Any Georgians here? Got rust-free cars?

I was thinking about picking up a used Tacoma in Atlanta. Research shows this is the best climate and environment to keep cars free of rust. It is also a reasonable distance to drive to. Rust is a particularly important issue because the Japanese trucks are rust buckets. The 2000's Tacomas up here disintegrated (some had frames replaced under recall.)

Someone suggested that southerners in general take better care of their cars. If true I am thinking that these two things go hand in hand. Up here we dump cars after they rust apart. The body goes long before modern engines can possibly wear out. If the body lasted forever, more people would probably take better care of the mechanicals.

Opinions on these issues are appreciated.

 

Be careful in Atlanta. Those ol boys will spot ya for a carpetbagger in a minute.

 

I've never had any rust issues with any vehicles I owned over the past 20 years and my personal vehicle has always been parked in the driveway (exposed to the elements) since my wife's car, bikes, and lawn equipment always occupy the garage. Not sure if I agree with the idea that Southerners taking better care of their vehicles but we do have the advantage of not having to deal with salted roads and harsh winter conditions. BTW....Many of Atlanta residents are transplants from other states and they didn't just change their car-care habits after moving.

Rollin

 

Same almost here in the PNW. Cars that sit out grow the "green grunge". A mix of household bleach and TSP makes it go bye-bye.

Salt and Winter are killers. I was in Chicago one year. Took a shuttle from O'Hare to the hotel on Lakeshore Drive. Saw a fairly new Porsche with terminal body cancer.. others.. Nice place to visit.

Don't know about Atlanta so much, but Miami sure is not loaded with natives..

 

Hmm, one thing isn't true anymore, sort of: they've started to pour a salt brine down on the roads here in Atlanta and north GA. Idiots, might as well drive your car or your bike through the waves down in Daytona. They used to use sand, now they've added the ocean. Idiots.

 

Get a car from the desert... You'll be good to go.

 

Probably them damn carpetbaggers..

 

Salt brine? Do you have snow? That sounds crazy.

I have read that while the desert maintains a rust-free vehicle it is dusty and that beats up on the underside. Perhaps I should re-examine that as whatever vehicle I got would immediately get every square inch undercoated. Otherwise it would all flash rust immediately and start the trek toward falling apart. I had thought of Dallas as a source, as the larger the metropolis the more vehicles there are to choose from.

 

It snows once or twice maybe every couple of years and the roads ice up now and again. Instead of waiting a day for it to melt someone got the bright idea to buy sprinkler trucks to spray saltwater on the road. F'ing soccer moms and breeders. So much for social Darwinism.
buy from the southwest and be rust free.

 

Yes but the paint and interior take a special beating from the extreme sun of the southwest. This is where I figured that your area is a better compromise.

 

Snow and/or ice is a very infrequent in Georgia and keep in mind that when it does happen almost everything shuts down which means the great majority of people stay home and don't even venture out on the roads since most businesses/schools are closed anyways. Georgia as a whole doesn't have enough equipment to sand/brine all the roads prior to the infrequent winter weather so when it does happen it is usually only done on a few select roads. Since the temps rarely stays below freezing for more than a day or two at a time most of the brine is usually completely washed off within a day or two. Bottom line is that brine/salt should be the least of your concerns when buying a vehicle in GA.

Rollin

 

The best market for Tacomas is Tacoma. Tacoma is Seattle's oot back. Whilst there be sure to have lonche at one of the famosa food trucks called Taco Mans.

 

Salt doesn't just flush away on the first melt, it remains in a low concentration on the road. FYI, they salt the main highways 85, 75, 20, 285, and who doesn't travel those roads? Just watch the weather guy get a boner about it as he proudly proclaims their "Weather Team" is on it.


Rust never sleeps.

 

Now that Ken Cook is retired do you prefer Glenn Burn's boners or Paul Ossman's?

 

95-2004 tacomas frames are crap. There was a missed/cost cutting step in manufacturing over at Dana for corrosion protection. I can't speak for the later 2000's.

If you do find one in good shape, crawl underneath and look at the frame, closely.

As for winter salt, yeah it sucks but there are things you can do about it. You can have the undercarriage coated before the season with some sort of oil product.

or run to home depot and make your own one of these: http://www.theunderwasher.com/#buy-online Order some Salt Away from wherever.

 

Yes in terms of salt, the actual condition of the car tells the story. We have so much salt up here that I doubt any vehicles down there have anywhere near the same deleterious effects, but again the vehicle tells the story.

V4toTour, I am sure that some shmucks at Toyota and BMW made the business decision, "We need to sell more cars." Because that is what large companies do, they grow "for growth's sake". I am sure someone at Toyota pointed to a chart and said, "We can catch GM." And so they sold more cars. But as the CEO of Toyota stated, they lost their way with the quality. The 2000s were a giant step back. The EPA pushes this as well. The SUVs have transmissions so complex a rebuild is $4000-$5000. I checked and that is the cost of an RX330 tranny rebuild from my independent mechanic! All to save 2 mpg? A lot of forces in play and all of those forces screw the average person.

Many of those trucks up here had complete frame replacements, with many suspension and brake parts replaced by Toyota. Then the entire thing was undercoated. In a cheap used vehicle I see no problem with that, it is like having one-half a new car. Such a vehicle is a consideration as well as a southern vehicle.

I was thinking of using lemonsquad if I need a remote car inspected as they seem to have good reviews. Yes, a southern car would have to have a spotless frame. Then it would get undercoated and touched up every single year (what I do to my Celica now.)

 

Why not get a Frontier instead? Will probably be cheaper, and I've never really heard anything super bad about them.

 

I did research those but they did not seem to be as high a quality of a vehicle overall as the Toyota. I figured I would go with the truck crowd on this one.

The Tundra was another consideration. I do not need something so large for a daily driver but the early 2000's I am looking at might be a reasonable size. Have to see one in person though.