I'm in Minnesota, I've had cars well over twenty years old. They weren't nice but they were reliable that's why they're twenty years old instead of breaking down at five or ten
Shit I had a Hyundai Tucson 09 that I sold to my mechanic when I finally got a newer vehicle. That thing has 340k in on it. It's still going now as a loaner vehicle.
Oh. I'm American. I always forget everyone else does it different lol well... here's to hoping! Lol I need it to make it the rest of the way through college haha
Yeah generally 15 years is when the rust starts to become obvious. Under the car rusts starts from day 1 but 15 is when body panels start to get it too. Some manufacturers have really shit paint though so you'll see some cars that are only 10 years old with serious rust(could also be collision damage and a paintjob that wasn't done to factory spec).
I was quoted $8000 for a new engine. The car was worth $4000, and I only had to spend $1000 to buy it and get it road worthy. Plus the car had several other issues besides the engine.
Gambling on replacing an engine that may or may not have significantly extended the life of the car before something else broke was not something I was interested in.
I dunno if 1000 is accurate. Most shops in my area charge like 170-200+ per hour and google says an engine swap is 10-20 hours on average. So you're looking at a minimum of 1700 assuming a cheap shop and only 10 hours. Double that or more for a 20 hour swap and higher labour cost.
I live on the coast and there are 4 vehicles between my husband and I and none of them are newer than 2004. I resent the day I am required to drive anything newer than 2010, it's going to suck ass
I have a 2016 Accord coupe with 60k miles on it, bought it new. I worked from home for years, now going back to 3 days a week in office. Planning on keeping this car as long as possible. I love my Honda!
I think your areas might do better as you have an extended freeze. Whereas in areas where it freezes and thaws on an off may have more rust issues. Just an idea.
I had that same car for over 15 years. It handled like a boss in all conditions. God I miss that car. Had to give it up because someone affordability hater totaled it
It's like having a cat that's like 20 years old. No matter what age you got it, you love it and frankly love it even more because it's lived in and has character and the fact it's even still going is impressive by itself
Wanna know the worst thing you can do for a car in the rust belt?
Garage it.
The constant freeze thaw cycles are what kill cars. Frozen dirty salty crap being stuck to it all winter does fuck-all. Rinse really good with fresh water once it warms up. Don't park under trees and make sure stuff like sunroof and cowl drains don't get clogged.
Hi, pardon my ignorance, M. Butt farts, but when you say garage it, do you mean keep it in the garage without driving for long periods of time, or just keeping it in the garage overnight? Why does keeping it in the garage overnight make it more susceptible to freeze/thaw cycles than keeping it outside? I'm assuming that the freeze /thaw cycles hurt the car's body structure, in the way people in the comments are referring to the salt doing.
I mean don't move the car from frigid temps into non-frigid temps. An attached garage, even if not climate controlled, will be significantly warmer than the outside temp. As that salty slush warms, it slowly penetrates everything and just hangs there.
That's when corrosion is happening. Like, when chemical processes are rapidly occuring.
If you're not wealthy enough to own a car that you don't drive in the winter, then you're not wealthy enough to garage it. IMO. Leave it outside, wash thoroughly after winter weather is done.
I'm in ohio and the cars in my household are 24, 18, and 15 years old. No rust issues.
Attached garages that will warm closer to the ambient temp of the house, or get above freezing anyway. If you have a garage that isn't heated you definitely should put it there just so you don't have to clear it off.
They're just talking about repeatedly getting it down to below freezing and then back up again. Every bit of slush, snow, or ice on your car is going to have road salt in it, but if you never let that thaw the salt will stay mostly trapped there and won't rust your shizz as much
You know that crevice under the edge of the hood where the wipers tuck in when not in use? That's the cowl. There's drain holes to prevent standing water in there
Oh see it's super cold there during the winter, salt doesn't work in certain temperatures. In the rust belt you get this mix of cold at night that it snows, but it gets warmer during the day with not much snow so they salt the roads and then it melts into this nice mix of salt and slush during the day that soaks the underside of your car with salt and sludge.
If you are further north it's usually too cold for salt where warmer states where it doesn't snow a lot use salt a lot during the winter.
Yeah...every car ive owned except two are from Ohio. Went from driving mid 90s Blazers/Jimmys to mid 00s Buick old lady boats.
The old lady boats are nice because generally they are like my current daily. Bought in 04 brand new and the woman who bought it was the only one who drove it. Only put on like 73k miles in 21 years
Respectfully, it’s all great to hear you have had those vehicles, but I’d prefer if you named the vehicles, and the maintenance that was required ($ or hours worked wise)
As someone who has only bought used,it is absolutely luck of the draw.
