I moved from Ohio to Florida. No snow, no winter, no road salt. Even if you try and protect the body, the underbody goes to hell. Period.

I'd agree with the others - buy a beater or lease a civic etc. for $100/month and be done with it.

 

Parking it is the only way. My s is an 03 and my truck is an 03 and I park the S and drive the truck year round and while they are both the same age the difference in the underside of both is ASTOUNDING. I even undercoat my truck and everything rots out from the salt that stuff just destroys metal no matter what you do. My S doesn't have a single speck of rust on it.

 

There may be no road salt but there sure is salt in the air. That is why underbodies go to hell. I lived in Florida and saw the same thing. That is the reason aircraft boneyards/storage fields are not in Florida but the dry southwest; no corrosion.

 

...and yet, modern cars are soooo much better against corrosion. Used to be, you'd commonly see cars with fenders and quarter panels, with huge gapping holes. Rocker panels completely rusted away. Holes in doors. Cars younger than many of the S out there now. Bubbled paint often appearing in cars just a few years old.

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My old 78 Volare Minnesota airport car was quite rusted. The "V" badge on the fender was hanging by an rustcicle, the trunk had such gaping holes over the wheels I used rubber mats to cover them and used expanding foam to fill in the gaps so my bags would not get wet from the road spray. The floor in the back seat had such a good hole you could see the road.

 

...and that was in '79, right?

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I have an 04 here in Indy. I use Ziebart treatment since I bought it Aug. 2010 with 9k miles on it, been through 5 winters, getting ready to go through the 6th winter. It has 63k miles on it now.
I drive mine nearly every day, but if the snow is really bad, I use the wife's Corolla since she's not going anywhere.
It is in the garage when not in use. So far, no rust.
It sounds like I should have kept my 95 del sol that I sold for $2500 and used it as a winter beater.

 

None of our cars have rusted underbodies.
But my Saturn had some surface rust on the diff and drive shaft, the hummer being that dad is ocd about it has painted the underbody.

 

I had a beater the first 12 years and found it wasn't worth the cost to insure and maintain it. Winters weren't that bad and the value of my car dropped anyway even though it was like new.

I sold the beater and bought winter wheels, tires, and lug nuts for the S with less money than the added 6 month cost of insurance for the beater.

Since then, winters have been BRUTAL Any regrets? NO! I thoroughly enjoy driving the car every day and it hasn't had any traction issues. Life is too short to baby the car so someone else eventually gets it like new.

 

The other car in my garage. Ohio winter.



-- Chuck