How to keep cats off cars


I explore ways to keep cats of cars. However, I’ll state at the outset that I don’t see a need to keep cats off cars because:

  1. a cat has never climbed onto my car, and
  2. even if they did I wouldn’t mind. Cars aren’t that important to me…

…..but I do understand that in colder climates cats might use car hoods (bonnets) more often as places to perch and for warmth and some people, who I will presume are almost always men, intensely dislike cats sitting on the hood of their car because they might scratch the precious paintwork. Fair enough; even cat lovers must respect people who like to keep their cars in pristine condition.

Cat on taxi
Cat on taxi

When cats jump onto cars or get off they might scratch the car.

“When it’s time for the cats to get off of the vehicles, they sort of slide off. Each foot leaves four little long scratches in the clear coat…..” (a visitor to the Metafilter website).

Best Idea

The best idea, in my opinion, is one which is safe for cats and which is simple and effective, which is to buy a decent car cover and put that on the car and then place a tarp over the car cover to prevent claws puncturing the car cover. If the car cover is of sufficiently high quality there’d probably be no need for the tarpaulin.

That’s the winning idea. Do you have a better idea?

Worst Idea

Declawing cats. This is definitely a no-no. It would be completely absurd and cruel to declaw your cats for the sole reason of protecting a car. A cat is a sentient being; a car is a lump of metal. In any case, often stray cats sit on cars and you can’t declaw all the cats in the area. Also you can only declaw cats in North America so this idea is a non-starter anywhere other than N. America.

Ideas I don’t like (but others will)

There are two types of cat repellent:

  1. Smells cats don’t like and
  2. Sounds cats don’t like.

The effectiveness of these cat repellents is somewhat dubious. I am sure some might work and some might not. Their effectiveness is dependent to a certain extent on the character of the individual cat. As these repellents are not 100% effective and as a car cover and tarp is 100% effective (and safer for the cat), I’d consign these repellents to the trash bin.

Ideas about spraying the car with substances that a cat might dislike are not good; not only because it is unfair on a cat looking for warmth and safety but also because if a car owner is concerned about the paintwork they don’t want to spray stuff on the paintwork that not only probably smells unpleasant but may also damage the paint!

Photo of cat on car: Ryan MacMinn

49 thoughts on “How to keep cats off cars”

  1. The author of the best comment will receive an Amazon gift of their choice at Christmas! Please comment as they can add to the article and pass on your valuable experience.
  2. I have never had a cat sit on my car….as far as I know..because I have a Hyundai H-1 and they can’t climb it. Just don’t get me started on pigeons!

    Reply
  3. I have a neighborhood cat that gets on the roof of my car and he has never scratched my car – unlike disrespectful humans.
    I don’t know who Jim is but he talks much like a psychopath. Again, cats causing problems can be directly linked back to humans but perhaps Jim can only attack what he can bully or what he is not facing.
    If these 2 poisons affect cats and only cats why are they vermin poison?
    Yes, we have cats in the neighborhood however we do not have vermin and I’ll take cats over vermin any day of the week.

    Reply
    • Jim is a psychopath 😉 I really like your comment because you make the very important point that cats rarely scratch cars. People scratch cars far more often. Someone hit my car today while I was driving my cat to the vet! I was in a queue at the time waiting for the lights to change; )

      Reply
      • How awful Michael! As if it’s not bad enough going to the vets, I always worry if we have a cat in the car incase some idiot hits us, as so many drive now as if they haven’t a minute to wait.

        Reply
        • It was on a main road too. I was waiting at traffic lights and he hit me in the rear. My car was shunted into the car in front. Shook us up. Fortunately the impact was fairly slow so only very slight damage. I won’t bother claiming for it. The driver is a psychiatrist!

          Reply
          • Sorry to hear about your car being bumped Michael and so glad it wasn’t worse, bad enough when you were stressed out about the vets to start with, I hope you’re both ok today. I have been lucky three times in that way, bumped from behind twice when I was on my own in the car and once on a driving lesson! No real damage any of the three times. I hope the driver who bumped you analyses his own driving!

            Reply

Leave a Comment

follow it link and logo