kellys247

Hi we got a 3 year lease for a Hyundai tucson its 2 years old and pretty much like new and has everything my hubby wanted. He was going to buy a car outright but realised that most cars around Regina under $5000 are pretty much scrap.

caretaker

Was the salesman from the UK? I wonder how he'd know..... In Sask we've always used far less salt than in eastern Canada so you'll see more older cars on the road with less rust. If you see anything here less than 10 years old that's rusted out chances are it was once an Ontario car. In the 70's (before provincial inspection requirements) some guys used to trailer old cars from here to Ontario and bring back newer cars with some rust and profit at both ends.

HGerchikov

In response to your points Mr Gerchikov is actually quite young, and he doesn't care, would be happy to drive a 15 year old one provided it went. Bear in mind he grew up in Russia, he is just happy it's not a Lada. He only drives it to the GO train station. Son didn't have AC in his last car either (which was Mr G's until last year) claims he prefers to open the windows.

Piff Poff

With some cars the window HAS to drop so the door will open, its an automatic thing that happens. Are you never planning on going through a drive through anything during the winter months, preferring to get out of you nice warm car to walk over the freezing cold icy parking lot?

HGerchikov

Yes but you guys know cars, and can probably have no trouble picking out the good ones. For those of us not similarly blessed it's a crap shoot, or you have to trust someone else. There is no right answer for everyone, it's down to your personal circumstances. I said after 10 years they are on borrowed time, our second car is 7 years old and is a long way from the scrap heap.

Edited to say having just re-read my original post I can see that it's not clear what I meant about the scrap thing. I meant after the 10 years is up, which is why we keep each car approx 10 years.

dbd33

That's a problem with most recent convertibles. The VW also had an issue whereby, once the window was open, the finger detector thingy prevented closing it until the interior was warm.

If we were logical shoppers we'd look for cars with huge squirter bottle resevoirs and square roofs so, when the door is open, the snow doesn't fall from the roof into the seat.

HGerchikov

This is so true

MarkG

Guess you won't be visiting any drive-throughs?

It's not actually hard to do, because I was wondering why I'd want to open the window in the winter until I thought of that; we usually park and go inside to order, because it's faster if there's a queue. But something to consider.

MarkG

Just try not to think about what people did to them before you bought it. At least here, unlike my friend's old rental company in Florida, they probably won't drive them through the sea and return them covered in salt...

BTW, we finally scrapped my girlfriend's twenty-year-old Buick because it was leaking from too many places, and it didn't have a spot of rust on it. I don't think they use salt anywhere in Saskatoon, though I believe they do on the highways outside town. No idea about Regina.

MillieF

North American cars rust out worse here and faster....It's a game we play at the lights....".look at the rust on the car in front!" (one get's bored in NB)
The Japanese and European cars hold up far better in general, maybe they apply better rust treatment protection to start with?

Piff Poff

We found that Challengers have the same window drop thing too, obviously tested in California.... imo you spend a lot of time in a car you may as well enjoy it.

For the everything rusts out people, this summer we bought 2 Ford f100s, one is a '56, the other a '58 (i think) neither had been coddled and wrapped up for winter, onemis being turnedninto a dragster, the other will be a tow vehicle, no rust issues to deal with, we also have two 70's Capris, no rust issues but I doubt they were winter driven. So stop terrifying newcomers!

iaink

Im just reporting my own experience in Ontario, where salt use, like the politics, is liberal

There may be something in the age of the ontario vehicles you are seeing, not to mention ladder frame construction for the chassis of the trucks.

"Modern" cars are built with steel a fraction of the thickness of the classics, and (trucks aside) the body is the structure, so no large iron frame to hang the working bits from. This is in order to keep them as light as possible for fuel consumption reasons. In part this is possible due to improvement in alloy strengths and corrosion treatments, and also may have something to do with crash engineering, designing in crumple zones and energy absorbtion.

In any case a ding from the a rock or a shopping cart that gets through to the bare metal in Ontario now and you are going to have a hole sooner rather than later just because there is so much less metal there to corrode and a near perfect climate to encourage it.

Panel treatments have improved enormously, but on the other hand they have had too because sheet metal is much thinner now. Ive a reputation as "thrifty", but after 16 years here I figure its not worth buying an older vehicle as the total lifespan here is maybe 15 years if you are lucky. 12 is the best Ive managed.

MillieF

This may be the thing, because some of the rust issues on 'newish' vehicles is terrible. Ordinary metal items, like my garden swing and things, don't seem to rust any faster.

Here in Eastern Canada it's a wonder they haven't turned our rivers to salt, the amount of stuff they throw around...

I suspect that Piff Poff and I have a similar brand of husband....Hot Rodder loving, always wants to have an old engine that 'needs a bit of loving' to hand and when not physically in contact with an engine is dreaming away with some expensive small circulation magazine with pictures of engines....hence we don't tend to have trouble with maintenance, or at least that's the theory.

Second hand vehicles are available here, at a reasonable price, but it does help if you know a bit about what you are looking at.

HGerchikov

No one is trying to terrify newcomers. The OP asked for our experiences, which we have provided. It seems from reading the posts that some parts of Canada are not so liberal with the salt distribution as the area I live in. Here the roads are white by the middle of winter, with salt, not snow. As a result, my experience has been that cars rust much faster. Our first car here was a 1999 Ford Windstar, by 2007 it was leaving bits of itself in the driveway every time we closed a door. The 2002 Pontiac Sunfire was so corroded by 2014 that parts of the structure collapsed. Our latest cars all have an electronic anti-corrosion module attached and so far this seems to work quite well.

happyhammers

Its been good reading the replies on this thread so I thank all who commented. For us, the jury is still out as to buy new or secondhand. Ford capri !! I think of Bodie and Doyle, no offence meant.