Originally Posted by gatesy21
Im in michigan and just cant handle keeping the srt put up for the whole winter. Is driving it in dry weather even though cold as crap out bad for the car? There is still a little salt on the roads and built up areas here and there. I was just thinking this is a "benz" shouldn't it have some pretty good rust proofing to protect against salt driving? thanks guys
My VW Jetta III GLX VR6 was daily driven in Chicago from 1995 to 2001, then in Tennessee from 2001 to 2003, then in Minnesota from 2004 to 2006. Basically, that's 8 years of daily driving in a salt-rich environment.
At the end of its life, here are the parts that were rusted:
1. Original OEM exhaust resonator - completely rusted out/had to be replaced.
2. Area under the side skirts at the bottom of the car was showing a little bit of surface rust.
3. All zinc plated bolts in engine bay had a little bit of rust around the edges.
4. All suspension and steering nuts/bolts had some surface rust.
That's it. My 1992 Corolla was a California car until 2001, then it's been daily driven here in Minnesota for the last 7 years. The body panels only shows some surface rust where there are scratches in the paint.
The problem that I've found is that rust occurs if there are scratches in the paint. If you touch up any scratches, you should have fewer problems.