How do you evaluate a Florida car?

Post #437,266 by drook 11/15/20 5:15:47 PM 11/15/20 5:15:47 PM Reply	How do you evaluate a Florida car? I'm down here to get my daughter a used car. Everything I know about checking out used cars is based on living up north: rust, suspension damage from potholes, headlight and windshield damage from salt, etc. So how do cars down here break down? And is a snowbird car - 10 years old, -- Drew
Post #437,268 by boxley 11/15/20 7:54:24 PM 11/15/20 7:54:24 PM Reply	water damage, salvage title, (indicates a rebuild) car fax will be useful. Been a long time since I was looking for a car over there so my info wont be useful "Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts" – Richard Feynman
Post #437,269 by drook 11/15/20 10:16:42 PM 11/15/20 10:16:42 PM Reply	Other than musty smell, how do you spot water damage? We looked at one that the headliner was trashed but the seats were like new. I'm guessing they were new. Couldn't figure out what would do that, but now I have at least one idea. -- Drew
Post #437,270 by malraux 11/16/20 8:38:58 AM 11/16/20 8:38:58 AM Reply	If you can get the carpet up in the footwells you might see something there Rust in a car that has only been in the South is a dead giveaway too. Or stuff like sand or silt under the seats. Regards, -scott Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
Post #437,291 by boxley 11/16/20 8:59:37 PM 11/16/20 8:59:37 PM Reply	look for silt under the trunk liner "Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts" – Richard Feynman
Post #437,276 by crazy 11/16/20 10:55:59 AM 11/16/20 10:55:59 AM Reply	You're probably going to get salt or electrical damage. Do not trust the car in the southern states. Find a mechanic you trust to do an actual evaluation. There's too much s*** that's possible to be wrong.
Post #437,328 by CRConrad 11/19/20 4:21:44 PM 11/19/20 4:21:44 PM Reply	Huh? Don't! May be over-simplification, but it's known (or "known"?) as far away as Scandalahovia... ...that you shouldn't buy a car from Florida. They're all supposed to be rustbuckets. I think this must be based on a theory of trade winds: Cars from California are considered OK, and that's also a coastal state. So it must be because a prevailing easterly blows from the dry inland deserts via California out to sea, whereas on the other side of the continent moist salt-saturated air blows in from the Atlantic and corrodes any metal in the state. Fuck do I know, it could even be true. Any which way, this is established as common sense throughout "car people" circles in the Nordic countries. -- Christian R. Conrad The Man Who (used to think he) Knows Fucking Everything Mail: Same username as at the top left of this post, at iki.fi
Post #437,331 by drook 11/19/20 9:02:52 PM 11/19/20 9:02:52 PM Reply	Very no In ohio anything over 3-4 years you can expect to see the beginnings of rust around the wheel wells. By 10 years it's a miracle if you don't see paint flaking off. I've looked at probably a hundred cars in the past week, and I've probably seen significant rust on fewer than 5. It's the road salt that makes the difference. -- Drew
Post #437,369 by CRConrad 11/23/20 11:57:35 AM 11/23/20 11:57:35 AM Reply	"Conventional wisdom" strikes again, turns out to be not so wise. (Film @ 11.)
Post #437,374 by Ashton 11/23/20 5:18:48 PM 11/23/20 5:18:48 PM Reply	Having grokked that causality earlier, I wonder: If many--in possession of this simple logic? ever hose-off their portable palaces' undercarriage--after every road-salt ride? Any idea? (sure, it's f-ing Cold out there, but--your wheels may have cost You+Bank $ n000) (We who have spent a lifetime tending machines of all configuratios, from tiny on up, tend to look at these as: investments, not throw-aways). Once I thought that everyone did--but after Drumpf, I see: that there IS no 'common sense' on this stolen-land.
Post #437,396 by scoenye 11/25/20 6:55:38 PM 11/25/20 6:55:38 PM Reply	No Do that and you'll end up encasing the rotating parts in ice. That's not a good thing. The salt keeps the packed snow friable and the car usable. That said, we may take opportunity of the occasional warm spell to run the thing through the car wash.
Post #437,401 by Ashton 11/26/20 2:14:17 AM 11/26/20 2:14:17 AM Reply	Tragedy! ..a Theory killed by a Fact. (Unless: your heated garage--with suitably atilt floor--occurs). Good point re the slurry encasement ..while awaiting a warmish day. Do not take out your Veyron in winter. We California types have missed out on all this stuff. {Gloat} :-þ
Post #437,443 by scoenye 11/29/20 11:16:50 AM 11/29/20 11:16:50 AM Reply	Not too many of either around here :-)
Post #437,444 by drook 11/29/20 11:39:51 AM 11/29/20 11:39:51 AM Reply	Either of what? Facts and Veyrons? -- Drew
Post #437,449 by scoenye 11/30/20 6:58:23 PM 11/30/20 6:58:23 PM Reply	Heated garages and Veyrons. Fact are in reasonable abundance.

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