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dj06482 (Forum Supporter)
dj06482 (Forum Supporter) UberDork
5/12/23 12:38 p.m.
Woody (Forum Supportum) said:

Volvos. 

Also came in here to say that.  I remember seeing a 15 year old Volvo for sale at the side of the road one time.  I checked it out, and was absolutely stunned at how clean the underside of the car was.  Nothing else I've seen was even close, and the car didn't look like an obvious garage queen.

ddavidv
ddavidv UltimaDork
5/13/23 7:30 a.m.

Incredibly, VWs. Our 2010 Jetta Sportwagen received truly minimal cosmetic care and sits outside. Not a speck anywhere. Some can get rust on the front fenders due to a stupid piece of anti-vibration foam stuck to the backside but that's all I've seen in recent history.

Dirtydog (Forum Supporter)
Dirtydog (Forum Supporter) Dork
5/13/23 8:38 a.m.

I would think enthusiast styled cars.  Not really a daily driver, a fair weather friend, so to speak.  Not a car used every day, "MIGHT" equate to something less abused.  That said, you almost always do better with a car/truck that is garage kept.

OHSCrifle
OHSCrifle UberDork
5/13/23 8:56 a.m.

Do cars parked outside in winter fare better than cars in a garage.. because less melting?

Pete. (l33t FS)
Pete. (l33t FS) MegaDork
5/13/23 11:20 a.m.
OHSCrifle said:

Do cars parked outside in winter fare better than cars in a garage.. because less melting?

No.

 

It isn't the moisture that does the damage so much as it is the salt.  And salt permeates and rusts everything.

 

I have bought three clean cars from in Michigan and Wisconsin where it gets cold enough/heavy enough snow that they don't bother to use salt on the roads.  They just grade the snow.  Here, if they did that, the daily thaw/freeze cycle would make that a mess, so they scrape to the ground and salt.

I still recall having to air chisel the nuts on the intake manifold of a D17 Civic because they had rusted into round nubs.

A 401 CJ
A 401 CJ SuperDork
5/13/23 3:30 p.m.

My question has always been just why does the Northeast and northern Midwest insist on copious amounts of road salt?  The western states don't.  Is their snow and ice any less perilous?

Also, cinders are a big thing here.  This extra grit may assist traction and aide in preventing fender benders but come Spring it CAUSES motorcycle accidents which are often much more deadly than an SUV sliding into a ditch.  Makes no sense.

Woody (Forum Supportum)
Woody (Forum Supportum) MegaDork
5/13/23 3:57 p.m.

In reply to A 401 CJ  
 

I think that the reason that they use salt around here is that the snow and ice often melt during the day and then freeze up again every night. The cycle continues until it eventually goes away. 
 

Further north, they can plow away the snow once and then the roads stay clear and dry until the next time that it snows. 
 

Also, salt only works down to about 29 degrees. 

ddavidv
ddavidv UltimaDork
5/14/23 7:07 a.m.

Garage kept makes a huge difference. I used to see hundreds of cars annually in my job and I could tell just by looking at them which ones were kept indoors. 

Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter)
Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) UltimaDork
5/14/23 9:22 a.m.
A 401 CJ said:

My question has always been just why does the Northeast and northern Midwest insist on copious amounts of road salt?  The western states don't.  Is their snow and ice any less perilous?

Also, cinders are a big thing here.  This extra grit may assist traction and aide in preventing fender benders but come Spring it CAUSES motorcycle accidents which are often much more deadly than an SUV sliding into a ditch.  Makes no sense.

I know that in SE Michigan, part of the reason they use so much salt is that there's so much readily available. The city of Detroit was essentially built on top of a giant salt mine.

I also know that, at least in the western part of the state, they don't use as much salt, they use more sand. And generally the cars that have lived their lives over there don't look as bad.

GIRTHQUAKE
GIRTHQUAKE SuperDork
5/14/23 12:00 p.m.
A 401 CJ said:

My question has always been just why does the Northeast and northern Midwest insist on copious amounts of road salt?  The western states don't.  Is their snow and ice any less perilous?

It's cheap and we have cycles of freeze/thaw, and the salt helps to prevent black ice. I think locally my municipality switched to a magnesium based salt mixed with sand from a sodium base but I feel that was more to avoid groundwater and soil problems from too much normal salt.

Pete. (l33t FS)
Pete. (l33t FS) MegaDork
5/14/23 12:09 p.m.

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

And I have not seen deer in the middle of the road licking the salt off for quite a while.

 

Granted, it wasn't very common to begin with.

 

 

 

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