I'm directly situated in the "snow & slush belt" of northern jersey, and am without a garage for my MCS. I'm wondering if an outdoor car cover will be helpful when the snow hits, or if it will be a nightmare to wrestle on & off and store when snowy & soggy. This is my daily driver. Anybody else in the snow belt with experience and/or opinion?

For background, I'm a waxer and weekly washer, but have not yet escalated to "full spa treatment" for my ride. When your wife believes a car should be a "transportation appliance" (and treats her car as such), getting 4 hours of child-free time on a saturday for a complete therapeutic detailing session is just too expensive.

 

The purpose of covers is NOT the winter but for the summer.

Its not cold or water, rain or snow that hurts the finish .... its the SUN.

The SUN and its UV rays are the killer.

If it makes you feel better to cover it during a snowstorm ... it will be miserable taking it off and then dealing with where it goes until it dries out.

 

for daily drivers, i would not cover it. the constant cover/removal process
scratches the paint cause outdoor covers typically has dirt on the inside.

from my experiment here in chi-town, the best way to preserve a daily
driven car in the winter is to keep it uncovered and outdoors 24/7. why? the
frost/defrost cycle accelerates rusting when parked inside. it's better
to keep your car frozen and dry as much as possible.

 

I would agree that you're better off without it. It depends on the type of cover and your process, but it's likely it would be extremely time consuming to do it right and not worth the minimal benefit.

Whenever you use a car cover, your paint must be impeccably clean or you will very likely scratch the heck out of it when putting the cover on and off. You can see how in the winter (especially in the "slush belt", with which I am very familiar... I grew up in upstate NY!) it would be very hard to keep the car clean enough to put the cover on and off.

I would focus on getting a coat of a durable synthetic wax on it instead. Even an hour's worth of handwashing and quick coat of wax would be better than nothing. That will do more good than a cover in the slush belt!

-Heather

 

I too am in the 100% outdoors regime... what is fantastic about a cover in the winter is to fend off FROST. Don't like scraping your windows before driving to work at 5:30 am on a 20 degree morning? Put the cover on... keep in mind, though, if the MINI is dirty, the cover can act as sandpaper.
My cover has a soft lining on the inside and protects the finish pretty well. I paid $160.00 for it from an online company and it's good for snow/ice/etcetera (so they claim). See my gallery for a photo of it in my parking lot and check out the antenna, lol... many comments on the antenna portion. ;-)

 

Thanks for the feedback. I may just make my life a little easier with one of those windshield covers so I can avoid the ice chiseling, and let the warmed car melt the snow.

Heather - Whats a good synthetic wax that you mentioned? Of the one hour variety (assuming we get a warmish day before the snow hits)

 

Where I'm from the cars that spend the night in heated garages tend to rust faster than those left out in the cold.

My 03 has been living outside everyday. No rust, waxed regularly, washed when dirty, still looks great,IMO.

Mark

 

Living most of my life in the snow belt, you do not need to buy anything special for the windshield. Save you money.

All you need is an old beach towel or too (or even a new one, its not like its going to be destroyed). I do this anytime I think there is going to be ice on the windshield

Just throw the towel over the windshield. Tuck the bottoms under both wiper blades and the tops rest on or near the roof. If its raining near freezing, it will not move. When you come out in the morning, you can most likely pick the whole towel up in one frozen sheet (pretty cool actually). Your windshield will be perfectly clear. Take the towel to a bathtub to melt. Throw it in the dryer for use the next night. Works very well!

 

I too store my ride outdoors year round. I do use a cover because I park under trees and it's worth it to keep off all that falls from them. I do own two covers and have alternated them on rainy days and suspect I will do the same on snowy days as well. Regarding the scratching, I have Zaino on and I use a quick detailer as well as California duster. It is a bit tedious and I am the guy in the neighborhood who is "crazy about his car". So far my process works great and surface scratches are at a minimum. I do work from home and I don't go through this process everyday. If I did have to do it everyday I would probably not do the cover all the time.

 

Put a coat of Zaino on it (Z2 or Z5) and wash it when ever the weather allows. If you drive in slush and muck a lot, you might consider taking it to a manual car wash and using the high pressure sprayer to spray out the wheel wells. But obviously not when it's freezing temps.

I put the Zaino on 2 months ago and in 40 degree temps I just washed it and the water still beaded off great! We should be good until Spring.

Some day I'll have a garage that's big enough to wash the car in.

 

Prima Epic is the most durable (5-6 months of protection, even in full winter exposure) but it requires a wait time of 45-60 minutes after applying before you can buff it off/remove it. It goes on easily and quickly, but there is the wait time.

If it's impossible due to weather to do the Epic, then use Klasse All-In-One. The Klasse can be buffed off immediately with no wait time. The downside is that the current formula of Klasse All-In-One (due to VOC law changes) only lasts about a month or so.

I'd recommend Epic for the winter if you can swing it. Have fun and good luck!

-Heather