80s cars that didn't rust

[barefoot]

My '87 Scirocco isn't very rusty, although I appreciate many have succumbed to the tin worm, in particular one spectacular looking, incredibly shiny example I once saw at a Scirocco meet which failed its next MOT to death. And 944's? My '87 S isn't rusty anymore... But I've had to replace both front wings, inner & outer sills, the very last rear quarter panel in the country, whilst on the other side, I've had a whole load of cut-outs from scrappers let in. My camper is also registered 1980, and the bodywork on that is all original apart from, the front panel, the deformation panel, both front arches, both inner & outer sills, both rear arches, corner panels, back valance, both bumpers and four of the five opening bits.

[vulgalour]

For all their other flaws, the Austin Ambassador was surprisingly rot resistant, especially given the variable quality of the Princess that prededed it.  As I understand it, BL got a lot better on the galvanising and steel quality which is why they don't end up with doors and sills that dissolve at a similar rate to a 70s Datsun.

[danthecapriman]

2 hours ago, N Dentressangle said:

Agreed. The back end of the boot floor and front inner wings can suffer, but the sills etc seem streets ahead of most similar aged stuff.

Another one I can’t remember ever seeing rotted out was the 405. You used to see them well worn and dirty but never rotten. 
A guy down the road from my old house had an L reg diesel saloon in white. Always always dirty and grubby but never a spot of rust on it and no black welded patches.

[Popsicle]

I generally found the Peugeot 205, 309 and 405 all pretty good at not rusting. They seemed far better than the earlier 305 and 505.

[artdjones]

6 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Peugeot 205’s seem to be extremely rust resistant. Thinking about it, I can’t remember ever seeing a rotten one.

I had an 89 diesel that had come from Aberdeen before it was imported to Ireland. The boot floor had hardly any paint on it, in fact it was absolutely covered in red rust. But still absolutely solid. I've got a petrol one outside the back door that's been off the road for 10 years, outside all the time, also absolutely solid.

[Snipes]

It was rust that done in my original Manta "habit" back in 2006 and tbh this is quite the dilemma for me now. As much as I'd really like another slab of nostalgia, the spectre of rust is always a problem for those of us who aren't in a position to deal with it DIY or have a trustworthy person to hand it over to. This was bad enough when Mantas were £1000 smokers but now they're ~£10k bona fide classics. The tired examples are all either gone or restored, but what to do when at best it'll live in a garage over winter but be outside for half the year?

[artdjones]

4 hours ago, vulgalour said:

For all their other flaws, the Austin Ambassador was surprisingly rot resistant, especially given the variable quality of the Princess that prededed it.  As I understand it, BL got a lot better on the galvanising and steel quality which is why they don't end up with doors and sills that dissolve at a similar rate to a 70s Datsun.

The Princess was good by 70s standards. I know you've done quite a bit of welding on yours, but don't forget the newest Princess is 44 years old. Lots of Cortinas were rusted out by 10 years old.

[MJK 24]

23 hours ago, sierraman said:

Scimitar GTE 😂

Rover 200/400 R8 weren’t too bad.

Mercedes W124

Audi 80/100

Golf Mk2

The Mercs definitely rust.  Arches.  Door tops.  Inner wings.  Jacking points.  Rear subframe mounts.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Golf mk2 does rust and I have seen rusty ones and there are 2 for sale now here that are also rusty.

[richardmorris]

It really depends on how they were treated early in life. My x 1/9 for example despite being one of the worst perceived for rusting in history.

[AnthonyG]

42 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

Golf mk2 does rust and I have seen rusty ones and there are 2 for sale now here that are also rusty.

Obviously they rust now, they are all getting on for 40 years old. I think Grogee is asking what cars were rust resistant for the era, and you could expect to last more than 10-12 years. 

Most of the obvious candidates have been mentioned, but Saabs were another ‘premium’ make that were long lasting for the era.

Later Mk2 Granadas (the facelift 81’ on ones) were by far the best Ford, and the Mk3 wasn’t as good, with rear wheel arches a particularly weak spot - I assume the metal was thinner on these. 

