So, I've been thinking about moving to Illinois from Louisiana for a while now. Every time I've been, I have been struck with how many new cars there have rust on them. I saw ten year old cars with rust perforation. In Louisiana, rust perforation only happens to cars made prior to the 80's, or that have been on fire.
Oh, and if they've lived in a Yankee state.
So, how afraid of this should I be, and how can I make it okay?
Salt sucks. Way south IL doesn't get snow like Chicago. I moved from MI to KY and I love working on 15 yr old cars down here sporting zero rust.
on the plus side it's easy to sell non running southern "rust free" cars...
on the suck side... you have to go south to get more rust free cars or be stuck with braking bolts and rusting brake/fuel lines... and def don't bring a rust bucket back south if you plan to sell it...
if you are worried about your own cars crusting up, just washing the underside of the car a few days after a major salting event goes a LONG ways toward keeping the rust at bay.. this involves going to a coin operated car wash and getting the wand up under the car and making sure all the drain holes are opened up, as well as opening each door and spraying out the doorjambs on both the body and door.
There are ways to keep your car from rusting. Mainly what Novaderrik suggests. Most people don't give two E36 M3s about their cars so they don't wash them enough and let the salt and corrosion devour their car.
In reply to novaderrik:
But that only works if ambient temp warms to near-freezing.
To the OP - two words: Winter Beater. 
petegossett wrote: In reply to novaderrik: But that only works if ambient temp warms to near-freezing. To the OP - two words: Winter Beater.
you can wash your car when it's below zero and still get the nasty stuff off- the main thing is to wait for the majority of the salt to get hauled away by other cars so it can't get sucked up by your newly clean car, then wash your car off. the salt on the roads is actually pretty benign as long as it doesn't have water to react with.
This is your car on road salt. Any questions?
Rusty cars suck enough that I've thought about leaving MI just so I can have a car that lasts long enough to be worth major repairs.
It sucks! Washing will help as stated above but you can't get all of it out/off, that E36 M3 gets everywhere.
Buy a winter POS.
So glad I live in the south now. Twelve year old vehicle with 180k and still looks new!
In reply to DrBoost:
Me too. In fact, as soon as I retire I'm outta here. As it is, I now buy most of my used vehicles in the south and bring them up. But that only works if you don't drive them in the winter. Otherwise, they start rusting pretty much immediately once the salt hits. I bought a used but clean GMC pickup last year. It was from out of state. I oil sprayed it, I put mud flaps on it, I put step bars on it and then made shields to protect the rocker panels (since ALL GM trucks around here 4 years old or older have rusted out rocker panels), and put it up on my lift almost once a week and pressure washed it. I don't have any pics of it right now, but I'll be replacing the rocker panels and two door bottoms this winter. It's sickening, and very expensive, especially if you can't do the work yourself.
As others have said: Don't drive any car you give a crap about in the winter.
That's the only sure way to keep it from disintegrating. Even if you wash an older car religiously, it's going to start to corrode.
Road salt is to cars what water is to the wicked witch of the west....
love my plastic paneled Saturn!
One thing I have found living in the Chicago area my whole life is that a car that is parked outside holds up better then one parked in a garage, especially one that is attached to your house so its gets some heat through common walls. Just look up what is needed for steel to rust: mosture, oxgen, and heat. Take one of the three away and you won't have rust.
Newer cars seem to rust from the inside out as the exterior surfaces are either undercoated from the factory and/or have a high zinc content primer bonded to the steel as a base coat. Spraying the closed in sections of a car with a heavy oil help protect these areas. Do it at least once a year.
My mothers old car, (1995 Taurus) was garage kept from day one. It was not driven in bad winter weather much, she was in her 70's & 80's for the time she owned the car, but it still rusted out and had to be sold for parts. The spot that failed was a part of the unibody that one end of the front subframe bolted to directly behind the front wheels. Salt & slush thrown up by the front wheels worked it's way into a boxed area and then drained away as it melted leaving a salt residue which over time, well you know the rest.
when the roads are icy you get aggravated; "where are those salt trucks?"
just a piece of Michigan lake effect snow from last winter that sometimes wraps around towards parts of Indiana.........
Road salt is the reason why I spend countless hours looking for a cool/older car close by, but still have nothing sitting in my garage to show for it.
roadsalt is bad.. what is the stuff they use around here now. They spray it down BEFORE the snow?
In reply to mad_machine:
Probably salt brine. That's what they use in Ohio where I live. My brother works for the county road crew.
To reply to Gearheadotaku - Saturns are a rarity in this neck of the woods (eastern Ontario, Canada) - the sub-frames rusted out.
It seems even annual oil spraying, and washing regularly (even when it's below freezing) only delays the inevitable.
A Winter beater is the best solution...
In reply to mad_machine: It could be potassium acetate, however that stuff is wicked expensive.
well.. that is what they do around here. Right before the storm, the trucks are out laying lines of a liquid on the road. Generally seems to dry whitish
In reply to pilotbraden:
I oversee the QA lab at my company and we make liquid potassium acetate. Most of it is dyed blue for airport runways. We actually have 13 loads going out today to Cincy. You don't want to be around the acetic acid before it's blended with KOH.
Wife and I did an experiment when we bought our new Proteges in 2002.
I have the car oiled every October. She decided to skip that action.
Nothing but factory rust protection on both cars.
Ten years later, her car has some pretty serious rust developing along the bottom of the doors and the rear arches. Mine is starting to go in the door bottoms but no other serious rust.
Moral of the story is that Oil spray works. I spent $600 over the course of the ten years. Since her car sold for a measly $600 with a safety and e-test, the second conclusion is who cares since the cars are worthless after ten years anyways, rusty or not!
The secret to having a car hobby in the rustbelt is to buy a new POS toaster every ten years and treat it like you hate it. As long as you do oil and brakes, they will last ten years and you swap out for another disposable car. Keep the fun car parked for the summer or when you get to go somewhere but the mall
You will begin to use anti-seize where you once used Loctite.
The highlight of your trips south will be "look at all the old cool cars still on the road here!"
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