Why is it that some makes - Rover, Ford, etc. have serious rust / corrosion at this age, whilst other such as Volvo, Audi, VW, etc. show no sign or rust?
Why don't companies realise that, not only does rust depress resale values and reputations, but also, corrosion seriously compromises the strength of the car?
Crash tests are all well and good on new cars, but the average age of cars in Britain must be around five years ? most of us therefor drive cars 5 year olds and over? - So what of the crash worthiness of five year old cars?
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Better than it was though not very good,
a few years ago Top Gear carried out crash tests on older cars I seem to remember a series of old cars literally falling apart on impact due to corrosion and more worringly thing like crimple zones not working due to the structure being compromised and the car crumpling or splitting where it had not been designed to do so due to rust.
put me off buying another banger.
as always
Mark
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I'm having a lot of problems with a 1995 Astra with surface rust from stone chips and scratches rather than internal rust (hopefully!) I believe that Vauxhall, along with other manufacturers, switched to water based paints which were a lot softer, I dont know if that has been corrected now but each time I wash the car I found new scratches down to the metal.
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In a rear impact, the retro-fitting of a towbar ( present on around 5 % of cars, maybe) must have an effect on the crumple zones and crash performance.
I would welcome a properly designed mounting built into the vehicle and I am sure that the additional cost would be less than the couple of hundred quid charged to retro-fit. In addition the wiring looms would have proper spurs rather than the plumbed-in lash-ups we normally get.
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I know the typical towbar wiring lash-up very well! Can cause many problems in later life due to the scotchlok type connectors used.
Sorry to go on and on about the Rover 75, but it is equipped with a proper towbar spur!
Rgds
David
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