iliveinapathy

i heard not to long ago that when u buy a car in socal vs a car on da east coast, the cars in socal are not "coated" to protect against snow and harsh salts and overall winter conditions. this is because socal hasn't ever a good inch of snow.

i bought my car in socal but when i bring my car home next year to ny, do i need to have anything special done to protect it against the road salt, sand, and etc...

is that whole thing about underbody coats true? i mean it would sort of make sense and i hear about people who buy a car in kali and then move somewhere having problems with salt and stuff.

thanks for the help

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Not sure about that. The cars are all made in the same plants... then just shipped out where they're needed. I doubt that they take the time to coat some, then ship them to the east coast... and not coat others for other areas.... too time consuming.

You could probably call Acura to check as the dealer may not know or may lie to you to sell you the undercoating....

iliveinapathy

whats acura's customer service or technical dept phone number? i know i should do a search but u never know if u get the wrong #..

jdone

All North American cars are produced at the Ohio plant and are identical except the Canadian cars get daytime running lights. Do you think they produce different cars for Georgia, Florida, Texas etc.?

fsttyms1

i wouldnt recomend havin it undercoated. many people hav said that undecoating (after market ) will actually make the car rust faster an i believe them. when they spray it on they plug unseen drain holes and if some of it cracks or chips it will trap moisture in an will promote rust faster. i have had two preludes one i bought new one was used the new the new one wasnt undercoated and never rusted, the used one only had 12k on it when i bought it and was undercoated and started to rust out in the wheel wells and a few other places after one year of winter driving

iliveinapathy

hmm i guess what whole rustproofing and undercoating is a dealer myth

NobleMike

My dad worked for a GM dealer and they were told by GM to not have customers undercoat for the very same reasons that fsttyms1 said. They plug drain holes and unless you re-apply the undercoat every year, it will trap moisture. The reason it used to be such a big deal was that manufacturers never galvanized the body panels on the cars. Starting in the 80's they used galvanized steel to make the body panels and frames and, in general, galvanized steel will promote longer life. That's why alot of the manufacturers started offering 7/70,000 warranties for "rust through" protection.