East Coast Cars

Is there a concern for cars from the NE that have been driven in the winter but have had good care over South and West coast cars with similar care as to salt corrosion,rust or other issues. Does this effect resale value?

every 996 I see is rust free from either coast.

My car has spent 13 years in the Northeast and there is no corrosion that I can see. I think these cars are made to stand up to cold winters.

Quotes source post: 10778920

If you check out this video and watch it right through you will then realize that you have got much more in the 911 then you have in any other car. You will understand WHY we see no rust on these vehicles. They were built to out last all others especially when you see the Paint Shop part of the video. Very informative and well worth the watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1LFaByI1xs

Quotes source post: 10778920

What I hear is generally cars from the snow belt are less favored than cars from say Florida or CA, at least southern CA. And of the two regions FL is favored as cars from the LA area generally get driven more than FL cars. For a car that was driven year 'round over a number of winters I would expect the exhaust system hardware - bolts, studs, etc. -- to be corroded and the first wrench applied could (will -- even happens once in a while to older cars which have never been in the snow) result in snapped bolts, studs, etc. Likewise heat shield hardware can suffer too. Also, any other hardware -- I'm thinking suspension/steering hardware -- exposed to the elements. And last but not least coils.

These days corrosion isn't as big a problem as paint chips coming from the road sanding. Some of the sand is small rocks and it stays on the road or curb until the street sweepers come out in April.

I would say people who drive their Porsches in the winter are the minority though. It happens more here because this is an enthusiast board but the average Porsche driver only uses their car on nice days so I wouldn't even worry about it.

I drive summer and winter except of days with a lot of snow, corrosion wise I am not worried. salt is bad of course but those cars have quite good undercarriage shields.

As Macster said, the devil will be in removing exhaust bolts, and especially manfold bolts, as the combination of heat cycling and corrosion can be brutal. I have pulled the headers off of identical cars (same year, similar mileage), one a CA car and the other an MA car, and a 4-hour, 3-beer job on the CA car was a 3-day, engine-dropping, helicoiling nightmare on the MA car. Of course, these were not Porsches, which see a lot less wet driving than other makes...

My car lived in Boston for its first eight years, though it was generally off the road in winter. The only corrosion issue I have found was exhaust hardware. We had to replace all the hangers, bolts, and brackets when installing the Fister Ds.

Corrosion/Rust is not the issue. But If I were a buyer I would only look at cars from warm weather climates. They are more likely to be driven year round which is a very good thing for the engine. Cars driven year round in cold weather climates take a much harsher pounding from beaten up roads. Also, temp extremes reduce the longevity of parts significantly. For instance my car was garage-kept, driven only weekends, but driven year round for best lubrication -- yet I still had about $10-$12K in repairs before the car reached 90K miles. It's a double-edged sword, if the car is very low mileage in the snow belt you aren't doing the engine any favors at all. If the car is driven, the non-engine repairs that will come due will only pile up for the next unsuspecting/uniformed owner. Put it this way, a winter driven car that does not come with a long record of maintenance and repairs is a car you will be fixing at great expense. Pay now or pay later but you will pay.

I've bought 2 cars from the east coast and will never buy one from there again. Especially if it's over 3 years old. On the flip side, the two cars I bought from SC and GA have been a pure delight to work on.

I think the geographical location of the vehicle is important to buyers; otherwise, the ads wouldn't emphasize that it is a California car or Arizona car I don't know how much damage the east coast is capable of to the newer cars but I've seen some pretty badly rusted older cars in the north/east area of the country. I prefer my cars from a dry environment

One should also emphasize shady dealers/sellers that would try to pass off storm damaged cars as well which have hit the east coast lately. Buyer Beware...

It depends on the car. Garage queens will have pristine underbodies even in the Snow Belt states. Inspecting the car will tell you its true condition.

Quotes source posts: 10780555, 10780555

A lot less than back in the 60's - 80's. You don't often see the kinds of rust buckets I remember seeing (and owning) when I was a kid. I always wondered how many of those "California cars" being sold to gullible Easterners come from coastal climates with high humidity and salt air

Everyone I know in this area of heavy salting stores their car from November to April/May so they never see the winter. There are tons of low mileage Porsches that have ever seen winter in the N.E.

Quotes source post: 10782097

There are also a decent amount of non enthusiast posers that drive their cars in the winter to show off. This mainly applies to new cars that are pretty disposable to them and can give a rat's @ss what happens to the next owner. One of my neighbors are like that. I also look for work habits of the previous owner too. If they were commuting in LA traffic everyday in stop and go for 2 hours every day for example. I know you can't always know this but I try to probe where I can.