Ten year old cars.

[dangerousdave]

all 70,s and 80,s cars did rust just how bad depended on the make I remember my dad telling me he had a mk1 escort that was 18 mths old with a hole in the front wing but the worst back then were Japanese or fiat or alfa romeo or the most infamous of all lancia

[chaseracer]

The Lancia Beta was no better or worse than anything else that was around at the time. The problem grew out of the importer's cack-handed way of dealing with the issue, and the meeja getting hold of the 'story'.

[sheffcortinacentre]

all 70,s and 80,s cars did rust just how bad depended on the make I remember my dad telling me he had a mk1 escort that was 18 mths old with a hole in the front wing but the worst back then were Japanese or fiat or alfa romeo or the most infamous of all lancia

don't let retro riders hear you say this all cars rotted the same or not at all according to thier rose tinted specs!

[Waderider]

Must point out I have a late model Volvoid V40 from 2004 at 95K miles, with as new bodywork. The only flaw is one dicky oxygen sensor that I may or may not replace soon. Other than that PERFICK, exceptional bodywork. I had it on a four post ramp the other week and the underside is like new (owned it since 'young' and clean that when I do the bits that show). You can tell the leather drivers seat has been sat in more than others, that's about it.

[Pillock]

The car I currently own, a very dull Focus, is the first car I've owned in a very long time to have a five digit mileage. I bought it at three and a half years old on 54k.

 

16 months later it's going to tick round. Its on 95k now so maybe February, possibly hold out til March.

 

If it was a four year old car twenty years ago, it would be properly fucked. A 100k Mk5 Escort would be rusty and would have had major engine work. My Mondeo at 114k was fit for scrap (£102 worth to be precise)

[Stroller133]

Do exhausts last longer nowadays? I'm sure exhaust only used to last 3 years but more recently its unusual to hear blowing exhausts and people having to change them.

In 1998 I must have spent more than the price of a back box in gun gum products bodging it up over a 3 month period.

[CortinaDave]

Batteries are also much better than they used to be. 3 years or so used to be your whack, now a decade plus from an original equipment battery doesn't seem that unusual.

[Waderider]

Do exhausts last longer nowadays? I'm sure exhaust only used to last 3 years but more recently its unusual to hear blowing exhausts and people having to change them.

In 1998 I must have spent more than the price of a back box in gun gum products bodging it up over a 3 month period.

 

The exhaust (and clutch) on my 10 year old V40 are original.

[Honey Badger]

Do exhausts last longer nowadays? I'm sure exhaust only used to last 3 years but more recently its unusual to hear blowing exhausts and people having to change them.

In 1998 I must have spent more than the price of a back box in gun gum products bodging it up over a 3 month period.

They seem to, my accord coupe is still on its original exhaust which makes it 14 years old.

 

I had a 1.8 cvh sierra on a j plate, it had done 148k by the time the Cloud of blue smoke behind me got too large to ignore, the body work was still immaculate when I chopped it in for the R8 216.

 

The 216 was another long lived car went from 74k to 135k while in my family and the engine and body work was still in good condition when my halfwit mate scrapped it for no reason?

[overrun]

I was just on about this to my dad, the other week.

 

In 2002/2003, I bought my first shite motor, as I was changing the gearbox in my other car - and didn't have a clue.

 

I gave £95 for a 1994 mk1 Mondeo with shagged piston rings. I weighed it in a few months later and at the time it was considered old and tired etc. Despite the fact it still drove well and had around 80K on the clock. I also can't recall much rust, but then I never cared.

 

Compare that to the current Mondeo I have, which is almost ten years old and has covered 125K. Only the most minor rust to speak of and still drives like new.

 

Even to 'normal' people, it is still a nice enough car, that seems younger than it's age.

 

If the electrical gremlins don't get a car, it will last longer now than ever before. Yet people weigh them in for fun.

[Spiny Norman]

Batteries are also much better than they used to be. 3 years or so used to be your whack, now a decade plus from an original equipment battery doesn't seem that unusual.

 

While battery technology has undoubtedly improved over the years, one of the main reasons for battery longevity these days must be the fact that a decent car needs literally one second at most on the starter, hot or cold. I remember years ago you could hear the dawn chorus of grinding starters churning away hopelessly at recalcitrant motors, trying to wake them from their slumber.

In most fuel injected cars from the last 20 years you pretty much just switch a car on with a quick flick of the key, such is the immediacy of the cold start.

[beko1987]

My Y plate Puma rusted like a fucker. Rear arches from 'fuck me thats quite rusty' to 'fuck me ive just pulled the arch lip off' in under 3 years.

 

However the 15 year old ZX and XM had/have hardly a drop on them. My W plate 206 had no rust either, but I dont talk about that...

[oman5]

My first car was an A reg Morris Ital. I paid 250 quid for it when it was 8 years old, it already had a rust hole the size of a housebrick on the top of the front wing and crunchy inner sills. 

My dad's 1973 VX490 got scrapped at 9 years old as it was completely rotten. it had bits of aluminium riveted to the bottoms of the front wings to stop them flapping about, as they were no longer attached to anything. I think vauxhalls in general really were atrocious for rusting back then. Not having learnt his lesson, he went on to own a succession of Minis. now there was a rotbox par excellence. none of them would get to 10 years old without any welding.

[Split_Pin]

I remember 80's cars in the 1990's well. Our workshop had. MK2 Fiestas as hacks and they were hugely holey. One example had a new boot floor tacked over the original, new arches tacked over wobbed scuttle panel and plates everywhere. The MOT tester even laughed at the patchwork quilt underneath.Conversely, the 127 Fiorino van was solid as a rock, only dying of a knocking engine

 

I also remember exhausts lasting only around 3 years. My dad had a company MK2 Cav and when he changed it after 3 years the exhaust tip was rotten and jagged. My mum's 05 plate Corsa is still in its original system.