[Scruffy Bodger]

6 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Another one I can’t remember ever seeing rotted out was the 405. You used to see them well worn and dirty but never rotten. 
A guy down the road from my old house had an L reg diesel saloon in white. Always always dirty and grubby but never a spot of rust on it and no black welded patches.

405's are rotting now but hardly surprising as they aren't exactly new any more. The particular weak point seems to be at the rear end of the sills. Much the same as any Citroen or Pug of that age they are also prone to losing jacking points to rot where some monkey has folded it over/damaged it with a trolley jack. The thick underseal can also hide it underneath more than you may think.

Both of mine are 90's models but neither has been welded and neither of them need it either, exhaust not included.

[Llessur]

The 405 was my first thought - they might be succumbing now but for the first 30-odd years of their lives it was rare to see a rusty one. If you did, it was more than likely the result of repaired damage with non-galv'd parts.

It's still on my bucket list (despite having very briefly owned a 1989 GL back in 2002ish - it was pretty mint until some git scraped the passenger door a few days after I bought it causing me to fall out of love with it and cruelly jettison it). An Mi16 would be great but I'd be happy with a tidy SRi. Sadly, the SRi that made it out to Oz was pretty much just a rebadged GL so the Mi16 is the only half-saucy option out here.

From the few that I saw up close and personal back in the day, I also thought the BX was a bit more rust-resistant than most (acknowledging the plastic nature of its outer bits). 

[MarinaJosh]

The 205/309/405s are very good at hiding rust. The outer panels rarely show signs of rust. Underneath they use ridiculously thick rubberised underseal. If this gets slight cracks moisture becomes trapped and they rust badly behind the nice body coloured underseal. They look mint until you start prodding, an MOT tester would never find it. I had that with my first 309 when I decided to clean up and wax the underside- ended up doing loads of welding but from first glance you would never know it was rusty, it looked immaculate. Removing the old underseal was a nightmare, it was stronger than the steel! Both 405s I have owned had gone at the backs of the sills as previously mentioned. I have known them to be scrapped with rust in the front chassis legs too. Compared with other cars of the time, they could be a lot worse.

[artdjones]

10 hours ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

Golf mk2 does rust and I have seen rusty ones and there are 2 for sale now here that are also rusty.

We're talking about normal cars in normal everyday use. All MK2 Golfs are between 32 and 43 years old now, and they are still made of steel. Most of the car's competitors would be far more rusty than just having a sill rot out. 

[Marm Toastsmith]

I had a very late Karmann built Mk1 golf convertible which was mostly galvanised, that was pretty good. It seemed that VW had it licked in the late 80s, they then gave up in the early 90s and made a load of cars that rusted for fun. Mk4 golf and other VAG stuff from that era seems really rust resistant but shit in many other respects.

[LoftyvRS]

W124's have a tank like reputation, but I suspect that is because they hide the rot so well, until it erupts.

Dig through the extremely thick factory applied underbody protection and it's there in  a lot of spots, but no MOT tester is going to have a toffee hammer heavy or sharp enough for that.

By the time they look rusty on the outside there's normally a whole (hole??) lot more to be discovered.

[Marina door handles]

Sinclair C5s were pretty rust resistant.......

[jonathan_dyane]

I once had a very neglected Audi 80 and it was like new underneath, remarkable.

I think VAG has good and bad years, I remember a neighbour having a (possibly 81) MK2 Polo which was remarkably rust free in spite of having lots of scrapes and knocks that has taken the paint off but the rust never seemed to take hold whilst someone else I knew had a newer one which was well rotten.

Although MK2 Golf's probably rotted less than the opposition they were not immune, I bought a 3 door which had been converted to the 1.9 diesel once for the engine and rather liked it and had the thought it might be good to put back on the road but looking underneath it every seam was rotten, it was totally beyond redemption at 18 years old

[Split_Pin]

In the mid 1990s my work had a bolloxed mars red VW Derby MK2 LGA331Y which was completely rust free except for part of the underneath of the bonnet where it once went on fire. A side swipe killed it off sadly.

Another vehicle they had at the time which was rot free was a Fiat 127 Fiorino E817PMS. We had it up on the forklift to change the engine and there was no rust at all. Only the door bottoms of the smashed donor vehicle had started to go. Sadly the replacement engine started knocking 6 months later and it all went in the bin.