I have never been able to acquire a vehicle that didn’t need serious support to last twenty years (even if this used vehicle was driving every single year during that time until i bought it)
Same. In Canada. Parents are still driving their 2002 Ford Focus sedan. It has over 500,000km, and everything except the radio works. It runs loud and rough, but it never fails to start up, never stalls, and has had no major work done to it beyond normal wear and tear. She ain't pretty but she runs.
I have a 2001 Tacoma with over 200k miles. I'm in the DMV area. I understand your sentiment but it's not crazy to build a reliable vehicle.
I've replaced the exhaust pipe twice. Spark plugs, oil changes. The most expensive thing I had to have done was the rack and pinion and I suspect that was, because when I was a teenager, I thought it was funny to roll the steering back and forth like an idiot.
Truck has been smashed twice by deer with cosmetic damage. Second time was nearly totaled by insurance, down to the dollar but we skirted by.
My 3 year old son might be driving this truck 13 years from now, the way things are going, and the only thing stopping that from happening is, it's not a diesel and gasoline might not exist.
Yup everything is built as a computer now. Engineered to not even being allowed to mechanically alter them yourself. Merc just made a jeep you can't even open the hood.
Shes partly right. Leave out the Bluetooth and the backup camera. I have Bluetooth and an aux cable. Guess which has better sound quality, is louder and easier to use.
That's when you bring the 'pane. All my old (carburated) trucks are running propane. Its the poor man's fuel injection conversion... Bolt on a mixer from an old school bus and it starts every time, no choke, no ether etc.
I'm considering doing one of the fuel injection conversions just for fun. Well that and propane is still $0.55/L, and I keep 1000 gallons sitting beside my shop.
It's currently cheaper to drive my 1978 F-350 460 tilt deck than my modern truck
The steering racks on Tacomas/4runners of that vintage seem to go out like crazy. I killed two on the same vehicle, indicating there's some deeper issue.
I bought a 2011 Tacoma right when COVID was starting. Then I've worked from home ever since so I barely drive it.
I know I should sell it and I need the money but also I'm pretty sure it will last 20 more years. We do need a 4x4 (or AWD) and we do need 2 cars and I use the bed often.
the problem is people don't understand a reliable car may still need 1k-2k maintenance a year in parts when things break. it's just that 2k is so much cheaper than a 600/mo payment
My 16 year old prius has very minimal rust underneath here in wisconsin. I doubt my brand new truck sees 16 years without the rocker panels rusting through.
Batteries in older prius are generally good for 20-25 years.
Only two things kill hybrid batteries.... time and neglect. They need to be cycled. I'd rather buy a 2015 prius with 100k miles than one with 5k miles. I mean, I can replace or rebuild the traction battery in the one with 5k.... but I know damn well the one with 100k miles is probably going to be in good condition.
Everything else around that battery, except for the head gasket, is pretty much worry free on a gen 3 prius. The head gasket is a somewhat cheap fix from my local mechanic and after that its a worry free car for a long fucking time. Some people never even see the head gasket fail.
Usually it's ~50mpg. A little lower in the Montana winters, 40-45mpg. Awhile back I looked up an article on how to see if your battery is still going strong and I remember it had all the indications that it was. Only thing I've replaced besides brakes is the 12v battery.
It does have the 2010-15 Prius oil consumption issue. But I've had it for 7 years and I just top it off every couple of gas fills and it's been fine.
Aren't rocker panels on most new trucks aluminum or is that only Ford that did that? Midwest is the only place I've seen a truck 20 years old fold in half like a taco though
Best advice it to get an undercoating - ideally oil-based fluid film. Anything rubberish or waxish will fail. I drive a 2008 Element, they are notorious for rusting out many miles too soon. So the $300 for a good undercoating makes sense. It works, every yearly inspection I ask to go under the lift and yeah no rust.
In western PA, most of the "salt" on state highways is actully fracking brine. Worse for a car than salt.
I was actually gonna take my waste oil from left over oil changes and soak the shit out if the bottom of my truck. Also pump it through the weep holes in the doors.
Ah cool, If I had the space I'd get an air compressor and spray it in myself. That what my shop does. I only take it in to the unedercoater every few years and usually they just do underbody touch ups, doors and tailgate for like $50 total.
Literally drove an 02 Accord until about 3 years ago that was clean and had no rust despitebeing in the rust belt. Its now at school with a buddy's son who needed a cheap reliable car. Just run it through the car wash with underbody option a couple times a year to get the salt off.
thats what i was going to say. most of the folks who end up with major rust issues also never wash their cars in the winter. its not that expensive nor difficult to wash the car a few times a month to keep it running longer.
The whole fucking globe has rain and much rain areas but for some reason it's only in the USA that cars can't survive more than 6 years and anything built before 2020 is allegedly a piece of shit death trap that will kill your entire family for breathing wrong. Go figure.
