Anyone from Omaha or Des Moines area?
 

Do cars rust there? I’ve seen some really clean cars from South Dakota, oddly enough, just north is the rust belt. I’m looking to buy a nice used car, like a Toyota RAV4 or similar, for my brother to use when he is in WI in the summer. Budget maybe $20k or less. The last one I got him was in Mpls., it was clean for the area but still had undercarriage rust. I don’t want to do that again, it will only be used in the summers and garaged half the year so it will never rust if I start with a clean one.

Willing to jump on a plane to anywhere if anyone has a clean small SUV to sell, Denver has super clean cars. I’m looking a little bit here in SoCal but most cars get a lot of miles here and are not the cleanest. TIA as always!

Yes. Lots of salt.


Boulder does sand instead of salt. I’m not sure about Denver.

I’d be perfectly happy with an older/cheaper RAV4 or similar if the mileage was low and AWD is a preference. Thanks ��

Ok, thanks. The strange thing is that I’ve seen really clean cars from Iowa, maybe from rural areas where they use less salt? IDK.

Could be. Some people hose down their cars after playing in the snow. Others rent where that’s not possible. Lower part of the state also doesn’t get as cold. There’s definitely cheap cars out here though.

Growing up in Iowa everyone garaged their rigs. So that helped some. But rust got them all eventually.

We don’t get near as much snow here in Lincoln, including the Omaha area, as we used to in years past. So not as much salt put down on the roads. And for $20,000 you can get a five or six year old RAV4 around here. And Toyota does a pretty nice job with their rust proofing on their newer vehicles. Here’s what 20 grand will get you from a used car dealer in Lincoln.

If you get serious about a car in the Lincoln or Omaha area, let me know, and if I get a chance, I’ll go look at it.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1880316309391839/?

Thank you! ^^

CDOT uses both Magnesium Chloride and sand.

Michigan uses more salt than almost any other state.

Yet my 27 year old Honda has lived it's whole life here and has zero rust.

Salt can be handled.
.

I’m from Iowa and wouldn’t buy a used car from the Midwest or North East. Most have undercarriage rust. Just scroll past those vehicles when looking at cars . Best to buy something from the West and drive the car.

Coworker has, well had, a 2011 Subaru with 84k miles. Sub frame was falling off because it rusted so bad in NE Iowa.

Our 2000 Durango had some rust but was actually in pretty good shape when we gave it away to the local Afghan refugee family with 197k miles on it. He was a mechanic and it was still mechanically sound. Had just put new upper and lower a arms in because the bushings were bad and the CD player didn't work well.

Our 2014 Avenger is pretty rust free. All our cars are garaged and go through a car wash often in winter.

99% of all pickups here are rusted around the read fender well, regardless of brand if it is a steel bed.

Thanks for that info! Sounds like it's the same as MN. Small world but the reason I need to find him another car is that he is giving his current car, (that I found for him a couple of years ago), to an Afghan refugee family that we are sponsoring in Mpls. So he needs a replacement.