Now that winter has broke here in the Northeast, I have been able to get under my truck and chase down some noises that have been bothering me since the snow was covering the ground up here. Was planning on picking up a donor truck to replace my rusty front doors and maybe the bed as that is degrading fast, but after getting a good look at the underside of my truck I may not bother with doors and a bed as the rest of the truck isn't looking too healthy.
Which got me thinking- You lucky sob's west of the Rockies and south west dwellers should pay a premium for new vehicles- before you stone me- hear me out
You buy new vehicles because your bored or just want the newest or greatest available
Back in the East we have to buy new every 10-12 years because we have to- they don't last in this environment
Your vehicles will last indefinitely, your resale is higher, your trade in value is higher- you could keep a vehicle for over 30 years with good maintenance.
We don't have many vehicles left here from the 70's or 80's even the 90's are cancer ridden. You guys in the golden areas can drive any year auto you want- Ok- let the beatings begin

 

I'd feel for you, but between the hail, storms, mud, pollen, birds and bugs, vehicles take a beating here too. Granted, we dont have the salt.
You could save yourself the money and just buy a southern ride instead of going new.
Or buy a new ride, pull the body and have the body and chassis rhinolined.

 

While not as harsh as salt, the sun here in the southwest is very hard on things. But I will still take the sun and heat and the damage it causes over cold and salt induced rust any day!!

I also agree with above that you could easily save some $$ and fly down south and pick up a good used truck and drive it back. Better than buying new I would imagine.

 

Yup, nuthin's easy up here. Problem is they don't need 1/2 the salt they use half the time, I'd rather just a sand mix.

I've fixed the rot in the bed by building a flatbed. Every year I phosphotise the door bottoms to keep it from getting much worse (all but one door), drivers cab corner, both rockers are non existent, just built new floor/cab mount under drivers feet. And a hail storm dinged up everything not rotted out last year. Hoping for a Mercedez to t-bone me to fix it all (when the fam. isn't in it of course!)


A good friend of mine is a mechanic and buys all his vehicles from no further north then Virginia. Then POR-15 coats the undercarriage, and his stuff lasts through it all.

But hey my dash isn't cracked yet.

 

Well our vehicles may not rust out as fast but back east you got uh, uhhhh......
You're right we got it better

 

Funny thing you do notice further north you get the less diesels you see.


Why have a long lasting drivetrain when the rest of the truck is bound to rot away.

 

Here in the mid southeast we have it good for vehicles. Very little salt used since we don't get much snow and don't have the hot sun rotting out the rest of the truck 360 days of the year. Good older vehicles abound here in VA, NC, SC and GA. I have a '99 Ram 1500 with 200K and not a spot of rust or cracked dash.

 

What you get back there will just balance out to something different somewhere else. Cheap food/fuel/rent usually means low wages, where as higher expenses = better pay.

When I moved to WA from CA I was surprised how nice older car interiors were up here. Not cooked out and bleached like they were in CA. If I had known that back when I was hunting GTO parts I would have looked here first....