Model 3 cover for outdoor use

[gazpachopolice]

I'll be leaving my poor Model 3 outdoors for an extended trip, and am looking to buy a cover to protect it from the elements and prying eyes. The official outdoor cover costs $470 and has less than discreet Tesla logos all over it. Any recommendations for third-party covers?

CarCoversAustralia has reasonable-looking "Basic" and "Pro" outdoor models for $225/300, while Tesdaddy has one for just $90, but minimal info and no reviews.

 

[gazpachopolice]

I did a little detective work: The Tesdaddy $90 cover appears to be identical to this $32 cover on AliExpress, which has a number of complaints about it being flimsy and damaging the paintwork when left in the sun. Bullet dodged!

There are a bunch of even cheaper covers like this $25 job that unsurprisingly appear to be completely useless outdoors, no straps etc so they get ripped up by wind in an instant.

Reverse image searching the $225 CarCoversAustralia Basic model, on the other hands, led me to Jining Lingcheng Automobile Supplies Co., Ltd. on Alibaba, which actually makes the things and wholesales them for US$2-10 a pop (min order quantity 10), for a cool 20000% margin. Or if I splurge US$30-40 for the top-of-the-line padded hailproof model, the minimum order quantity is only 1, so I might do just that. Wish me luck!

 

[Takumi]

Any updates on the cover's performance?

 

[gazpachopolice]

Thanks for the poke. In the end, I went with this $47 jobbie from Temu and

 

[gazpachopolice]

(oops, premature post)

...and it did the job for our 4-week trip, but just barely. The cover is water-proof and reflective on the outside, padded on the inside and roughly Tesla 3 shaped, although it was just a little bit too small -- the front bit had pulled up while we were out.

On the downside, it's flimsy as hell, my thumb went straight through when trying to pull it straight. There's only one plastic-covered metal wire to clip it underneath, although you get two extra cloth strips you need to tie around the car, which looks ugly AF. There's a dinky combination lock that broke immediately, not that it serves any purpose anyway because the wire can easily be just pulled off the clips. And the clips are already rusting.

TL;DR: if you need a one-off cover, this just barely does the job, but if you intend to use it regularly, it's worth paying a bit more.

 

[Power Hungry]

"You get what you pay for" rings true in almost every case.

 

[JLeBlanc117]

I did a little detective work: The Tesdaddy $90 cover appears to be identical to this $32 cover on AliExpress, which has a number of complaints about it being flimsy and damaging the paintwork when left in the sun. Bullet dodged!

There are a bunch of even cheaper covers like this $25 job that unsurprisingly appear to be completely useless outdoors, no straps etc so they get ripped up by wind in an instant.

Reverse image searching the $225 CarCoversAustralia Basic model, on the other hands, led me to Jining Lingcheng Automobile Supplies Co., Ltd. on Alibaba, which actually makes the things and wholesales them for US$2-10 a pop (min order quantity 10), for a cool 20000% margin. Or if I splurge US$30-40 for the top-of-the-line padded hailproof model, the minimum order quantity is only 1, so I might do just that. Wish me luck!

Would love to know what you bought and how it worked out!!! Looking to purchase soon.