OK, throwing this out to the group for opinions. I spent a good 6 hours today working over my car with PC and wolfgang swirl remover and polish. Its not that the paint was that bad, I last did this about a year ago and don't put many miles on the car. But I did notice numerous light scratches in odd places - just in front of the side mirrors, near the top crease of the rear fenders. These scratches were verticle (ie up and down). So as I'm cleaning things up, I'm thinking what could cause these. They weren't deep and came out after a few passes but still puzzling. The only thing I can think of as the culprit is my OEM cover. I ordinarily keep the car covered, primarily to keep the dust off it. But the places that the scratches were seem to match places that the cover runs over when taking off and putting on. My cover is clean, save for usual garage dust and I never put it on without washing the car first.

So, could using a cover actually cause light scratches? If so, is it more trouble than its worth?

 

cover should not swirl or scratch...
to avoid that, do not cover a dirty car and wash the cover every time the car is washed (i have two covers so that i always have one clean)- sounds like you have that part down.

 

kind of off topic, but how do you generally wash car covers? can you machine wash them?

 

I have a NOAH cover (purchased from autoanything.com) and it came with instructions for machine washing. Toss it in one of those ginormous machines at the laundromat on the gentle cycle, put in 1/4 cup of Simple Green, give it an extra dose of spin drying, then let it air dry the rest of the way. Not too bad. I guess you could wash it while it's on the car but I've never tried

To the OP -- since you wash the car every time before putting the cover on, doesn't seem like it could cause scratches. Did the car spend any time at all parked outside? Maybe something or someone lightly brushed it? Any pets or animals in the garage? I know I'm reaching here, but I don't see how else it would happen

 

I never put my cover on unless I've just washed or detailed the car.

ANY little abrasive thing on the car could be dragged across the paint
when putting the cover on so as long as you are certain there is none
of that on your paint, putting the cover on should not cause scratches.