 

[bunglebus]

[warch]

Mk 3 Cavaliers seemed more resistant than most to the worst excesses of tinworm, there were still quite a few about up until recently, which is unusual for a non prestige, mass market rep mobile (worth sod all).

[Bren]

My mk 2 cavalier had new rear arches fitted at nine years old.

My senator had a hole in a chassis leg at the same age.

For all we moan about moderns they really do hold up well - the only bad ones nowadays seem to be certain dacias and white ones seem especially prone to corrosion.

The rustiest car I have ever seen was a work colleagues D reg granada - even around the rear washer bottle in the boot had gone. It turned out the car had been owned by P&O and had spent much of it's life at various ports.

[artdjones]

17 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

In the mid 1990s my work had a bolloxed mars red VW Derby MK2 LGA331Y which was completely rust free except for part of the underneath of the bonnet where it once went on fire. A side swipe killed it off sadly.

Another vehicle they had at the time which was rot free was a Fiat 127 Fiorino E817PMS. We had it up on the forklift to change the engine and there was no rust at all. Only the door bottoms of the smashed donor vehicle had started to go. Sadly the replacement engine started knocking 6 months later and it all went in the bin.

 

That's what older Fiats could be like. Some were horrendous rotboxes that would have large holes in really unusual places. Others would just soldier on without a spot of rust to advanced age. 

That Soviet steel was very inconsistent, but the odd batch must have been excellent. 

[Verysleepyboy]

17 hours ago, artdjones said:

That's what older Fiats could be like. Some were horrendous rotboxes that would have large holes in really unusual places. Others would just soldier on without a spot of rust to advanced age. 

That Soviet steel was very inconsistent, but the odd batch must have been excellent. 

My first car back in 1994 was a 1982 Fiat 127 - and that was completely original and rust free, I made a note of this quite closely on the underside of the car as it sat upside down in the ditch I had just managed to put it into...... 

I bought another Mk3 127 years later, almost the same age (registered within a within a couple of weeks of the first one)  - looked fabulous, however the floor pans, sills, etc. were all absolutely FUBAR and made up mostly of resin filler, newspapers and underseal.

[inconsistant]

18 hours ago, artdjones said:

That Soviet steel was very inconsistent, but the odd batch must have been excellent. 

This article on Driven To Write on that subject is well worth a read:

 

Debunking the persistent legend of Russo-Italian rust.

https://driventowrite.com/2022/05/17/vaz-diplomacy-politics-and-urban-legends-part-3/#more-84746

[jonathan_dyane]

All very interesting.

Soviet steel or not they still managed to rust like fuck

[Barry Cade]

I had a Lancia Dedra a good while back, it was a 93, but they came out in 89 I think. It was the most rust protected car I'd ever seen, and didn't have a mark on it, and the paintwork was beautiful. Ran it for a year or so then sold it on to Mrs Cade's stepdad, who put another 80k on it, I think the oil got changed...once. 

Amazing car, that cost me all of £150 off Ebay. 

[artdjones]

10 minutes ago, Barry Cade said:

I had a Lancia Dedra a good while back, it was a 93, but they came out in 89 I think. It was the most rust protected car I'd ever seen, and didn't have a mark on it, and the paintwork was beautiful. Ran it for a year or so then sold it on to Mrs Cade's stepdad, who put another 80k on it, I think the oil got changed...once. 

Amazing car, that cost me all of £150 off Ebay. 

They are basically a nicer Tipo, so probably share all the galvanising the Tipo has.

[bigstraight6]

On 10/05/2025 at 21:03, MrBiscuits said:

Renault - if you discount the 14, they were pretty good in the 80s. If anything they've only got better. Mrs B has an 18 year old Clio, paint completely bollocksed and washed about once a year (usually by me before its MOT) yet I can't find a spot of grot on the thing.

I concur with MrBiscuits, I look after a 22 year old Clio that’s been with a few family members for about 8 years now, it’s lived outside all this time and only gets washed when I do it maybe a couple of times a year,  but it remains completely free of any corrosion.