I grew up in Western KY (about 45 miles south of Evansville, In) and never knew vehicles to be rusty the way yall up north talk about. Down here in South Texas, if it isn't a Fiat it doesn't rust too bad.
That said, I'm sure my idea of a rusty Fiat isn't the same as yalls.
Central Alabama, up to Huntsville. 20 yr old exhaust systems come apart with a wrench. Not a spot of rust on any of my old cars. It snows every 8 yrs or so.
Another thing to consider is that car auctions move cars all around the country now. Unless you are buying a one or two owner car from an area where cars are less prone to rust, there is no guarantee that the '96 BMW you're buying in Atlanta in 2014 didn't spend 15 years in the rust belt.
Hntsvl_E30 wrote: Central Alabama, up to Huntsville. 20 yr old exhaust systems come apart with a wrench. Not a spot of rust on any of my old cars. It snows every 8 yrs or so.
Agreed. Not much rust here except my Spitfire but that is an old British car that once lived in Canada.
Brett_Murphy wrote: Unless you are buying a one or two owner car from an area where cars are less prone to rust, there is no guarantee that the '96 BMW you're buying in Atlanta in 2014 didn't spend 15 years in the rust belt.
Sure there is - a '96 BMW from up here is scrap metal and not something you'll find on a used car lot.
If it WASN'T scrap metal, the used car prices here are crazy enough that it'd stay here. I've seen people pay $2000 for generic cars you can eat corn on the cob through and needing major mechanical work. I mean things like Proteges and Corollas, not anything that anybody would consider valuable...
Arizona for the most part has few rust issues. But after about 10 years if the cars haven't been garaged the sun and aridness takes a toll on any rubber or plastic. Southern Nevada as well as most of Texas and New Mexico should be about the same. most of Colorado outside of huge cities seems to use grit instead of salt.
My moms side of the family is from Pittsburgh so the longevity of cars out here still amuse them. There's always a couple of apparently rust free Fiats on craigslist at any given time here or in phoenix.
I haven't bought any cars from out West or down South but I'll still never forget how utterly SHOCKED I was to see the condition of the vehicles down in Atlanta the first time I was there. I saw DOZENS of early 60's Ford and GM trucks driving around that appeared to have at worst only light surface rust. One such truck looked like it was worn down to primer, but I didn't see anything on it that looked like an actual structural hole or even bubbling. I think that's one of the first places I would look for a "rust free car".
My cousin in Vegas also marvels at how clean cars are out there. He's a mechanic for Nissan and he said it was amazing for him to go from the Chicago burbs where you can start to get flash rust on suspension components in only 1 winter to working on perfectly rust free 10 or 20 yr old cars that have bolts that turn like nothing out in Vegas.
I'll add that since I have spent my life in MI, IL, WI, and IN you learn to accept a certain level of rust with any project car and have to personally decide when to cut your losses when A) bubbling paint and body rust is starting to bother you or B) floorpans, strut towers, and other structural components are too rusted. I don't think there is such thing as a 100% "rust free" Midwest car, but there are certainly "acceptable" ones out there.
The risk or the challenge is deciding how bad you want to do a countrywide search for a car you want and how brave you are to fly out someplace with a one way plane ticket and pray that the car is what you believed it would be condition wise and that it's going to get you home on a 1,000 + mile drive.
Being from Southwest Michigan rust free is a funny thing you hear in a lot of classified ads, but never actually see. I've bought a few very clean vehicles from towns as far north as Fort Wayne, IN. Anything further south than there is worth the trip in my opinion. The ranger I drive currently is in great shape and came from Indianapolis.
North Carolina has some very clean cars as long as you stay away from the mountains. Charlotte to Raleigh and in between has rust free cars. Charlotte is basically mini Atlanta in a sense. A lot of good clean cars on CL that few seem to talk about. I would stay away from anywhere that is near or north of Northern Virginia if I were choosing. After growing up in North Carolina and seeing how clean cars are there, it is an extreme culture shock to see rusty cars up here in Pittsburgh. My wife says I'm the only one who cares that cars up north rust.
I know I love my texas sourced cars. No rust at all. Oklahoma is the same way. Missouri is hit and miss. Once you get north of there in the midwest, you are really hit and miss. My omaha and chicago cars both had the rust monster but not as bad as our PA cars. You can hit the Texas triangle and in 3-4 hours each way, you can get to Dallas, Houston, and Austin/San Antonio and have access to tons of clean cars. My neighbor has a 1968 charger sitting out front of her house for so many years and it's still salvageable even after all of these years.
Ranger50 wrote: In reply to evildky: That's because you live in/around Loser, errrrr, Louisville. Unless it is because of absolute owner neglect, the vehicles over here in Pike Co don't rust. Same way for 90% of what runs around Lexington.
