We're looking at a 2018 Mazda6 with 10k on the clock. It's got pretty much everything we want, but it spent almost it's whole life in Ohio. We're in Oregon and don't mind getting it shipped, but I'm concerned about salt. Seems foolish to ship a car from a state that salts the roads to ones that doesn't. Note that the ad says OK, but the Carfax shows it only arrived there like a week ago.
Get an unassociated third party to inspect it, and get a ridiculous amount pictures of every nook and cranny of the car. You will likely have to pony up a couple bucks for the inspection. This is the only way to prevent unwanted surprises.
As a former Ohioan I would pass. If it were kept inside all winter I would think about it. I'm in Florida now and my daily is a 20 y.o. Cummins powered Ram with 370K miles on the clock. I have yet to come across a nut or bolt that doesn't break loose. All the cars I had in Ohio needed an Oxy/Acet torch kit to do anything to them.
I live in NE ohio. I try to not buy cars from NE ohio. Unless it's a screaming deal I'd personally keep looking, especially if you're having it shipped.
Run. Don't walk.
The low miles doesn't make much of a difference for you guys, eh?
I was all set to say it wouldn't be a problem, but then saw it's a Mazda. They suck for rust protection. I'm on the fence on this one. A toyota would be zero problems with only 10k. But I have no idea on a mazda. I'd want to see it first.
If it's been taken decent care of it's fine. My fiesta st has lived in Ohio its whole 6 year/90k mile life and it's just now starting to get to what I'd consider "rusty". I do have a garage but it spent one of those winters parked outside and they didn't seem to have any real impact. After its first winter which would have been somewhere around 15k it still looked basically brand new underneath. A friend of mine had a Mazda 2 that he piled miles on and washed maybe three times total and the rust didn't start getting problematic until like 100k.
It's the years. That's three years of it getting in all the places and beginning its corrosion. Watch this video for just one example. After moving here to Michigan I no longer enjoy working on cars.
Which part of Ohio? In the Great Lakes watershed is far, far, FAR worse than in the Ohio River watershed, likewise east of the southernmost point of the lake is worse than to the west. Cleveland is kind of right there, and there might be a half inch of snow on the west side and a foot on the east side of the city.
Addendum: One of my aunts has a second generation Fit ('09?) with 58k on the clock, bought new. It looks cleaner underneath than most cars a third its age. I don't know what she does but I told her to keep doing it. And we're in more or less ground zero for paint-the-roads-white salt use. (I go to Columbus or Michigan for clean cars...)
In hindsight, she leaves for work at 5am, so in all likelihood she goes out before the salt trucks do, and by the time she leaves for home most of it has washed off to the berm. Hmm.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Carfax says Cleveland and then Columbus
On a related note, we just spoke to CarMax and they haven't done their inspection yet. So we expressed our concerns about rust and they're going to let us know what the underside looks like. They're holding the car for free in the meantime.
There are other low mileage Mazda6 out there.
thatsnowinnebago said:On a related note, we just spoke to CarMax and they haven't done their inspection yet. So we expressed our concerns about rust and they're going to let us know what the underside looks like. They're holding the car for free in the meantime.
Who's doing the looking? The Cleveland guy, who's gonna say it looks good and just like everything else he sees or the Portland guy who's never seen anything that looked so bad.
I am 1 hr west of Cleveland. My advice. Pass.
I wish I had time to go look at it for you but not likely in the next 10 days.
Digging deeper into the ad, is the car currently in Tulsa, OK?
I see through AutoCheck on the CarMax ad that the car was specifically Beachwood, Ohio. That is a prominent Eastern suburb of Cleveland so maybe a high probability that the car was garaged but Beachwood is also right in the snow belt which is also the salt belt.
The page says it's in Oklahoma. They've probably never seen rust there so it'll be a good test.
Maybe Cleveland is a different world but living in Columbus I'd think you'd have to try really hard to get a car to be unacceptably rusty in 10k miles. Or even in three winters at 10k mi/winter for that matter.
thatsnowinnebago said:On a related note, we just spoke to CarMax and they haven't done their inspection yet. So we expressed our concerns about rust and they're going to let us know what the underside looks like. They're holding the car for free in the meantime.
Have them send you pictures of the under side with it on a lift. See how much rust is on the exhaust and all the suspension bolts. Later on when it needs an alignment, brakes, or suspension work, if any bolts break because of rust they are gonna add more labor to the repair.
I Googled the VIN and one odd hit was this site
https://www.bestcarfinder.com/cars-for-sale-ohio/cleveland-oh/mazda-96074365.html
It say the Mazda has been listed for sale for 94 days. That seems long in this "car shortage" world.
Notice the website address includes the word Cleveland but the car is in Tulsa. I have a theory: a Tulsa shopper had this Cleveland car moved into Tulsa and then the Tulsa shopper (who's never seen rust) never went through with the purchase. Ask Carmax about that!
I wouldn't touch it.
This is a standard sample 2006 Mazda in Cleveland market.
https://cleveland.craigslist.org/cto/d/lorain-mazda/7402399640.html
The shiny, painted parts take some years to get bad but the bare underside parts are where all this trouble starts and its starts happening quickly.
Neil Young was right too, rust never sleeps. So, taking the tainted car to an arid climate doesn't stop the rust that has already begun.
Same car in Portland
That car drove 3k miles per year. The person that only drives 3k per year probably isn't even driving it in the snow.
I wouldn't be afraid of it if it's a great deal. But if it's just fair market value, and you obviously have concerns, I'd just wait for another one to come along for the same price.
Dusterbd13-michael said:Run. Don't walk.
this. 10k miles, but 3 winters.
Now I ignored my own advice and my Rio came out of tha area. I should have taken my own advice.
I'm a little surprised at the recommendations.
It's a 10k mile car. Even if they drove it ONLY in the winter, it's not going to be a rust bucket. Get it south and drive it twice in the rain and the salt is gone. It's not like it will continue to rust forever just because it encountered salt twice.
Also, keep in mind that with the exception of this past winter, the last three winters have been incredibly mild. Here in Harrisburg the winter of 19-20 they brined the bridges one time in anticipation of a snowfall that never came. The year before that was similar.
John Welsh said:This is a standard sample 2006 Mazda in Cleveland market.
https://cleveland.craigslist.org/cto/d/lorain-mazda/7402399640.html
The shiny, painted parts take some years to get bad but the bare underside parts are where all this trouble starts and its starts happening quickly.
Neil Young was right too, rust never sleeps. So, taking the tainted car to an arid climate doesn't stop the rust that has already begun.
Same car in Portland
Mind you that the Mazda 3 was rated the worst new car for rust prevention. They rust like Mopars! 
I think they dipped them in saltwater instead of galvanizing.
Mazda 6s were made in Michigan, not Japan, so they seem to hold up better.
I'd avoid because it's a Mazda 6, not because of corrosion. They die for other reasons before rust, even here.
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:I'm a little surprised at the recommendations.
It's a 10k mile car. Even if they drove it ONLY in the winter, it's not going to be a rust bucket. Get it south and drive it twice in the rain and the salt is gone. It's not like it will continue to rust forever just because it encountered salt twice.
Also, keep in mind that with the exception of this past winter, the last three winters have been incredibly mild. Here in Harrisburg the winter of 19-20 they brined the bridges one time in anticipation of a snowfall that never came. The year before that was similar.
This is also true. We had ONE snow last year. Lots of rain and sunny days and temps too high to justify salting.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Oh wow, we got more days of snow here!
I do appreciate all the local insight here, thanks everyone. I've been a west coast guy my whole life so I've never had the "pleasure" of dealing with rust and salted roads.
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