I'm looking at a car on ebay, its in GA, but spent its 1st 10 years in Southern Wyoming. I dont know much about the weather out there, but I dont want a car from my area for sure. I was hoping it was a clean southern car until I ran a carfax.
TIA

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Can't speak for all of them, Joe, but I bought my 86 GT in Broomfield, CO, which is a northern suburb of Denver. It was a Colorado car all it's life until I bought it, and it was rust free.

I grew up (?) in CO and have lived in Southern WY for the for about the last 36 years. We always liked to think that our cars were rust free due to the dry climate. That was before there was much salt mixed with the sand spread on the roads in the winter. Now there's a trend toward mag chloride and there's another chemical supposedly mixed in to prevent corrosion.

My WY raised '85 had considerable rust in the battery tray area when I bought it 7 years ago, but otherwise it is still very good. My guess is that in general a WY/CO car should be better than a midwest car, especially from around the Great Lakes area... and I've been told that (ocean) salt is also a potential rust problem along the coasts.

I'd like to offer a little more positive assurance, but as I'm sure you are aware, a lot will depend on when and where it has been driven and if it's parents took realy good care of it.

Mine was in Longmont Colorado for 9 years before we moved it here. All the rust it got came from sitting still for 4 years in NC.

I don't think they get too much rust. My battery tray and pully's and any other metal is covered with some rust now though, but that's just because my battery slid into the pulley's and threw acid everywhere.

Rust? What's rust?

Seriously though, Colorado/southern Wyoming has a semi-arid climate, meaning that rust just doesn't exist on cars here like on mid-west/east coast cars. We do get some surface corrosion, but nothing serious at all. I suspect that the battery tray issue mentioned above was due to a leaky battery and not climate related.

I have lived in Colorado for 20 years and have not seen any cars that were native to this area have any rust.

I would think that the car that you are looking at should be mostly rust free, but it likely has more rust on it than it would had it remained in Colorado/Wyoming its entire life.

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My experience is that rust is closely related to the treatment the car received over the years. If it sat outside in the weather for extended periods, without being attended to, or at least cleaned, sure you're going to see some rust. I've seen plenty of older cars rust here. If the car was even moderately cared for, though, it's a very good chance that all you'll find is very minor surface rust, at most.

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quote Originally posted by West Coast Fiero: hehe - you just got over-DOSED,

quote Originally posted by dosed: My experience is that rust is closely related to the treatment the car received over the years. If it sat outside in the weather for extended periods, without being attended to, or at least cleaned, sure you're going to see some rust. I've seen plenty of older cars rust here. If the car was even moderately cared for, though, it's a very good chance that all you'll find is very minor surface rust, at most.

I shoudl have been more clear in my post. A car will still rust here, but even a neglected car that sits in a field for years untouched will still be less rusty than almost any car that has been driven in the midwest winters for a few years.

More specifically, I had several parts cars at one time (it's been a few years) with several being cars that sat for a long time......even though there was some rust evident, I could still disassemble the cradle, front suspension parts, etc. with hand tools and no fear of bolts breaking, etc. It's a different kind of rust, if you will, than midwest or eastern rust.

With the general lack of moisture in the air out here, metal parts aren't attacked nearly as fast as in other parts of the country. For example, I sold/helped sell a low mileage '88 Fiero (112 miles) last year. It was stored indoors here in Denver since 1988 and was absolutely clean/rust free (as if it was 1988 and you were looking at a new Fiero). Within a few months of being on the east coast (even being garaged), the cast iron parts (sopndles, exhaust flanges, etc) started corroding. I was amazed at how fast the metal was attacked when I saw the car in Daytona in March.

Anyways, good luck with teh purchase......if you decide to buy it, that is!