Wally (Forum Supporter) said:Cars don't rust like they did. This has 8 New York winters and 275,000 miles on it.
That blows me away. Where I live that's almost 450,000 km.
Mrs' Sonic is the same age. Not a spec of rust. Did a control arm in the fall and everything came apart like it was new
In reply to Mr. Peabody :
The car before it was a 2002 Malibu. It rusted pretty badly and while still running great at 413,000 miles a minor collision damaged it pretty badly because the entire rear of the car was so rusted. It hurt junking that car as it still ran so well.
My 01 neons has 340k and is hardly rusty.
My 2020 Forte GT is my daily driver all year. Here it is in winter mode:
Wheels and tires came from my old Mazda 3. With a 3mm spacer, they fit snugly and clear the calipers up front. Car sounds like it's got Super Swampers on it, but it will get me anywhere I need to go.
What bugs me about the rusting is that it happens in known spots and continues model after model. Every SUV/CUV ever built rusts in the dip right behind the rear wheel wells. Surely someone can redesign that corner not to be a moisture trap. Pickups of any stripe rust out the rear wheel wells prematurely. I looked at used trucks before buying new and I saw 5 year old trucks showing rust in the wheel wells. To me that's inexcusable in this day and age, especially at the price new full size trucks go for. My perception is that the boxes on Nissan Titans don't rot as quickly as Ford/GM/Dodge but I haven't noticed any particular reason why that would be. My MINI is rotting around the tail light buckets because someone at BMW decided it was worth saving the money for about 4 feet of seam sealer bead. Stupid.
In the early 2000's Chevrolet had an option for a completely composite pick up box on the full size, truck. Only offered for a year or 2 but I thought it was brilliant.
My winter beater is a '98 Jimmy I picked up down south a few years ago on a rural car lot. Rust free so far, it gets a good dose of fluid film every year and has big mud flaps. I feel sort of bad driving it in the salt since it's so straight, but had I not bought it I'm sure someone would have turned it into a mud toy and it would be a pile of junk by now.
Similar thoughts with my 2000 Firebird. It had some rust when I bought it. Drove it several winters before getting a beater, car is still alive and I'm sure if some kid had bought it instead of me it would be wrecked by now.
2001 Jaguar XJR. It's my year 'round daily driver. It was also my 2019 Challenge Car:
2001 Sonoma was the last rusty winter beater in the fleet, circa 2021. Currently everything is 2010 or newer and the 9-3T is the only one with even a bubble of rust.
so I'm rally crossing this car, and bought it for that purpose
I am loving having it as a winter beater. My auto cross mustang has only seen snow on the way home from the dealership
My 17 Fit Is a year round driver. Just got new Nokians installed (not winter tires) and they seem to be okay so far.
Just replaced the summer only pilots with some swanky Hankook snows. The thing is unstoppable in the snow.
akylekoz said:Also this week I saw in Audi R8, new 911 and an Alfa 4C driving around covered in salt.
Dunno about the 911, neither the aluminum in the R8 nor the carbon fiber in the 4C are likely to rust much. :)
84FSP said:Just replaced the summer only pilots with aome swanky Hankook snows. The thing is unstoppable in the snow.
Sounds like you need new tires.
My '12 Passat TDI is a year round DD. I try to take it through the car wash semi often to keep the Ohio salt from doing too much damage to it. It does really well in the snow despite being lowered and on DWS06 vs actual snow tires.
647K on a 2003 911 Turbo ...in New England. That's impressive.
One could say his routine is nuts, but he seems to accept it:
Thalmann, whose desire to maximize seat time has been too strong to leave the car home in snow, even takes it to the body shop every year or two, to catch any rust before it can spread. “Part of normal maintenance,” he says.
Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:647K on a 2003 911 Turbo ...in New England. That's impressive.
One could say his routine is nuts, but he seems to accept it:
Thalmann, whose desire to maximize seat time has been too strong to leave the car home in snow, even takes it to the body shop every year or two, to catch any rust before it can spread. “Part of normal maintenance,” he says.
i mean you also have to be a bit crazy to do that to a car that was the equivalent to $250k new and you are dailying year round and doing 4-12 track days a year on.
Type Q said:P3PPY said:Saw a Lambo over here in East Lansing a while back in the salty snow mush. Seeing it like that gave me mixed feelings like it does to you!
Im waiting to see a rusted out Tesla someday- or are they all plastic?
That doesn't surprise me. Michigan State has positioned itself as a magnet for wealthy international students, many of whom have never seen snow, ice or salt damage before.
My brother lives in Waterloo, Ontario which has two universities that draw a lot of wealthy students from China and India, and also has a lot of tech companies and he says the number of supercars in student parking is shocking. He sent me this pic a few weeks ago with the caption "not all heroes wear capes".
My '15 FRS does four season DD duty. I do my best to keep it clean, and it's held up well so far, although it's looking pretty pathetic at the moment after driving up to NE PA in the snow to visit some friends over the weekend.
The CTR is my buddy's only car, driven 3.5+ hours from Connecticut, in the snow, on the factory summer tires. Yes, he's a little bit nuts 
This is worse than driving a super car in the salt. It’s a rust free burnt paint square headlight Suburban. It will have holes if he keeps this up.
In reply to Furious_E (Forum Supporter) :
3.5+ hours, so like 40 miles with those tires? 
In reply to akylekoz :
Probably already has holes. It's 85% bondo by now.
Just an suv out doing suv things
My 128i does DD duty. Pretty damn good with snow tires, and for a car that's lived its entire life in the Northeast, shockingly rust-free.
This generation of Impreza is surprisingly rust resistant for a Subaru, we've had it a few years as the primary winter car and I was sure it would have holes by now:
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