Every Ford we have ever had seems to rot, my dads is now bubbeling above the wheel arch.
The worst car by far though was the Lada, I have a pic of it during its last year, it came out of the factory cream, by 10 years old it was orange and gray!
Best car for rust resistance was the Punto, it was 6 years old when scrapped due to an accident but not a spec of rust anywhere.
The Escort was not bad, I scraped the wheel arch rust off each year and treated it with K-Rust and hammerite, it never got any worse and the arches were solid even 5 years after the rust had started to set in.
My dads car history has been 2 X Morris Minors, 2 X Minis, 2 x Ladas, 1 x Punto, 1 X Escort and 1 x Fiesta.
My history has been 2 x Fiestas.
I think my dad would agree apart from the Punto the Morris Minors were the best cars in terms of rust protection, it was the engines which died on both. His other cars rust has usually killed them.
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.......... my 1952 Jowett .......
Is it a Javelin or a Jupiter?
Edited by L'escargot on 24/02/2009 at 03:54
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Anyone with a 1996 - 2002 Fiesta should check the front A pillars behind the rubber wind strips. They can rust so badly there that the strength of the pillars can be severely compromised.
HJ
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In our family the best performer has been my fathers K reg Volvo.Not a speck of rust on it. Its rarely washed,never polished and never garaged. Also been very reliable. The worst has been my father in laws Passat Estate. Seven years old and badly rusting on drivers side A pillar around the screen. Our Mazdas are ok so far(only 5 and 1 year old !) but the paint is very thin and stone chips easily.
SQ
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 24/02/2009 at 09:49
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Had an old Panda-galvanized chassis-excellent but the doors were not galvanized-I offered it to a Fiat breaker(for free).His first question"What are the doors like?" and didn't want it.
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>>Our Mazdas are ok so far(only 5 and 1 year old
Can't see any rust on my 2002 Mazda6.
Clk Sec
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The worst cars that I have owned in the last 20years have been Volvos!
1986 240 Estate - Owned from new- the floor pan rotted underneath the drivers seat by about 1997 . The plastic sheet underneath the carpet kept inside dry but just promoted the rot. The underseal was perfect and looked very solid. Took a good few hours of welding to put in a 40cm x 10cm patch underneath the cross member at the back of the drivers seat. MoT guy was staggered when he saw the extent of the rot.
Temporary 1987? 340 had minor outer sill rot which did not look too bad. When the outer sill was removed, the inner web (ie middle of a triple layer construction) was extensively rotted out for about 30cm.
Just goes to show that outer appearances can be very deceptive.
p
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It's amazing how different are the experiences people have with apparently similar cars. Perhaps environmental factors such as use in salty seaside climates and frequency of washing are more important than we know.
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Worst I have personally owned:
1972 MG Midget, entire floor replaced. This was excusable as it was 1988 and the car was 16 years old.
1975 Ford Escort Mk2. My first car, dreadful build quality, door panel completely rusted through at 6 years old and virtually terminal corrosion at 8 years old.
1983 Peugeot 305. You could watch the rust progress across the bodywork by the day and it was always interesting to guess which panel was going to be the next one to sprout rust bubbles. My foot went through the outer sill getting out one day when the car was 7 years old. The odd thing was it was in fairly good condition when I bought it at 5 years old, having been kept in a garage by its first owner. Life on a driveway in the following 2 years really finished it off.
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Fords as above are bad.
Peugeot 106 at 16 years old has corrosion in seams under boot - waxoiled and stopped.. and they ALL corrode in main body channel running from under the engine to the rear. Rust occurs just under the junction with front bulkhead where there is a plastic washer. With time it becomes fatal..
Yaris at 5 years is excellent: galvanised .
A4 was v good as were all BMWs.
The only rusty cars I see day to day are E class Mercedes from the 1990s. They take me back to the 1970s rusty heaps.
I do not see modern rusty Subarus but 15-20 years old Legacies (farmers) look tatty with creeping rust.
Micras mid 1990s are notorious for front crossmember rust...
Nothing today as bad as Vauxhalls of the 1950s...
Edited by madf on 24/02/2009 at 10:27
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We live at the end of a track that is a virtual stream from November to March, so our cars get soaked just as they get home, and then sit there festering until the next soaking as they leave...
Good cars: 205, Focus, 405
Average: Cavalier
Bad: Golf Mk3 estate - rotted through in four years, and was scrapped at nine years old, though a simultaneous HGF plus the rust made it un-economic to repair. It was not the first Mk3 estate the garage man had seen with such galloping rust.
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I remember my father owning one of the last rear wheel drive Ford Escorts. Put my head under to have a look (at 2yrs old) the floor pan was a sheet of rust. I remember thinking that the exterior of an old oil drum would have fared better.
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> 1983 Peugeot 305
The 1988 sales brochure for the 205 (I still have a copy) lay great stress on phosphating and an electrophoretic bath for rustproofing the car, which may have been an innovation for this model, and certainly seems to have worked. Perhaps the 305 didn't use it?
