Does 3rd gen hold up to salted roads?

Does it snow in VA?

 

Virginia Beach is up north?

We bought our 2010 Prius II in Richmond and it spent the first 2 years of its life there. Not much snow or salt to speak of.

What did the pictures look like? Have they shown you pictures of the undercarriage and you've seen corrosion?

 

The bolts, and welds at all suspension joints: they both happily bloom rust, at the slightest sign of salt. Toyota's rust prevention measures are shite (I'm starting to enjoy that word). That said: isn't that location near the coast and pretty far south?

 

It's below the Mason Dixon line.

In the 2 years we lived in Richmond with our Prius, I can count on 1hand the number of times our Prius encountered salt.

No visible signs of corrosion present on ours . Now it lives in salt free California.

Nothing like those that are further north in NY. I remember working with @m.wynn on his 2010 and seeing the amount of corrosion on the water pump was amazing.

 

I have a Gen-3 with 250k miles on it here in Maine. It has not had any problems from the salt so far.

 

Virgina is technically a southern state, but may seem a bit northern to southerners not used to windy areas such as those by the sea like Norfolk.

BTW it only snowed (flurries for a few inches only) one day out of the few years I resided in Norfolk in the 90's.

SM-N910V ?

 

What maintenance have you done on your Gen 3?

 

According to Wiki, "The climate of Virginia Beach is humid subtropical (Köppen: Cfa). Winters are cool and snowfall is light." It does snow in winter sometimes but it seems rare.
Virginia Beach, Virginia - Wikipedia
I lived most of my life in north (Midwest and New England). I did not keep 3rd Gen Prius long enough to see how it holds in NE, but I have never had rust problem before 10 years old on other cars I have owned in the past. Yeah, in NE the body of 15 years old Civic gave up before the engine did.

 

Our still-in-the-family 06 Civic is holding up a lot better than our 10 Prius. I see the underside of both, every oil change. Honda must be using more galvanizing on the suspension, and/or better paint. One thing too I've heard: fasteners coating reg's have made some coatings illegal of late, resulting in more rust.

 

My 2010 is actually doing pretty well, as are my daughters' '07 and '11. My wife's '05 Sienna has been far more disappointing with regard to both under carriage and body rust, with full regard to it's being older. My feeling is gen's 2 and 3 Prii do pretty well up here. Even '04-'05 (of which there are still zillions around here) only tend to show any body rust where they've had obvious damage.

I'd consider Virginia as southern car territory and would have no reservations about rust if the car fits the OP's criteria.

 

It was just something to see the pitting corrosion that results from the salt spray that enters through the grill.

But the rust and corrosion still falls way short of other cars, namely any of the Big 3.

 

Have any of you who owned a car up north ever applied under carriage rust protection coating? If you have, in your opinion, did it prevent rusting, or was it total waste of money? I was never a believer of rust proof coating, so for most part I never used those product. However, on 2015 Gen 3 Prius when i purchased new, I decided to try Fluid Film. I have read good review on this product, and since it was way cheaper than other rust protection coating, I decided to give a try. One disclaimer is that it is less initial cost, and if you can safely rise a car high enough, can be even cheaper if you DIY. However, since it has to be reapplied every year, the total cost over the life of car, can become higher than once and done type. Anyway, I traded in this Gen3 with Prime recently, so I never found out the long term effectiveness. I am considering doing the same on my Prime before the first winter, but I thought I would ask everyone's experience on use of rust protection products.

 

For Virginia Beach, I would question holding up to salt air as being more of a concern than snow. @Mendel Leisk might be the closest here, depending on how far inland he is.

In Virginia I do not think they use as harsh chemicals as further north. I am originally from Toronto, Canada where it snows. Down here, the mixtures sometimes seem to be more sand than salt.

In central Virginia, we usually have a couple of good snow.ice storms a year. It is mostly gone in less than a week, though. The North usually has continuous snow/salt+slush on the roads all winter.

 

Maybe "open" ocean is more rust promoting? We're sheltered, behind Vancouver Island.

 

I remember a long time ago somebody moved from the Maritime provinces to Toronto. As bad as rusting cars were there, this was much worse.
Cars have improved a lot since then.