needs to be re-applied every year. It's about $60 and 2-3 hours each fall to jack up the car, take off the wheel well liners, and spray it into every crevice and cranny visible.


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

sciphi said:


> There's stuff called Fluid Film that sprays onto the underside of the car. 4-5 cans of it will cover a Cruze's underside and inside the doors. It does a nice job of keeping salt off the underside. The downside is that it needs to be re-applied every year. It's about $60 and 2-3 hours each fall to jack up the car, take off the wheel well liners, and spray it into every crevice and cranny visible.


Why not just POR15 the underside if you're going to spend that much and make it permanent?


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## ErikBEggs (Aug 20, 2011)

Car wash the undercarriage every few days is the best you can do. Gotta love car wash chains


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## mknight (Mar 5, 2012)

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Probably going to try to keep the underside of my car as clean as possible and maybe look into POR15 or a similar product. I have never used POR15 or similar products. Do you just use a brush to coat the car underneath and let it dry?


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## mmontini6289 (Feb 14, 2012)

mknight said:


> Thanks for the feedback everyone! Probably going to try to keep the underside of my car as clean as possible and maybe look into POR15 or a similar product. I have never used POR15 or similar products. Do you just use a brush to coat the car underneath and let it dry?


POR15 is great at doing what it's designed to do; seal things. The problem that I have heard with using this product on the undercarriage of cars is that when you paint on POR15, you're sealing up the small holes/places that the designers of the cars intentionally left open for drainage. Once that slurry of sand and salt gets into there, it has nowhere to go. The result can be that the underside of your car looks great when you crawl underneath, but what you can't see is that your frame components are rotting from the inside out. I went through this dilemma when I first got my car because I wanted to make it last as long as possible in the Northeast winters. I finally decided that every year before the first snow, I would put the car on ramps and spray the entire underside of the car with Fluid Film because it doesn't seal anything, it's just a spray-on oil-like rust inhibitor. So far, one winter and not a spot of rust (even on the exhaust hangers which are completely bare steel). Hope this helps you!


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