[phil21]

I've noticed so many "common knowledge" things being anchored into the past, especially as I age - and especially for vehicles.

The "rotting frames and body panels" thing was certainly common where I'm from when I grew up, but these days it's very normal to see 20+ year cars on the road with very little salt related damage. I have a 2007 Acura MDX that is stored outside for the past 8 years, never washed by my parents who I gifted it to, and driven through some of the worst winter road conditions possible. Visiting in the winter you'd think it was a grey vehicle (it's black) from all the salt spray adhered to it which stays on until it's driven in the rain come springtime.

It shows utterly zero frame or body rust even today. I expect the rubber seals and such to fail before anything else. This is pretty much the norm.

Cars are not made like they were in the 1980's and 90's any more. The coatings and type of materials are vastly different and improved. There are certainly models out there that have problems and you can get unlucky, but it's no longer a rule of thumb.

It's not just vehicles though. It's pretty much endemic to all things. People get anchored to their "formative years" and then never update their priors. I assume it takes a generation or two for such things to die off and the "common knowledge" to be updated. EV battery tech will be one of these things - we will be anchored to the common tropes that were true for first and second generation vehicles but no longer are for quite a long time.

[danaris]

On the other hand, I drove my 2009 Toyota Corolla in upstate NY for 10 years until the exhaust system literally fell out of it on the highway.

There was very little visible rust on the body.

(To be clear, if I didn't need more space inside nowadays I would absolutely be delighted to get another Corolla; I think it's a trooper for making it 10 years in this weather. I also replaced the exhaust system and then sold the car for significantly more than the repair cost to someone who wasn't planning on keeping it in quite a snowy climate.)

[bryanlarsen]

Many modern vehicles experience galvanic corrosion at dissimilar metal junction points at accelerated rates in the presence of salt.

[hagbard_c]

A bigger issue I'm seeing is ordinary corrosion at metal-plastic interfaces where the magic coatings which keep the rust at bay get worn through due to vibration and dissimilar thermal coefficients. Another such problem sometimes occur when windows are not mounted with enough of a gap between the glass and the surrounding metal, again leading to the coating being worn through due to vibration and such. Look for the former problem at wheel wells, the latter at the bottom edge of rear windows.

[likeabatterycar]

It persists because incompetently-managed cities and their sycophants need a convenient scapegoat for why they can't properly clean roads in the winter.

[bumby]

While I suspect you’re right about newer cars because of galvanized steel etc, but I also wonder how much of the contrarian viewpoint is due to sampling bias. Maybe your Acura was just good luck? I’ve had a domestic wagon of similar vintage that went through many Midwest winters. The exhaust rusted off and so did the sub-frame leading me to offload it many years ago. We really need better data than our personal anecdotes to understand the problem.

[phil21]

Definitely need more than anecdote. Exhaust system though is a wear item, I'd expect to replace that every decade or so.

Sub-frame, not so much!

A quick google shows graphs for "Average age of the US used car fleet" to be around 6 years in 1975, and increasing to 12 years today. Not enough time today before family arrives to really dig further though.

[bumby]

Very true, and car longevity has been steadily increasing. Although, I don’t think the bulk of them failures are attributable to “rotting body panels”. I remember when a car with 100k miles was considered essentially dead, whereas more drive trains routinely last twice that long.