Do some makes/ models of vehicle appear to handle winter salt better than others?

[Mei Jade]

(Here I said I probably would never post.) I haven't stumbled on this yet, so I apologize so much if it has already been asked. 

Everyone has different opinions and experiences, but I was wondering about the experiences people had with salt on roads and the durability of their vehicle, and whether or not some makes/ models appear to have better resilience to rust caused by salt than others. I've read in some places that certain Dodges don't hold up well to road salt, for example. Of course, I don't know how true this is. 

I'm a resident of Canada, and we salt the devil out of roads in the winter months. Although I don't personally plan to travel much in winter, I know that any used vehicle that I look at, if it has spent its life in Ontario then it will likely have experienced a fair amount of winter abuse. 

Thanks for your reading!

 

[hepcat]

The Chevy Express vans probably do the best at handling road salt. The Ford e-series tend to rust out the quarter panels, but are otherwise pretty impervious. On Dodge, OTOH, which are unibody vans rather than body-on-frame, the front clip tends to rust off... not a good thing.

Of course salt rust takes its toll on brake calipers, bolts, and undercarriage parts on all of them. Not much you can do about that except buy a van from Texas, Arizona, New Mexico or SoCal. I found my rust-free (at least when I bought it) B-van in Oklahoma.

 

[Every Road Leads Home]

Road salt is the bain of my existence. Where I live in Maine, it's used heavily as well. I know Buicks had an awful time with road salt for a stretch. I had a Chevy Express that my dad bought new and I inherited it and combined we owned it for 9 years. Underneath was in excellent shape, best i've ever seen a 9 year old vehicle fair.

But if you're buying used you have a huge advantage, because if it's still looking good underneath, that means it's doing pretty good handling the road salt. Road salt starts showing signs as soon as the vehicle has gone through it's first winter. I religiously wash underneath my truck after every snow storm. There's a car wash in town that has a great under carriage blaster. There are about six dozen nozzles on a pipe that spray up and you slowly drive over it to give the entire underneath a hose down. It won't totally fix the fact theres road salt but my truck is going on 4 years old and still looks really good under there. I'll do it every day for a few days in a row if they're salting a lot. It costs me $4 every time I use it so it does add up. If I'm still house bound next winter I think i'm gonna make a similar contraption that I can hook up to a garden hose.

 

[MazdaGuy15]

I live in Minnesota and I don't think theirs much you can do to prevent rust on anything besides good regular cleanings paying special attention to anyplace that dirt and salt can sit. Yes the dodges and sprinters rust out fast and maybe that's do to some cost cutting that is done by dodge but anything is gona rust out eventually. I wouldn't let rust issues stop you from getting the van that fits your needs better.

 

[Every Road Leads Home]

I should also add, the F-150s are now aluminum bodies so they should do pretty good with road salt. Unless they suffer from some sort of oxidation issue. Guess time will tell on that one. However, the frames are still steel so same concerns there as far as road salt goes. I think I just read they are going to start making the F250's with aluminum bodies too

 

[Mei Jade]

Thank you all so much for your advice! It's really appreciated.

 

[LoupGarou]

Driving in a heavy spring rain does wonders for flushing a vehicle's undercarriage.

 

[poncho62]

I am also in Canada...I drive a Ford van for work and it seems to hold up under salty conditions pretty well....There are a few surface rust areas, but no rust through. Its 5 years old now and has almost 300,000 km on it. We also have a couple of Chevy vans that are doing OK. These vehicles have never been undercoated or anything.
That said, my personal pickup (GMC) is now 20 years old. It has been undercoated and oiled yearly since day one that I am aware of. Very little rust on it for its age. I think if you get a used van in decent shape, take the effort to get it undercoated/oiled. It really saves them in our climate.

 

[ArtW]

Oiled? do you mean spraying the undercarriage with oil? I'm form a no salt state, I never heard of oiling before

 

[hepcat]

Oiled? do you mean spraying the undercarriage with oil? I'm form a no salt state, I never heard of oiling before

Art, Land Rover trucks are world-renowned for having the frames rust out from under the aluminum bodies, even in dryer climates.  Land Rover people have used something called Waxoyl for years as an undercoat on their standard frames.  Most restorers now try to use galvanized replacement frames, but Waxoyl is still the goo of choice for most of them.

I bought a new Jeep JKU last year and had it thoroughly undercoated and rust-proofed with whatever product the dealership is using now before I took delivery as I live in the rust belt, and I plan to keep this Jeep a good many years.  I thought it prudent to protect my depreciating investment.

 

[bullfrog]

Honda Civic owner's trick to keep lower panels from rust out in areas they couldn't reach was to spray or pour a little automatic transmission fluid through a hole on the inside. Our old John Deer got diesel strayed out of a bug sprayer when we put it up for winter as well.