I’ve researched about these car umbrellas to protect my car from the sun but never have I seen someone using it in real life…until today.
Car Umbrellas. They’re a nifty solution if you often park outside and want to protect your paint from the harmful UV rays of the sun. But according to my Instagram friend on his walkabout in famed Beverly Hills, Calif earlier today (Mar. 7, 2018) they look downright ridiculous in person. Check out the photo and video of this the rare encounter of a car umbrella in the wild below!
There’s so much to pick apart in this one-of-a-kind encounter. First, there’s the SLK Mercedes itself. It looks like he’s upgraded the OEM headlights to HID projector units so that’s a nice start there. But then the owner’s gone and upgraded the upper bumper to one with more chrome than what comes on a stock SLK. As a matter of fact, there’s little chrome on an SLK convertible beside the emblem itself. Pair all that chrome with the stock OEM alloys and it doesn’t quite go together.
Then there’s the umbrella. The photo and video was clearly taken during an overcast day so as to why this particular SLK owner decided to deploy his car umbrella is beyond me. Perhaps he’s scared of the errant flying bird overhead or there’s a tree out of the shot that liberally drops leaves and needles onto parked cars. Who knows.
A bit of googling and I found out that this particular car umbrella is a knockoff of the original car umbrella. This one’s actually semi-automatic in nature. Check out a video of it in action below!
If the SLK was super expensive or this car had a custom paint job, I’d understand his rationale but it’s neither of those two things. A quick scroll through Craigslist reveals you can pick up an SLK for a couple thousand, about the same price as a used Honda Civic!
People are at liberty to do whatever they want to their property. But if you park it out in public, expect some comments if it’s out of left field.
