BMW Car Cover

[NYC6]

My 135 is 4 days old. Today I called every BMW dealer on Long Island looking for one of their customs covers for the car. Tonight a ton of snow will be rolling in and not one dealer has a cover in stock. They all said a couple of days to have it delivered. I put a good coat of wax on today but it would have been nice to have it all nice and comfy under a quality cover. Went to pep boys and the ones they have are garbage. Pretty surprised that no dealers would have that in stock. Oh well, gonna have to grin and bear it.

[12'M3Freak]

DO NOT BUY A CAR COVER OF ANY KIND!!!!! If you love your BMW a car cover is a fast way to ruin any paint job no matter what they advertise. I bought a $400 cover for a different car I had and it marred the paint, left velvet, pollen and dirt swirl marks. If you don't have a garage buy one it is cheaper than getting a car cover that will ruin your paint or just wash and wax. Cover are the worst thing. luckily for me the car cover company refunded me my money and also paid to touch up the paint. I will never own a cover again. Good luck.....

[Cisitalia]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. But I have had nothing but good experiences with using quality car covers. I don't think your one bad experience should negate all the others that have had positive experiences though.

I would recommend not using the BMW cover, because you can typically get better covers for a better price else where. I have a Covercraft Weather Shield HP for my 135i. I have also used this same cover on two other cars. One was for a Porsche that HAD to be out doors for some time until I obtained a garage rental. It even weathered bad storms for which I had to tie the cover to the car in several areas. No problems at all and that was in CT. I recommend taking a look at these:

http://covercraft.com/outdoor_covers.htm

Pick the type that best suits your requirements and weather conditions you will encounter.

Good luck.

[ennislaw]

Originally Posted by Cisitalia

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. But I have had nothing but good experiences with using quality car covers. I don't think your one bad experience should negate all the others that have had positive experiences though.
I would recommend not using the BMW cover, because you can typically get better covers for a better price else where. ...

I've had good luck with car covers, too. However, I just recently purchased a cover from carscover.com recommended on this list, and I definitely cannot recommend them as the one I ordered doesn't fit! And despite my email to that fact, they haven't responded. I was waiting for a response before I posted a review on 1Addicts, but I've heard nothing since my email of Jan 21st. At this point, I'm planning on ordering the OEM cover.

pge

[Cisitalia]

That company brokers and sells many different car cover brands. Which manufacturer did you get and what model? If it was a custom cover made for the 1 series, than it shoud fit exactly.

The Covercraft manufacturer of custom models do fit like the proverbial glove and better. Mine is exactly fitting my 135i. It's perfect and my other two cars were the same.

[ennislaw]

Originally Posted by Cisitalia

That company brokers and sells many different car cover brands. Which manufacturer did you get and what model? If it was a custom cover made for the 1 series, than it shoud fit exactly... .

This was part of my email to carscover.com:

"While the material appears to be substantial and well sewn, it is, without a doubt, the most ill-fitting car cover I've ever purchased, including far less expensive single layer Tyveck covers. Even with the mirrors folded in, there is a 3-inch gap on one side where it fails to cover the doors, front/rear quarter panels and rocker-panels -- attempt to straighten it on one side, it rides up on the other. While at the same time, there's excess materials on the front or back, where, just like the sides, if you attempt to straighten on one end or side, it bunches at the other end. I've never had a car cover without a directional label, front or back sewn into the hem. It really looks as if someone guessed the measurements of the car, and failed.
... ."

I purchased the Ultrashield 5-layer cover for the 135i coupe, which is what I have.

pge

[12'M3Freak]

Covercraft Weather Shield HD is exactly the covers that ruined my paint along with the Technalon/Evolution. I didn' t want to bad mouth them, but oh well. Both covers I had ruined the paint within the first year on two different cars. I even washed and waxed the cars thinking it would help. The cover and light winds would burn/mar the paint to the point it had to be detailed out or repainted. Like I said I bought the expensive covers to, but I would invest your money some where else if you love you brand new car. Covers are only good for garage kept cars to kept dust and kids away. Covercraft was good about refunding me though and paying to fix the paint. That was the only good thing about there products and they are one of the top of the line. Like I said good luck.....