I've seen plenty of rust further out in the state. The rust in Louisville is due to our obsessive use of salt, the rest of KY rusts because they park it in their front yard and let weeds grow up around it 
I've always imagined a diagonal line on the map of North America, running about 30 degrees off horizontal, with the western end higher. The further north and east you go, the worse it is. Picture a line joining, say, southern Oregon with eastern Texas- below that is clean. Above the line joining Montreal with Anchorage would be baaaaaddd news.
In reply to evildky:
Oh you're talking about Lively Shively and Fairdeal Fairdale or Bullitt and Spencer County. Most of the state is not like that.
Brett_Murphy wrote: Another thing to consider is that car auctions move cars all around the country now. Unless you are buying a one or two owner car from an area where cars are less prone to rust, there is no guarantee that the '96 BMW you're buying in Atlanta in 2014 didn't spend 15 years in the rust belt.
And that right there is why I use carfax.
Rupert wrote: In reply to evildky: Oh you're talking about Lively Shively and Fairdeal Fairdale or Bullitt and Spencer County. Most of the state is not like that.
Shively and Fairdale are inside the city, neighborhoods that incorporated to keep from being absorbed years ago. Bullitt, Specer, Oldham, Shelby are all basically just suburbs of Louisville, but certainly have their share of cars resting in fields, same as the rest of the state. The good news is it'll all old american cars, the rednecks wouldn't want a rice burner! I have no idea if Lex salts but it's basically a college surrounded by horse farms, lots of heavy duty truck to be found there.
In reply to evildky:
Half-right. Fairdale is just a disadvantaged area in the metro. Lively Shively is a 3rd class city with 15,157 residents.
As to suburban counties, I doubt many locals will agree that Oldham and Shelby County have much if anything in common with Spencer and Bullitt. Of course they are all counties in Kentucky, beyond that It's quite different, especially the number of deserted US branded cars and front porch clothes washers per capita.
evildky wrote: Shively and Fairdale are inside the city, neighborhoods that incorporated to keep from being absorbed years ago. Bullitt, Specer, Oldham, Shelby are all basically just suburbs of Louisville, but certainly have their share of cars resting in fields, same as the rest of the state. The good news is it'll all old american cars, the rednecks wouldn't want a rice burner! I have no idea if Lex salts but it's basically a college surrounded by horse farms, lots of heavy duty truck to be found there.
Lex does salt, but apparently not as much as Louisville does. There's plenty of rust to be found around here, but I've not found it to be too bad either. Definitely better than an hour or so North though. Lexington also has the advantage of normally getting missed by a lot of really bad weather that probably means we have to salt less in general.
Another good rule would be to stay away from the East Coast. I live on the east coast in NC where it's too far south to snow very much. Due to the ocean, I believe, my old Civic had some rust on it and my Camaro has some rust also. An hour's drive away from the Atlantic should be enough miles to ward off rust. I also think that if the Saturn wagon you want to buy will have a little rust if that generation has a paint/rust issue from manufacturing flaws.
Contradiction wrote: My cousin in Vegas also marvels at how clean cars are out there. He's a mechanic for Nissan and he said it was amazing for him to go from the Chicago burbs where you can start to get flash rust on suspension components in only 1 winter to working on perfectly rust free 10 or 20 yr old cars that have bolts that turn like nothing out in Vegas.
Pretty much the same up here in Northern NV as they tend to grit the roads more than salt them, even here in the mountains. I've seen local 1950s trucks that are clearly unrestored without much in the way of rust.
Ah, rusty cars..grew up in SW OH, Cincy, moved south in 1971. Forget about salt and cars til I go home to visit family. Southern wife always asks "what happened to that car?" She also asked what the thing was hanging from the front of a truck. "snow plow, honey"
I've lived up north and down south - inland and seaside. I can tell you that most Georgia cars - particularly South Georgia vehicles - seem to be free of rust. I've bought rust-free vehicles from the Pacific Northwest as well. Atlanta south to Gainesville, FL on I75 would be a good place to search and from Waycross, GA west to Jackson, MS.
One-way fly-drive, guaranteed neat car to drive home:
San Antonio, Texas. You may need to compression-test it to make sure the head gasket hasn't gone, but it will not be rusty unless it was garaged in the San Antonio River.
In reply to chaparral:
I like having family just North of San Antonio now- it's been tempting a few times when I visit for the holidays to just buy a 1-way ticket and plan on finding something cheap and rust-free to drive back. Only thing that's stopped me is the 2-day drive back...
ProDarwin wrote: Saturns have pretty good rust protection on them, and the body obviously doesn't rust. The only part I'd worry about is the rear door jambs, which will be susceptible north of central VA, due to a weatherstripping/trim issue. This is usually just 1st gen cars.
The frame rail under the driver's seat rusted out on my 1995 SW2 originally from Maine. It may have happened from leaking from inside the car. I pulled back the carpet and found holes in the floor right above the frame rusted. That car was rusty all over the chassis and most of it wasn't very obvious. I ended up cutting off was left of the bolts on the front control arms.
My formerly Californian 1995 SC2 is still doing okay--the subframe is rusting a bit--despite cleaning it and repainting it back around 2007.
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