Will Our Prius Rust Too?!

No snow but I would expect a lot of ocean salt in the air.
A number of years ago, I saw a car from the Maritime provinces and was surprised at the amount of rust due to the salty air on the ocean coast.

 

Californian Prius look pretty rust-free, judging from @NutzAboutBolts videos. Probably salt is the culprit.

 

You planning on moving house then?

 

You really are California Dreamin' aren't you? [From your location]

 

When I went to FIJI about 14 yrs ago, the sea breezes were humid, though strong enough to be cooling. Inland the breezes weren't as good and it was about 30deg C and humid. There were plenty of cars (I hired one), many were Grey Imports from Japan, MANY looked old and unroadworthy by Australian standards, many of the school buses didn't have side windows (some had what looked like roll down canvas windows) and looked like they'd never had the paintwork washed - but the children emerging in white uniform shirts were immaculately dressed. This was one of their more modern buses.

 

Much the same in Aden when I was there in the mid sixties.

 

I am not seeing anything that I consider out of the ordinary in the photos, especially for a BC car. It's wet around there. Everything I see is just surface rust. For a six year old car, those components look pristine.

 

Moving to SoCal is the best move I ever made. It was 96 today in the desert where I worked. I went to the USAC sprint car races on the weekend and it was 64 degrees at 10:30 p.m. And, as everyone knows, "California girls are the cutest girls in the world."

 

What I do know: I'm looking at the underside of one Honda that's about 12 years old now, lives in the same environment, and has over 210,000 kms. Next to no suspension rust, and bolts that look pristine. It can be done.

Our Prius is low mileage, garage stored, around 64,000 kms now, and those pics were taken about 50,000 km.

 

All of the affected trucks are body-on-frame, built in the US, and I believe use frames from third-party suppliers (maybe just one supplier, Dana?)

This wouldn't affect a unibody vehicle.

 

No need to keep your fingers crossed. He is absolutely right. The Prius unit body is built by Toyota (stamped, welded, treated, and painted before assembly). The trucks received frames from Dana and were assembled to the body by Toyota (the body was stamped, welded, treated, and painted by Toyota). Essentially what happened was Toyota's supplier had a no good rust proofing process and Toyota didn't catch it and is ultimately responsible.

Also, there is a difference between surface rust and rot. This is for full on frame rot where the strength has been compromised. Two different animals.


iPhone ?

 

How come thr 2004 Tundra fell between the 2 recalls? What that year somehow better or are those customers just SOL

 

Well yes and no. My attitude is: where there's smoke there's fire. The bolts in particular: I see semi-sheltered bolts, subject to a bit of spray and condensation, and they're happily sprouting rust. On the frames, the welds in particular, same story.

The smoking gun for me: our years with Honda; never see this. The only time, when the car's hard-scraped something on a curb, gone right down to bare metal. Low point tow hooks for example.

I'm on it now, hopefully cognizant of all the trouble spots. But this shouldn't have to be. And the typical owner, just running his car through a car wash?

As you say, 10~15 years along, maybe it doesn't matter beans, everything still holds together. But I do not know, sure is a night-and-day difference in what I'm seeing, from two different manufacturers.