Hello,
I know this is an old post, but I am a new 2020 Insight owner, and looking for a good car cover. How happy have you been with this cover now that it has been over a year? Is it lightweight? I'm short so I'm looking for a cover that is easy to put on and take off. How well does it stay on?
Hi kellyg - sorry for the delay, my email notification on this thread got stuck in my junk mail folder.
I've had an XtremeCoverPro Gold before on my previous Civic for just under two years...I had upgraded from their base version (breathable) so that I'd have drawstrings to pull it tighter and the waterproof to keep water spotting from happening from rain.
Got the Gold for my 2019 Insight (gray instead of black this time, since I think it is less heat absorbing), and what happened within a year is the interior coating (maybe the waterproof part) crumbled just like the one that WorldThatHeSees got from CarCovers.com. XtremeCoverPro has a limited warranty on their product, so I reached out to them via the eBay seller contact and I got a replacement sent to me for $25. Going to give it a try just in case that was a bad batch since my previous cover didn't degrade.
One note though, I think the pulls on the drawstring may cause slight marks on the clear coat - hadn't noticed on my old Civic. For now, I've removed the plastic pulls. If the elastic fades, I can put them back on or hand tie a knot somehow to increase the tension on the cover. When removing the car cover, make sure to lift up on the back so that it doesn't get caught on the sharkfin antenna as you are rolling up the cover from the front of the car.
I'm 5' 5" and I've found this cover (breathable and the gold level) have enough heft to stay in place as you are unrolling it onto the car alone. Even with windy days, you just gotta hook the mirror ears of the cover on to give you enough to get the rest of the cover on. The elastic when new keeps the cover on for us in Chicago even with the drawstrings not cinched at all. When you are unwrapping the cover for the first time from the box, it might be easier with two people to figure out which end is which - but after that, it'll be easy to roll up on your own (untuck front and back ends, flip sides up towards middle of the car, roll up from the front) and reverse to reinstall.
We have an uncovered parking lot at our condo building, so I conveniently keep the cover rolled up in the trunk. I don't go through the trouble of stowing it in the carrying bag (that requires more detailed folding). It's compressible, so I'm able to stow that, a bike hitch rack, and cooler in summer time in the trunk with probably a third of the trunk still useable. I'll stow the cover elsewhere if we're roadtripping and know we can use the space.
Last word: the base/breathable XtremeCoverPro is a good product - I had it on my last Civic for eight years before the elastic started to fade. I didn't want to use the under belt to secure it, so I sold it on Craigslist to someone who needed it for indoor storage and got a Gold edition for the drawstrings and waterproofness. Neither edition had the crumbling interior lining problem during the 8 years (base) and 2 years (gold) that I had them.