 

90s Ford's and Vauxhalls like to rust though not as badly as before. My Corsa B has had a new front crossmember and rear valance, together with various other grit spots tidied up before they get worse. The Vectra I scrapped was totally solid bodywise, but the cost of taking off the subframe to replace the steering rack was too great a cost to bear.

[drum]

More thought is given at the design stage nowadays to prevent water traps. Door bottoms aren't mini swimming pools anymore etc.

 

I think 50's and 60's steel was better than later steel.

 

The wife's '93 fiesta rotted way within 10 years.

Her current '06 alfa has rusty spots in various places.

My '99 disco has had its chassis welded.

[Volksy]

I scrapped my Volvo S70 as it needed a wheel bearing, a battery and two tyres. Why? As a replacement car was a cheaper option.

 

Sad Really.

[brickwall]

Due to Euro legislation on after-market parts supply manufacturers have pencilled  in 12 years for the "useful life" of a modern car. I heard this on Radio 4 from an ex-Ford Europe big wig.

[trigger]

It amazes me that some cars last so well for so long, Take both my Cortina and Civic, both of these cars are notorious rust buckets and neither have lived particularly sheltered lives racking up 84000 and 79000 miles each, but neither of them have any real rust or have even ever been welded.

 

How can cars like that survive so well you see other cars getting welded up or fragged which are much newer and with lower mileages?.

[CortinaDave]

Garaged most of their days possibly. Cars "dan sarf" last a lot better rust wise than those up here too because of our vicious winters and heavily salted roads.

 

Mk3 cortina + ungaraged in Scotland = absolutely fucked very quickly

[overrun]

Keeping a car washed and garaged has so much to do with that, IMO trig.

[trigger]

It's got to be the garaged bit, I know both of mine were, It obviously pays to keep cars garaged if you plan to keep them long term. 

[MrDuke]

Has a lot to do with 'proper' cleaning through the winter too, i.e. jet-washing the salt out of all the nooks and crannies rather than just slopping some shampoo over the outside.

 

Also, up to the early '80s, buyers of brand-new cars would occasionally fork out for extra rustproofing treatment, which I'm sure helped in some way.

[Junkman]

At least with the old cars you had/have the choice whether you want to look after them or not.

With the new stuff you are 100% at the mercy of big corporations, if it can be called mercy what they have for you.

[CortinaDave]

From the experience I've had - Ziebart was excellent stuff.

[brickwall]

That's it JM. The Audi 100 Quattro Avant V6 was cleaned and polished and drains all cleaned out. I would take the arch linings of and clean in there too. I would also clean the best I could on the inner side of the sills and posts. When we lost that car there was only some bubbling on one of the arches.

 

My wee Rover was a working car and washed about 4 times in 3 years. It fell apart and rusted at every joint or where metal was holed for bolts and stuff.

[Shep Shepherd]

Father Shepherd's 1988 Fiesta Festival had its boot floor welded at five years old (by the local Ford dealer under the six-year corrosion warranty) and new rear wheelarches and a nearside door sill (paid for by me) at seven years old. Par for the course for Fords made during the company's 'rusty' period...

[Bobthebeard]

In 1987 (the now) Mrs Beard bought a 1986 2CV. We racked up a fair mileage in it ( very reliably. Never ever broke down) until rust almost killed it in 1992. The chassis actually snapped in two, just in front of the bulkhead IIRC. It got bodged...... Err, repaired, by a local garage and sold on for little money.

The guy who welded it almost swallowed his teeth due to sucking on them so hard.

"Rotten as a fuckin pear this is" etc.

At six years old!

[richardmorris]

In 1987 (the now) Mrs Beard bought a 1986 2CV. We racked up a fair mileage in it ( very reliably. Never ever broke down) until rust almost killed it in 1992. The chassis actually snapped in two, just in front of the bulkhead IIRC. It got bodged...... Err, repaired, by a local garage and sold on for little money.

The guy who welded it almost swallowed his teeth due to sucking on them so hard.

"Rotten as a fuckin pear this is" etc.

At six years old!

 

Not unusual - 2CVs had a 3year rust warranty from new and my 2CV mechanic said he'd put a screwdriver through the chassis' of a few 1989/90 cars just before the warranty ran out and first mot due.  Got them new chassis' replaced by citroen. 

Earlier ones were better - my 1986 car managed to get to 1996 on the original chassis and our current 1985 car got to 2000. We put my car on a W reg. Dyane chassis which was almost perfect, the current 2CV is on a galvanised one that had waxoyl pumped everywhere before putting the body back on. No issues yet!

[dollywobbler]

RHD Dyanes for some reason used the beefier PO-spec chassis. Not that it stops the bodies rotting. The rear wings pretty much fell off my first one, though I was greenlaning in it at the time...

 

My 2CV had a galvo chassis in 2002 - it managed a fair innings on its original! 105,000 miles too. Body underwent considerable work at the same time - new windscreen panel, new sills, floors, lower bulkhead, rear light panel etc. Then it was stripped again and fully repainted in 2005/6. Since then, it's had the front floors, lower bulkhead, sills and bonnet hinge replaced again and is very rotten in other places. 2014 is going to be a challenging year. Since the rebuild process began in 2002, she's clocked up another 89,000 miles though.

[mercrocker]

I dont care if new cars  rust less or not, I am not driving anything that can shit its  handbrake out for more money than any of my cars cost  to buy.....