I’m not precious about my car at all, but we’ve moved into a new house and the driveway is underneath a large tree which drops sap and other muck all over it (plus the birds like to shit on it). Only other parking option would be on the street, so looking at options to try and keep the car semi-clean. Looked at a car port, but spending a couple of grand just to keep the car clean seems daft so considering just getting a car cover like this, has anyone got any experience of using them?

I imagine it’ll be a faff to get it on and off, but the car generally only gets used a couple of times a week so it’s not like it’ll be every day.

I wouldn’t use a car cover outdoors they create other problems like trapping moisture and dirt, you’d only want to use one if the car is spotless and conditions dry. A car port would be better.

The problem with using a cover, when you put it on a car (which is dirty) the fabric moves about rubbing the dirt causing scratches to your paintwork

Where are you planning on keeping the car cover when it’s not use? Bear in mind it will be covered in sap, bird poop and often soaking wet. Car port FTW.

A car port will be a more effective long term solution, as others have said.

Unless the tree can be removed or trimmed to reduce the problem.

You could build a car port for way less than a couple of grand, and if you’re half handy at all, it’ll be better than the one you can buy too.

Handy for lots of stuff, unloading the car in pissing rain after shopping, bike weekends etc, can hang washing below there too, drying boots etc.

I don’t have one, but can definitely see the benefits.

As others have said, you should only ever put a clean and dry car under a cover or you end up causing other issues

Perhaps spend the money on getting your car detailed* and having some ceramic coating on it making the crap easier to get off/not damage the car

*im not one of those guys, I get my car washed probably twice a year

Good points, hadn’t really thought about that. The other issue with the car port is the space it would need to go into – it’s an awkward shape and is enclosed on 3 sides by ~8 ft walls and a set of steps going up to the house, so an off-the-shelf kit is probably not going to work. I wouldn’t want to make the time investment to build it myself – TBH, there are too many other things I’d rather do with my time off and the car being manky isn’t a big enough issue! I suspect taking it to the local car wash every 2 weeks over the summer will end up being the lazy solution…

I’d build a car port. Dead handy for bike washing and repairs too. Or chop the tree down (I didn’t say that).

Might depend upon how close the tree is to the house. We had a big (100ft plus) tree opposite the house near the end of the neighbour’s drive. He’d usually got ‘cowboys’ in to trim it, which resulted in disease to the tree. He’d been informed by the council, but ignored it, until it fell down one Christmas Day. Fortunately it hissed houses and cars, but wiped out 4 garden fences.

The roots used to come as far as our garden and into the drain inspection chambers and clog up our drains – I’d cut the roots out many times.

If you’ve got 3 walls, then building it is going to be very easy !

If you’ve got 3 walls, then building it is going to be very easy !

s’wat i was thinking too. pics?

s’wat i was thinking too. pics?

2nd that. A days work, max. With three walls you are looking more at an open ended garage as opposed to a car port.

Sorry, got that wrong – we’ve got 2 walls (at the left and front of the car as it’s parked), with the long wall belonging to the neighbour. The other side is a set of stairs with nothing to fix a car port to. Reasonably good relationship with the neighbour, so she might be open to having it fixed to it – I guess it’s worth getting a few quotes to see how much it would be!

I used a half cover on my Focus during the winter – saves scraping ice in the morning. I just take the cover off and chuck it in the green wheelie bin for safe keeping during the day.

I saw this advertised at Costco the other day. If you need freestanding, it might be an option under £2k.

https://www.costco.co.uk/Garden-Sheds-Patio/Garden-Structures/Garden-Covers-Shades/Palram-Vitoria-5000-Aluminium-and-Polycarbonate-Carport-Grey/p/186191

From what you’ve said above though, doesn’t sound like it would be too hard to build something considerably cheaper.

I use them on my Land Rovers but they are ex military so the paint is matt anyway and a bit of rubbing doesn’t matter. Could you prune/ remove the tree?

Sorry, got that wrong – we’ve got 2 walls (at the left and front of the car as it’s parked), with the long wall belonging to the neighbour.

still be good to visualise with a pic, see if we can come up with a good idea?

And in winter if the cars wet when the cover goes on it can freeze to the car.

If you can’t do a port, what about some netting to reduce debris falling?