Protecting your car on the playa

[Sham]

The whole idea of vehicles getting permeated in that talcum powder fine dust is why the rental companies freak out over Burning Man. Painter's tape will bake onto the paint from the sun, tarps and covers will buff the paint right off the car, leaving a shiny bare metal surface. Dust will work into every crevice.
Why the hell do we do this to ourselves?

[Token]

In general it seems like car covers are considered a bad idea but my campmate told me to get one that also covers the wheel base because the electronic parking brake in her car got stuck and jammed with dust one yr and she had to get a towed off playa. If I can't use a cover does anyone have any ideas on how I could prevent this from happening to my car?

Don’t set the parking brake. It is perfectly flat and your car will not roll away.

Just put the shifter in park.

See, easy.

A car cover of any kind will very likely trap the super fine powder and then rub it against the car paint during the days of endless wind. It will likely be subtle, but it will accelerate the paint decay and fade. Hot-spots where allot of rubbing happened may be evident right away.