[NYC6]

Thanks for all the replys. Opinions all across the board as expected. I just came in from brushing about 5" off the car(another 6-8" on the way). On the painted surfaces I used my arm so I wouldnt scratch the paint with the stiff brush. The wax made the snow slide off with no problem. I was only going to use a cover during these types of weather events but I think I'll not use one in the future.

[fwmcb]

yeah it is hard to take the scraper to it huh? What I've been doing with mine is just cleaning the top layer of snow and let physics take care of the rest. Jet Black scratches sooo easily!

[NYC6]

Nothing looks better than a clean freshly waxed Black car, Im just to damn lazy to put that kind of effort in.

Watch those swirl marks from drying and waxing.

[fwmcb]

Originally Posted by NYC6

Nothing looks better than a clean freshly waxed Black car, Im just to damn lazy to put that kind of effort in.

Watch those swirl marks from drying and waxing.

haha nothing looks nicer than a clean black car... keeping it clean in the winter... not so much fun! I'm going to have to work at making sure that I keep it swirl and scratch free!

[M3_Dust]

Originally Posted by 09'135iFREAK

DO NOT BUY A CAR COVER OF ANY KIND!!!!! If you love your BMW a car cover is a fast way to ruin any paint job no matter what they advertise. I bought a $400 cover for a different car I had and it marred the paint, left velvet, pollen and dirt swirl marks. If you don't have a garage buy one it is cheaper than getting a car cover that will ruin your paint or just wash and wax. Cover are the worst thing. luckily for me the car cover company refunded me my money and also paid to touch up the paint. I will never own a cover again. Good luck.....

it's unfortunate that you did not use the cover properly

for those who do care about preserving both the exterior and interior of your car when you have no choice but to park it outside, the OEM BMW car cover is a great tool, just make sure that your car is CLEAN before putting the cover on. I keep my car washed regularly and will only use the car cover immediately after using the car duster, and the car can only have a maximum of 1 day worth of light outdoor dust or I will not use the duster and will re-wash the car. I've preserved 4 BMW's this way, I have a 12 year-old M3 in the garage that was a daily driver for most of that time (and it's black), and people ask me all of the time if it's the original paint. The car cover will also protect your plastic trim, rubber mouldings and leather interior from UV deterioration.

[ennislaw]

Originally Posted by M3_Dust

...
for those who do care about preserving both the exterior and interior of your car when you have no choice but to park it outside, the OEM BMW car cover is a great tool, just make sure that your car is CLEAN before putting the cover on. I keep my car washed regularly and will only use the car cover immediately after using the car duster, and the car can only have a maximum of 1 day worth of light outdoor dust or I will not use the duster and will re-wash the car. I've preserved 4 BMW's this way, I have a 12 year-old M3 in the garage that was a daily driver for most of that time (and it's black), and people ask me all of the time if it's the original paint. The car cover will also protect your plastic trim, rubber mouldings and leather interior from UV deterioration.

I would agree, I have a 17-year old 1992 Nissan Maxima SE (ok, not a BMW) that I've had I don't know how many unsolicited offers to purchase. In fact, my wife thought I was kidding until she drove it one time and someone approached her and asked if she wanted to sell the car. The black leather interior looks brand new, except for slight wear on the steering wheel, shift knob and original driver's floor mat, plus there's not a single crack in any of the plastic or leather (of course, it only has 150k miles). The exterior is charcoal grey and now only beginning to show degradation on the rear plastic bumper, primarily since it has not been covered it in some years. And the cover I used was a simple white Tyvek purchased from Walmart for about $40 when I bought the car, which amazingly fit far better than my cover from carscover.com for my 135i that cost three times as much.

Personally, I think car covers, used correctly, when your ride has to be parked outside, indeed works and is well worth the investment and trouble, if you want to maintain the interior and exterior original quality.

pge