Why do people drive these in the salt or show me your rust / winter beater.

In reply to dclafleur :

Clearly not from the rust belt.

I can afford my car, if I drive it in the winter it will not age well.  The plan is to keep it for a long time so it does not see snow.   I also hate rust and if it were to get rusty that would mean replacing it and selling it for peanuts compared to what it is worth as a clean low mileage car.  Not to mention bad drivers or good drivers with bad tires, just not worth the risk.  

I think this thread derailed as most do.  A good conversation but really I just want pictures or some real winter rust buckets.  Corrosion protection has come a long way maybe that's why I'm not seeing them anymore.   

Appleseed said:

They do it because they do not value cars they way we do. And that has nothing to do with wealth. Its a mindset. That 911 is simply an appliance to be expended.

This is the truth.  My Mustang is not an appliance to me, the other cars sure.  If I planned on replacing it with something else within a couple of years, why not drive it every day.  Truth is it is a long term project, once done it will move on to make room for the next.

Michigan here.  I saw a then brand new 996 GT2 driving around in horrible snowy, freezing, salty conditions back in the day.  I see lot's of 911's and Boxsters out in all weather too.  Also corrosio0n protection has come a long long way.  My 14 year old Volv0 C30 and daughters 15 year old S60 have both been year round dailys since new, and the lack of corrosion underneath and on the fasteners is simply astounding.  Now, with the C30 that's the same basic platform as the Mazda 3 and Focus, they seem to rot out like crazy so it's all down to how you choose to spend your money.

Cactus said:

Move to the frigid North where it's too cold for salt to work. Problem solved.

I knew I was in a different land when I went to Sno*Drift and I saw locals driving old Datsun pickups and torsion bar Subarus in the winter.  Those dissolved practically before the payments were done where they salt.

One day after washing.  They apply so much salt the roads get slippery and people raise dust clouds if it's dry.  Wet it just tastes funny.

Michigan/Wisconsin car, all of the fasteners were rust free when I got it.  Now, I needed heat to get a stabilizer link off. 

Both beaters

Maybe instead of storage wheel and tire combo maybe I should get some snow tires.

Also just saw a GT3 in EGR covered in salt.

Some day they will be cursed by the person restoring their antique Porsche.

My lifted 1988 Honda Accord. 

Kind of crusty underneath.  DIY strut spacers, road sign skid plate, light bar up front, and a lot of Fluid Film to keep it from getting too much worse.

In reply to HotNotch :

I love it!

Five people in my family passed around an 88 LXi sedan, brown over more brown, velour, MT, a great car.

Winter duties: '03 Tacoma, '12 Golf R, '14 Charger Hemi AWD.

Tacoma took the brunt of the duties for the longest time and it shows. Frame was replaced by Toyota, gas tank this year, lost the spare tire carrier (another recall), rear axle housing is weeping from the rear of the pumpkin and will be replaced this spring, passenger rocker was soft and is halway repaired.

When the daily is down and you have to drive the project car:

I do a little of both categories...

Rusty winter beater:

Why do you drive this in the salt?

Because I can?

P3PPY said:

Saw a Lambo over here in East Lansing a while back in the salty snow mush. Seeing it like that gave me mixed feelings like it does to you!

Im waiting to see a rusted out Tesla someday- or are they all plastic?

That doesn't surprise me. Michigan State has positioned itself as a magnet for wealthy international students, many of whom have never seen snow, ice or salt damage before.

Type Q said:

P3PPY said:

Saw a Lambo over here in East Lansing a while back in the salty snow mush. Seeing it like that gave me mixed feelings like it does to you!

Im waiting to see a rusted out Tesla someday- or are they all plastic?

That doesn't surprise me. Michigan State has positioned itself as a magnet for wealthy international students, many of whom have never seen snow, ice or salt damage before.

 

Now just if our middle class students from Michigan could afford to go to school here...that would be great.

In reply to HotNotch :

Dood! You need to show that thing off, not buried in a beater thread.

Cars don't rust like they did. This has 8 New York winters and 275,000 miles on it. It gets an occasional wash and lives outside but has no rust beyond a the usual fasteners. 

Berck said:

I do a little of both categories...

Rusty winter beater:

 

Why do you drive this in the salt?

Because I can?

Arguably the Ford is a lot more replaceable than the Audi, and better to be sacrificed to NaCl.

I like your argument! There are definitely more RSes available than Audi 5000 Quattros available in the US, probably in the world.  But I paid $1,000 for the Audi with the express purpose of "winter beater that will inevitably outwit my ability to keep it on the road".  (Story here.)  The Focus cost real money and has resale value.  Another perspective is that I have untold hours of wrenching time keeping the Audi on the road, and the Focus RS is the responsibility of Ford's dealer network.

To be fair, the RS is the wife's car.  I would not wish the whims of the Audi upon her.  She's welcome to drive any car in the "fleet" any time she likes, but she mostly avoids the cantankerous ones.  Given her options, she seems to pick either the RS or a Miata 99% of the time.  

My 2 is in the middle of it's 8th Vermont winter. I am crazy impressed with how well the body has held up after driving and working on a lot of VAG products since 92 that didn't. About to roll over 175000. Just replaced the oil pan as it was looking terrible and I was worried about it. The rockers are great, but I attribute that to the front mud flaps. The front subframe has a lot of surface rust. I live on a dirt road and the rocks and stones have cleaned the paint right off it. Damn car still flying along though.

I'm in the middle of Canada, where it's too cold to use salt so things aren't as bad as out East, but not as nice as further West.

My last two winter beaters were both $600 purchases with rust.

The first is the '04 Sentra Spec-V6

And the second is my '98 K1500. I still have to do the bedsides and fenders, it's got black POR15 spots for the past 2 years.

I keep threatening (myself) to buy winter tires for my cayman, I really miss my old boxster as a winter beater. I do drive it pretty much any time that the summer tires will tolerate (basically anything above freezing and mostly dry), I try to avoid salt as much as I can but sometimes it happens and I don't really worry about it too much. Honestly my bigger reason for avoiding it (and the reason I tend to avoid rain year round when possible as well) is not the corrosion, it's just that the exterior becomes thoroughly dirty immediately and needs to be washed constantly to look even half presentable and that can't be great for the paint either. That and there's always the factor of 90% of people seeming to be thoroughly incompetent at driving in the snow and the extra risk of having a car that, in the current market, is basically irreplaceable totaled doesn't seem worth it.

A photo of my winter beater from our last snowstorm.

Pick one nothing is exempt

Fresh salt and a bit of snow this morning.  
 

Speaking of that there seems to be a bumper crop of potholes this year. 

In reply to Berck :

When those 5000s came out I thought they were really futuristic looking. They are very good looking cars still.  

I'm so glad it rarely snows of any consequence here. The flip side though, is we get nasty ice storms. Probably going to cost me another $1k to have one of the trees in the front yard taken out since the ice storm last Feb wrecked it.