Does anyone leave their 996 outdoors with a car cover?

Unfortunately I only have a 2 car garage which means that my daily driver (E500) sits outside and the P-car is inside with my wife's allroad. This works fine except that when it snows its a PITA to clean my car, etc which had me thinking about perhaps leaving the 996 outside when snow was expected and just let it sit until it melts. I figure they sit outside at the dealer, how bad can it be? Does anyone leave their prized possession(s) outside and do you or don't you use a car cover? Adding a bay to the garage is the easy fix but I just shelled out for the car and my bank acct. needs time to breath again.

its fine to leave outside.

Outside is fine, but I wouldn't leave it under a cover for any extended period of time. I've had even the best covers wreak havoc on paint. A steady breeze can make any surface contact between the cover and car a nasty point of abrasion. Worse thing is that you don't know it until you remove the cover. That said, I have a neighbor that keeps his Boxster outside covered all year round(going on 3rd year). He drives it about once a month in if the weather is acceptable (saving it for the next owner). I've rarely been around when the cover was off so I'm not sure if it's done any damage. Then again, it's arctic silver and probably won't show the damage as easily as a darker color. Last time he had it off, I noticed the rear window was broken and taped up. Must have put the top down during one of those sunny 10 deg days we had.

My poor car sits out year round without a cover and has held up very well.

my friend left his cab outside, rain or snow. best part, he won't clean it up after snow, just let it melts. after 7 years, the soft top sill looks fine.

I do, too. It's fine.

Mine lives outside, under a cover. It whimpers a bit, but is otherwise ok.

My '84 Cab has lived outside (under a cover) for just under a year now. All is well.

I agree that it's fine to leave the car outside - personally, I'd hate to do so, but each to their own. It's funny to see all you guys from fair weather states comment about you leaving the car outside when you don't have to deal with the weather we get up here.

My black 996 was outside for a year and a half with a cover. No problems with the cover or paint. I now have a garage and it lives in there along with my track car. My wife's car and my dd are still outside. k

If you had room in the driveway, my neighbor had a "portable" garage like this one: Ebay link

Not with a Porsche, but I kept a Supra under a car cover for a long time. It messed up the paint on the edges of the front fender. Can't recommend it.

I leave two outside because my seperate garage did not happen last fall. Although I don't like it and the Porsche is one of the two inside, I really think if you keep it washed and have a very strong detail program the outside cars can do quite well. Last week when we got a spell of 45 degree weather after being cold since early January I got both my outside cars in for a detail. Today they both got wahed again. Stay after the outside car and it will do well for a while. On the issue of a cover, I would definately have one. If the car is perfectly clean use it. Many car covers do not stay on the car well in wind. Put extra grommet holes in them and use cut down bungees to hook to the underside of the car. Lots of places under there to do that. A good fitting qualith cover that is well fastened on a clean car is they way to go.

Ummmm, no. My Audi A4 occupies the prized space in the driveway while my C4S sits on its throne in the garage - covered of course and mating with the Charge-o-Mat. Hoping for a litter of Boxsters in the Spring.

Personally I wouldn't own one of these if I had to leave it out. No cover is ever going to do an acceptable job of keeping the car clean. I tried it with a previous car and I was buying some very expensive covers. It just never really worked. -Charles

.. plus once the car is dirty, then you cannot cover it again until you've washed it, otherwise you run the risk if scratching the paintwork.

Yeah, the number of cones may seem a bit over the top at first glance, but if you had seen how badly my father-in-law drives, you'd say "Add more!"