Although running 205s are now uncommon, not many were scrapped because of rust - they just lost value.
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My early (1978?) 305 only rusted in one place - at the top of the rear suspension turrets inside the boot. Other wise it was fine. Had a very sweet petrol engine too and superb ride - if a little rolly around the bends in the old French way.
I think the reason that French cars have more Germanic suspension these days is because their roads are so much better than they used to be (and far better than ours).
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Don't forget the almost bullet-proof Peugeot 309. I had a 1987 model and the thickness of the steel and of the paint coat was impressive.
A relatively rare car now but there are a few rust-free 20 year old examples around.
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My dads Fiesta has now started rotting on the A piller next to the windscreen, I am not sure what bit is called.
I am surprised Montego's have not been mentioned here, they tended to rust badly round the wheel arched, my grandads used to always have bits of duck tape holding it up, although it was a ten year old car at the time.
I have seen a lot of Focuses and I did sadly spot an S reg the other day which was starting to bubble on the wheel arch.
The 98 Almera I went to see a few weeks ago and traveled a fair distance for had a completly rotten sill. All the trader could say it was an £800 car all I was thinking is how did that pass an MOT in that state...
I want my next car to be one which dosn't rust, as I do little milleage if it rust kills it in two years time the car will be of little value to me long term.
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Then a Punto is a great option...............
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My early (1978?) 305 only rusted in one place - at the top of the rear suspension turrets inside the boot. Other wise it was fine. Had a very sweet petrol engine too and superb ride - if a little rolly around the bends in the old French way.
Yes, I really loved driving the 305. It had a superb ride, a wonderfully smooth engine and transmission and was great for long journeys. That just about made up for the aforementioned rust problems, the electrical gremlins and bits simply falling off (e.g. gear lever).
I previously owned a 104ZR that exhibited similar characteristics, i.e. great to drive but rusted like hell if not quite as badly as the 305. Rustwise the later Peugeots seem much better, I think Peugeot turned the corner with the 205.
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Patching up the rust on my 104 that preceded the 305 kept me out of mischief as a teenager - I dread to think how much more I would have spent down the pub if I hadn't been spending it on Jenolite, filler, primer and top-coat spray cans!
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Worst car ever owned for rust was a 1984 Austin Metro, inherited from my granddad in about 1997ish.
Took it in for an oil and filter change and when I collected it the mechanic suggested I sell it quick because there wasn't a lot of solid metal left underneath the car.
I attempted to jack it up to take a look when I got home but the jack only got so far before the jacking point disintegrated and the top of the jack disappeared.......
Swapped it for a Capri, much better for a 19 year old........
Chris
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Best - Any Mercedes-Benz upto 1997.
Worst - Most Mercedes-Benz after 1997 until 2004-ish (then they got the message)
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>> Seen any rusty Subarus ? Seen any Subarus more than 5 or 10 years old? They must all have crashed or blown their engines!
Loads. People keep them forever.
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My 306 is in good order bodywork wise - quite a few dings and scratches, but no rust anywhere as yet. The 205 I had while back was rust free too.
Of course the Espace is about as rust proof as they get....
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Surely a Reliant Regal or Robin is the most rustproof car of all time?
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Surely a Reliant Regal or Robin is the most rustproof car of all time?
Bodywork wise probably, but the chassis is still a tinworms favourite meal.
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When Leyland introduced the (18-22) Princess in the mid-70s they ran ads boasting how well it was rust-proofed.
I owned two, both young and both nice to drive, but they rusted faster than anything I've owned before or since. The second one rusted clean through the front lower valance (from the inside) when it was just two years old. When I heard the whining about the loss of decades of careful craftsmanship when ARG and Longbridge finally went belly-up it didn't impress me.
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I have examined an M-B SLK built in 1998 closely, including some dismantling.
This car gets my award as the worst I have seen in recent years for corrosion; poor steel (FIAT '70s style), water traps caused by adjacent plastic parts and covers having no drain holes, brackets (eg fuel filter) rusted right through etc. etc.
I have seen several E series M-B cars of the same vintage with extreme surface rust - I have not had an opportunity to look underneath one of these but I doubt whether a detailed examination is needed. I will need to see the present M-B production vehicles when they are 10 years old to be convinced that they are a worthwhile purchase - I would not take their word for it.
Amongst the best cars are the galvanised VAG vehicles - with a proviso that they are made in the "right" factory. Despite seeing a few rusty Polos and a few Golfs, the majority seem to be well protected. My son has a '94 Passat which has endured accidental damage of some kind to nearly every panel (including bricks thrown at the roof). There is no spreading rust - the anodic protection is obviously working.
659.
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Worst car ever owned for rust was a 1984 Austin Metro inherited from my granddad in about 1997ish.
Yes... I remember those!
they used to rot along the sill - floor join, I coined the phrase 'fully floating floor pan' some I saw, it was only the carpet keeping the floor in place!
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Is it a Javelin or a Jupiter?
>It's a Javelin, Snail.
Ted>
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