In canada, if a car is in ontario or east of ontario it is typically a rusty car due to the salt in the air and the salt on the roads. Where in the USA is such an area? Basically, I am looking at a car in Wisconsin, minneapolis... and I wanna know if that is considered a place to avoid buying cars... I would hate to get a future rust bomb.


Thanks for any info

 

Um, anything north of the Mason Dixon Line would be my guess.

 

Wisconsin most likely salts the crap out of their roads.

 

I know around the Philly area they salt the roads like whoa, but we didn't even get that much snow. If the car is well-maintained you shouldn't see much damage from this.

 

But wouldnt the undercarriage be slowing rotting as we speak?

 

this is a huge generalization, but any state north of the red line gets enough snow yearly that the roads get salted. Cars from the northeast (NY, NJ, PA, CT, etc.) and from the northern mid (IL, MN, WI, etc.) seem to get the worst of it though.



*note* you can find very clean cars from all of these regions, just look a car over good before you buy it

 

i'd say anywhere it regularly snows. Look for a car from the SouthWest. Rust free

 

I live in Minneapolis and I would not worry about it too much depending on what you are getting.

The only cars I see here with lots of rust are

A) REALLY OLD imports, and generally the cheaper they were, the rustier they are.
B) GM products get some near the bottom on the inside at about 6 years and worsens from there. But still not very visible from the outside til about year ten. Chryslers before 1997ish.

All the is dependant on what kind of care the original owner provided and scratches through the paint. Was the car kept outside or garaged, blah blah.

If you are looking at low milage summer cars like my S2000 or my old MR2, they never saw any salt, they were stored.

If it is less than ten year old, and you don't plan on keeping it beyond about the 12th year of its life, I would not really worry too much. Most manufacturers treat the cars to be rust free for ten years in any conditions as long as you dont scratch down to bare metal. Its rare I see a rusty car, and it is usually 1980's if its rusty Honda or Toyota generally, but that is because they were the rare early eighties cars that are still running and not in junk yards.

 

You also mention salt in the air. The story may be a little different near the coasts. Rust happens when the salt, metal and water react with air but only at temperatures ABOVE freezing. Heavy salt air can contribute to rust all through the summer, but away from the coasts we are salt free most months of the year.

If you have a particular car in mind in the Minneapolis area, shoot me a pm and if it is not too far I might be able to look at it for you if you like and give you some feedback.

 

not necessarily. The unibody is run through a chemical bath that has electricity zapped into it and goo somehow inhibits rust for ten years. I saw one of the engineers running the process say they could halt it longer but they need some planned obsolesence in the industry. You also have rubberized undercoat sprayed over the top of that to deaden sound.

There have been a few case, on was GM models, where they built motor mounts that were rusting quickly and dropping a few engines in salty states, but again, it depends on what you are looking at.