Would you buy a used car from New York?

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Considering a 9 year old car that Carfax says has been in NYC area pretty much all of its life. It only has 51k miles, so it hasn't been on the road a ton. Carfax shows plenty of oil changes on a good schedule.

Thinking of potential rust because of the winter (snow) applications. Grew up in the Midwest and now live in the high desert. The lack of rust here is amazing in comparison.

Should I be worried about potential rust based on the life it's lived to this point?
 
Not a snowballs chance in [censored] i would buy a used car from anywhere cold, where the roads are regularly salted
 
I bought my last 3 cars out of Connecticut, lol. But in each case they were either not driven in the New England winter, or very sparingly....such as wintering in Florida. There are a lot of fussy drivers up here that tend to keep their nicer cars out of the winter slush and rain. In upstate NY that's a lot harder to do. Not so bad in NY City though. You also have to be on the lookout for cars that might have been "submerged" in hurricanes that hit the NJ-New England coast hard (Sandy, Irene, etc.).
 
Ask for some pics of the undercarriage. Depends on the car. My LR3 and Liberty started life in FL and then in 2011 came up tp WI, their undercarriages still look like Florida vehicles. I wouldn't write it off instantly because of that.
 
Originally Posted By: 29662
Not a snowballs chance in [censored] i would buy a used car from anywhere cold, where the roads are regularly salted
+1. There's some low mileage rusty cars out there, and some high mileage non-rusty cars back east.
 
Depends on the car. I bought my Mercedes used in NY, private party. Many of the body panels are aluminum. NY seems to have some of the lowest prices for luxury used cars.
 
A used car guy told me : cold weather cars are [censored] on rust and corrosion. Hot weather cars are [censored] on the interior. I bought a low mileage car in Florida and brought it north with me- it worked out fine. I bought a cheap used car in NJ and brought it south to Maryland: a tiny rocker panel rust spot I thought could be easily fixed turned into major cancer.
 
Originally Posted By: HawkeyeScott
Considering a 9 year old car that Carfax says has been in NYC area pretty much all of its life. It only has 51k miles, so it hasn't been on the road a ton. Carfax shows plenty of oil changes on a good schedule.

Thinking of potential rust because of the winter (snow) applications. Grew up in the Midwest and now live in the high desert. The lack of rust here is amazing in comparison.

Should I be worried about potential rust based on the life it's lived to this point?


Rust loves a car that sits outside and is barely driven. The good news? You can see if its rusted by looking at it.
 
Originally Posted By: HawkeyeScott
been in NYC area pretty much all of its life. It only has 51k miles, so it hasn't been on the road a ton.

That means lots of short trips and sitting around unused; all bad news when it comes to rust.

I would want to inspect such a vehicle personally before taking a chance; it could be a corroded mess underneath.
 
Originally Posted By: HawkeyeScott
Should I be worried about potential rust based on the life it's lived to this point?


Yes. The odds are not with you. That said, it may be worth looking at. But if you are already out west where there are plenty of low-rust vehicles, I wouldn't go out of my way to look at this NYC car.
 
Every time I go to NYC, I notice how even the really nice cars that are parked on the street are dinged and knicked all to heck.
Unless you somehow know that it was garaged on both ends (assuming the seller actually worked), wouldn't be worth bothering with IMHO.
 
Here is a novel idea: take a look at the car in person, are there a lot of dings in the body, crawl underneath to see if any signs of rust are there. Then make a decision.

Cars do not stay rust free for 9 years, and then start completely rusting out.
 
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None of my current fleet has any rust whatsoever, including my nearly 30 year old E-150. If a person takes care of their vehicles, and you're able to check them I don't see a problem. Having said that I'd rather buy a car from Southern Arizona or the Nevada desert, but that's not an easy thing for me to do.
 
Totally depends on if it has been garaged and taken care of VS sat on the street and never washed. It may be low mileage because it was a city car its whole life, that's not easy on a car either. IMO, you'll have to go check this one out.
 
Originally Posted By: Rolla07
Originally Posted By: HawkeyeScott
Considering a 9 year old car that Carfax says has been in NYC area pretty much all of its life. It only has 51k miles, so it hasn't been on the road a ton. Carfax shows plenty of oil changes on a good schedule.

Thinking of potential rust because of the winter (snow) applications. Grew up in the Midwest and now live in the high desert. The lack of rust here is amazing in comparison.

Should I be worried about potential rust based on the life it's lived to this point?


Rust loves a car that sits outside and is barely driven. The good news? You can see if its rusted by looking at it.
According to the Swedes who did a study of this topic
cars kept in heated garages tended to rust more than cars which were left outside. The snow and ice built up during use melted in the garage and the car sat in salty water when not in use.
 
I know for a fact there were a number of 2012 Hurricane Sandy cars up in the Chesapeake, NY and NJ that were partially flooded then supposedly "repaired" or salvaged then sold on the used car market..no carfax report!!..the new owners found out the hard way..floorboard, under seat or kick-panel electrics/computers/connectors slowly water damaged and rust in very peculiar places.
 
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