What cars are the most rust-proof? ~2000-2005 era

Audi A8

Volvo's are in seemingly in the lead.

I saw Saab 9-5's mentioned. Anymore experience with Saabs?

(So proud of my Swedish blood!)

In reply to captdownshift:

If you can find one. Tweakers buy 'em up and scrap 'em for the aluminum value. Very hard to find an inexpensive A8.

Duke wrote: I live in the Midatlantic and they salt pretty heavily. I never see rusty E46s.

Wut???? you kidding right?

While they are not as bad as japanese cars, BMW are the rustiest of german cars. Below is a typical E46 for sale around here

You can be sure that underneath that car, it's a huge rusty mess.

I'd probably say Porsches - galvanized body, lots of aluminum in the suspension...even my '87 924, which sat in a field for years and was bought with several of inches of water in the passenger floor....has not a speck of rust anywhere other than the front control arms (which were aluminum on the later 944s) and the old exhaust.

irish44j wrote: I'd probably say Porsches - galvanized body, lots of aluminum in the suspension...even my '87 924, which sat in a field for years and was bought with several of inches of water in the passenger floor....has not a speck of rust anywhere other than the front control arms (which were aluminum on the later 944s) and the old exhaust.

In general the 944's do seem to hold up well, but I've got an '88 with a pretty bad case of rust just in front of the rear wheels. I'm rrrreeeeeeaaaalllllyyyyy hoping it's just that and hasn't worked it's way into the sill. I'm simultaneously rrrreeeeeeaaaalllllyyyyy scared to start digging around.

Re: SAAB 9-5s and other gm era SAABs.

The bodies resist rust fairly good, but underside parts can still rust out spectacularly.

Re: SAAB 9-5s and other gm era SAABs.

The bodies resist rust fairly good, but underside parts can still rust out spectacularly.

The front wheel drive Volvos are shockingly rust resistant, I've always thought. Nice to see I'm not alone. Euros really upped the rustproof game in the 90's, it seems.

fanfoy wrote: While they are not as bad as japanese cars, BMW are the rustiest of german cars.

You have not seen many late 90's-early 00's Mercedes-Benzes in Wisconsin then

My experience regarding ze Germans in salt country is: Mercedes < BMW < VAG.

And yes, one of the pictures below is a strut mount that broke clean off the car from rust...common W210 issue I guess.

pointofdeparture wrote: Volvos & VAG products for sure. This was the beginning of the generation where Honda really seemed to get it down too.

7th gen accords and 8th gen civics. '03 and '06, respectively.

I'll have to give the E46s credit. When they do rust, it only ever seems to be cosmetic. The undersides stay intact.

Cosmetic rust is unsightly but I'll take a solid chassis with cosmetic rust over a good lookin' car that is held together by the carpet. Like my Golf was. (A2) Looked great on the outside aside from the usual 20 year old never-garaged clearcoat fade, the underneath was a sandwich of carpet, German rubber undercoating, and iron ore granola. The floor felt like a beanbag. The chassis was so flexible that it wouldn't lift a rear tire anymore despite the Regulation 3"x24" Plate welded into the rear beam, which made the doors pop open sometimes in spirited driving. Its one saving grace is that VW designed the car so everything mounted to the center tunnel and the side sills, not the floors. (And 42mpg. That was nice, too)

My Volvo was one of the last ones that didn't get the awesome Crayola dip. Front fenders and rockers are gone, plastic side skits are ziptied to the fender liners. But the floors are solid, the body channels are solid, it's a solid car. Way way better than practically any 15 year old American or Japanese car.

Certainly NOT Ford Focuses (Focii?) of that era. Every one of those I've ever seen has been missing the rocker panels and the lower 2" of the door.

Saab made a lot of progress over the 80s, that's for sure. VAG, Volvo and Porsche lead for me. Even 80s Audis held up very well. The Japanese still use recycled steel. My parents traded in their 2011 Subaru last year because noticeable rust had taken hold. That's just unacceptable.

Knurled wrote: In reply to captdownshift: If you can find one. Tweakers buy 'em up and scrap 'em for the aluminum value. Very hard to find an inexpensive A8.

Were you being facetious or do they really do that? Because that seems like they would make no money after the initial cost.

In reply to crankwalk:

Really. People were buying up all the A8s with blown transmissions (or just perfectly running cars) for $1500-ish when scrap values were high and parting them out. Sickening in a Hannibal Lecter kind of way.

It's the intersection of phenomenal executive-car depreciation and high parts/scrap value. Bear in mind that almost everything in those cars was aluminum, too. The only steel bits in the suspension were bolts and bearings, the engine was aluminum block and heads with some magnesium parts thrown in, etc.

It's nothing new, either. I remember an article about how people were buying up 60s and 70s hearses, in the 80s, to scrap. Especially the "flower cars" (think badass Caddy El Caminos) which for technical reasons had even more steel in them than the hearses did.

In reply to crankwalk:

That must be a LOT of aluminum to scrap if it's a better idea than selling it!

Agreed with Volvo. My 850 turbo had about a quarter size piece of bare metal on the fender from where the PO had crunched it and flaked some paint off. Drove it through multiple upstate NY winters that way and never rusted, just a nice chalky layer of oxidized zinc.

I think the real test here is: Does the poster live in the rust belt? If the answer is no, then I seriously doubt they've seen rust, real rust.

The only Lexus stuff I've seen with rust of any sort was the result of poorly repaired accident damage.

Appleseed wrote: I think the real test here is: Does the poster live in the rust belt? If the answer is no, then I seriously doubt they've seen rust, real rust.

Massachusetts.

Roads that are solid white for days. Hitting piles of salt you can feel and hear when you run them over at stop signs. Most cars almost completely gray for weeks on end.

I have had 75% missing radiator supports, lower doors missing, 2" holes through a 6 year old car, XJ leaf spring mount rotted off. F150 rear spring eye sitting against the underside of the bed because the spring hanger fell off, missing chunks of floorboards.

I know rust well, I know rot even better.

In reply to fanfoy:

Huh. South of central PA, they are rarely rusty and definitely not perforated like that. My mistake.

Another shout out to Hondas between about '02 and '05.

Hondas don't rust as bad as Subarus but they love to rust. Not sure if I've seen a common Honda over 10 years old with out rust around here in the DC metro area.

Then you haven't seen me! I own an '03 accord, '05 civic, and a '97 CR-V. They all have zero rust on them.