For two years the back seat of my Outback was covered by an old quilt. It was a good quilt, which was the first mistake. It slid toward the doors every time I braked, bunched up under Murphy's elbows, and after a wet Saturday at the lake trail it soaked straight through to the cloth underneath. I would find the damp spot on Monday. I bought the URPOWER dog car seat cover about eighteen months ago and I have not taken the quilt out of the closet since.
I sew quilts, so I look at seams and fabric the way some people look at a paint job. That is why this list is not about how the cover looks in a photograph. It is about ten specific things the URPOWER cover does in a 2019 Subaru Outback with a 72-pound Labrador mix riding in the back seat, and where it comes up short, because it does come up short in one place you should know about before you order.
The quilt slid. This does not.
Six layers of waterproof fabric, a hammock that closes the gap into the footwell, and a nonslip surface that stays where you put it when you brake. Eighteen months in an Outback with a dog who sheds twice a year.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →Ten Reasons It Earns Its Place in the Back Seat
Mud stays on the cover instead of working into the cloth
Murphy comes off the lake trail with wet feet and a wet chest, and he climbs in without being asked twice. Before the cover, that mud went straight into the weave of the cloth seats and stayed there until I paid someone to deal with it. Now it sits on the surface of the URPOWER cover and I shake it out at the trailhead before I close the door. Thirty seconds of work instead of an afternoon of scrubbing.
A soaked dog after a rainy walk does not soak the seat
The cover is built from six layers of fabric and the top layer is waterproof, which is the claim I tested hardest and the one I trust most. Murphy has come home from the trail with his whole underside wet. I have run my hand over the seat underneath him afterward and found it dry. If you have ever driven home with a damp dog and a damp seat and a damp everything, you already know why this reason is enough on its own.
The hammock shape closes the gap into the footwell
The cover runs as a hammock across the back seat, so the opening where a dog can drop his front paws down into the footwell is closed off. Murphy used to brace himself against that gap every time I touched the brake, front legs on the seat edge and back legs scrambling for purchase. He rides flatter now. Less scrambling means less clawing at the seat, and it means a calmer drive on the two-lane road out to the trail.
It does not skate around when you brake
The listing describes four levels of protection against slipping, and whatever the exact count, the practical result is a cover that stays where I put it. The old quilt never did. It crept an inch toward the door on every stop and I was forever hauling it back. I have made the run from Knoxville out to the lake trail and home again a few dozen times now, and I have not once reached back to straighten the URPOWER cover.
The one measurement that decides whether it fits takes two minutes
URPOWER asks you to check your backseat length against 54 inches before ordering, and that number is worth the two minutes it costs. Our Outback is well inside it, so the fit is universal and unremarkable, which is exactly what you want from a cover. If you drive something narrow, measure before you click. A cover that does not match your seat length will look like a bad cover even when the fabric is good.
600D Oxford fabric takes claws without shredding
I judged this one with a quilter's eye. The outer fabric is 600D Oxford, a tight, heavy weave, and after eighteen months of a dog who turns in circles before he lies down, the seams are still flat and the stitching has not let go at the corners. A quilt would not survive this. I know, because one did not. The cheaper covers made of a thin material pull apart the first time a dog digs in. This is not that.
It does not smell like a tire store in July
A closed cab in a Tennessee July will pull the smell out of anything rubbery or chemical, and a lot of pet gear fails exactly there. URPOWER makes a point of using material that is without a terrible smell, and in practice the cover smelled like fabric when I unrolled it and like nothing since. Murphy rides with his nose out the window, but the cover has sat in a hot car for eighteen months and it still does not announce itself when I open the door.
Install it once and forget it for the season
I put the cover in eighteen months ago and left it in. It has been through weekly lake trips, vet visits, one trip with a bag of potting soil riding in the back, and the ordinary errands where Murphy comes along because he will not be left behind. Nothing about it needs to come out and go back in. If you are the sort who takes gear out after every trip, fine, but this cover is happy to live in the car, and that is how I get the use out of it.
Cleanup is a shake and a wipe, not an upholstery bill
Waterproof fabric means the mud does not go in, so cleaning is a shake at the trailhead and a damp cloth for anything that dried on. That is the whole routine. Compare it with the alternative, which is cloth seats that hold grit and damp until they are professionally cleaned, and then hold the next round of grit the following weekend. Two and a half pounds of fabric on the seat has saved me a considerable amount of that.
It folds down to a package you can keep in the trunk
The cover is listed at 16 by 15 by 1.5 inches and 2.58 pounds, which means it does not eat the trunk or fight with the groceries. It also means you can move it to a second vehicle, or pull it out when you are hauling something you would rather not have it under. Small thing, but it is the reason this cover lives in the car instead of on a shelf in the garage next to the quilt.
What I'd Skip
The cover does one thing poorly, and it is worth knowing before you buy. It is not a restraint. A hammock keeps a dog from sliding forward and from dropping into the footwell, and that is the whole of it. If your dog needs to be held in place, this is not that product and no fabric version of it is. Murphy rides loose in the back and that suits us on the roads we drive. On a long highway trip I would want something more. I would also skip the notion that you can leave the seat beneath it damp. The cover is waterproof, so water that gets under it has nowhere to go, and I dry mine off before anything else goes on top. Beyond those two, there is not much I would change, and the six-month manufacturer warranty is the kind of plain, unexciting coverage that tells you the company expects the fabric to hold up.
Murphy is 72 pounds of wet Labrador when he comes off the lake trail. The seat under him is still cloth I would let a passenger sit on.
Measure your back seat, order once, and stop hauling the quilt
Check your backseat length against 54 inches, put the cover in, and leave it there. That is the entire installation story, and it is the reason the quilt is still in the closet.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →