Quote:
Originally Posted by JARblue
Rain will absolutely rust your undercarriage. Just not as fast as salt water, which is essentially what the road salt turns into when it melts the ice.
Those older cars may look ok, but I guarantee you there is significantly more rust on their exhaust piping if you compared it to a weekend driver's car of the same age and model.
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Funny you mention exhaust, that is kinda sorta how I guage initial rust. It always starts on the factory weld joints of exhaust and subframe areas. Worst I see in florida is some light browning of the weld seams. I think the car would last in excess of 20 years with just rain if not more here. Main culprit here in FL is sun UV damage which kills paint of more than any rust. Not unless you are parked on a beach frequently which I dont.
My wives previous ride was a 2006 Malibu, the floorpan was clean as whistle and it had over 120K miles on it and parked outside.
Now the same car or similar in a salt belt would have been perforated underneath. Yes, indeed water will corrode bare metal, but it will take ages without salt. Back in England they salted the roads in winter, you would be lucky to be rust free for more than 7 years and I am not just talking about the underpan areas, wheel arches would perforate.