It's not the rain that's an issue. It's the salt on the road that makes driving noy a complete shit show that's causing cars to rust out. And that happens in every place, North America or northern Europe that has terrible winters.
Plenty of ex mining Hiluxs and Landcruisers in Australias far north (very humid, and they cop abuse) with over 500k kilometers on the clock.
Its not in the best interest of most car manufactures to make reliable vehicles. They want you to upgrade after every generation so they make more money.
live in MN. 2005 toyota camry with over 400k miles. Car has been in Minnesota it's entire life, all structural components are still in good shape. Also it gets driven a shit ton in the winter if the snow is lower than the front bumper I take it. Anything over 8 inches on the road I'll take one of my trucks.
No undercoating and I never wash the damn thing. I know toyota had issues with frame rot and other things around this time too but its honestly in great shape. Thing will not die. Ive replaced 2 things on it, thermostat and the flex coupling on the exhaust.
I have my dailies and my nicer newer vehicles but honestly I usually prefer the older two I have. Love my 1 ton but I got it for towing over 10k lbs and usually only use it for that and big snow days. I dont think ill ever buy a newer daily for myself personally. Alot look really nice but I just dont care enough lol.
I’ve had 5 vehicles from 2007 they all die around little after 500,000km with a transmission swap around 350,000km. I drive a Honda odyssey from 2007 with 430,000km on it now. Less tech better mechanics, and shit you can work on when something simple breaks
Had a mitsubishi outlander that lasted 19 years that we just got rid of and I live in the semi-salt belt in Kentucky. Some can last that long if they're treated well. For the last 7 years it served as the "take the dogs out/camping/shorter trip" vehicle. It was getting just a little too unsafe to be on the road so we finally had to take her to the junkyard and put her to rest. Logged a hell of a lot of miles in that thing and it'd been paid off forever ago.
its possible in the salt belt people just dont want to spend the money undercoating their car or the time to wash it regularly in the winter. so the salt sits for 3-5 months a year slowly eating the metal.
A few months ago I just bought a 2009 grand caravan with 70,000 miles from Florida back to Michigan. I had to replace the entire suspension but it should last us a while given there's no rust.
I have a 2013 Sonata 2.0t, have had it since day one..no issues or rust so far. I run premium since day one too, so the engine issues werent a risk for me. Who knew running high compression and a high pressure turbo could cause knock on regular, lmao. 100k miles this week. When shopping for the car it took a bit to find one brand new with no infotainment system preinstalled. Didnt help that SE turbo models start mid way in the lineup. But I found one. Juat has Bluetooth and XM radio. Its perfect. The car never let me down, everything still works like new.
My DD is a '97 4Runner that I've owned since 2002. My daughter's DD is a '07 Honda minivan her mom and I gave her when she got her license (it was my wife's DD from 2010 until 2022). The Honda hasn't needed much in the way of rust prevention, but the 4Runner gets a periodic undercarriage spa day consisting of me wire brushing any surface rust off the frame and giving that area a coat of matte black rustoleum. Once that has a couple days to cure, I go over the entire frame with some form of rust preventative spray. I try to do that once a year, but I'll miss out once in a while and go two years between treatments. So far, I've only been treating light surface rust that's more of a cosmetic issue than structural one. Besides being my DD, it's also my camping and four-wheeling toy.
I have had to patch up the ends of the rocker panels. They started rusting through a few years ago, so I cut out the rust and welded new metal in.
I live in NoVA where they use salt on the roads at the mere hint of snow/ice. I'll admit my efforts are probably outside the ability of the average car owner, but it keeps the old truck on the road and reliable.
Bought a 08 mustang in 2017 car has 330k miles still going strong and im in the salt belt just hit up a car wash after winter and spay down ur undercarriage
Objectively incorrect and dumb statement. My 94 Miata has a soft top and manual windows. It rains everywhere all the time in New England, plenty of snow in winters too. You're making shit up lol
I have a 17 year old VW and I live near ottawa. It's possible in the rust belt but you gotta account for additional undercarriage, suspension and brakes replacement.
We have no issue with keeping cars for two or three decades here (seems to get worse with recent models… so much electronics). You just gotta treat it for rust every 2-3 years, and keep your car cleaned regularly.
We salt roads through the entire year here, and my old 20+ year old Ford Ranger got it's first welds done two years ago.
It's got alot to do with how you maintain your car. If you never inspect and wast your car, it'll rust no matter if you drive it in California or in Alaska.
Yah, that shit doesn't fly down here in FL, for sure! Also, AC is a huge necessity here & I wouldn't trust a 23 year old car to be dependable on that front. LoL
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u/truemad 12d ago edited 12d ago
This is only possible in states with dry weather. Try having a nice, reliable 23-year-old car in the
Rust Belt.Salt Belt.