I noticed the first rust on my mother's 160k mile '99 Sunfire a few days ago. I guess I should have been spraying the rear fenders with Rust Check or something like I started doing on my Mazda3 when I noticed traces of surface rust on the underside of the lip last year. There's no easy way to keep that lip clean and it didn't know that area would still be a problem spot on modern vehicles. Why don't they cover that with a plastic shield like they do on the front? Seems like planned obsolescence to me.
The car has been kept in an insulated and rarely-heated garaged for the last 8-1/2 years. She washes it frequently. During the cold part of winter, the garage stays cool and dry, usually between -5C and -10C. Snow and ice on the floor sublimate over time. But in the spring, it's often humid and wet in there. That's when the drivetrain on my winter bike gets rusty and that's probably the worst time for cars too. I suppose that would be a good time to leave it outside. They don't use a lot of salt on the roads here, but they do use some. I suspect the rust probably got a good start in the first three years of its life out east. When my father and I had a look at the car after she bought it, he immediately declared it to be an "Easter Bunny" because all the aluminum under the hood had surface corrosion. Later, I ran a Carfax of it when I had an unlimited account for a month and it did indeed come from Quebec.
The car has been kept in an insulated and rarely-heated garaged for the last 8-1/2 years. She washes it frequently. During the cold part of winter, the garage stays cool and dry, usually between -5C and -10C. Snow and ice on the floor sublimate over time. But in the spring, it's often humid and wet in there. That's when the drivetrain on my winter bike gets rusty and that's probably the worst time for cars too. I suppose that would be a good time to leave it outside. They don't use a lot of salt on the roads here, but they do use some. I suspect the rust probably got a good start in the first three years of its life out east. When my father and I had a look at the car after she bought it, he immediately declared it to be an "Easter Bunny" because all the aluminum under the hood had surface corrosion. Later, I ran a Carfax of it when I had an unlimited account for a month and it did indeed come from Quebec.
