what year is safe rust wise

[Blobcat]

That's what I was worried about - this car is likely to be used maybe 1000 miles a year (3rd car!) and I really don't want to spend any money on it! Maybe better getting a nicer one, or forgetting my convertible dreams! Lol

Can you park it inside?
I’d go old and cheap, much easier to maintain than the modern carp they’re peddling these days

 

[danielleighSL500R129]

Can you park it inside?
I’d go old and cheap, much easier to maintain than the modern carp they’re peddling these days

I won't be able to park it inside for the next year, when we'll be moving to a house with a double garage. So long-term storage won't be a problem!

 

[mioba]

Rusty mercs were seen around MY 2000-2004 some mercs either end of this were lucky to escape. This is when merc were cheap skating on galvanising. Its all in the thread.

 

[danielleighSL500R129]

Rusty mercs were seen around MY 2000-2004 some mercs either end of this were lucky to escape. This is when merc were cheap skating on galvanising. Its all in the thread.

Ahh great stuff, thank you. My 1991 SL500 had rusty wings, but it was 30 years old with 209,000 hard miles... Surprised that a 10 year newer car with 1/3 of the mileage fares so much worse, but as you say, not Mercedes' finest era...

 

[charlysays]

I've only got experience with w202s but the worst one I've ever seen is my father's 1999 c250 TD. One lady owner, 70k miles and within 2 yrs I had to do large scale welding on the sills, jacking points, rear arches/ inner arches, rear panel area and subframe mountings. It's still on the road but will fail an MOT soon on sharp edges due to the doors and wings falling apart. Never seen anything like it. All the older w202s I had weren't anywhere near as bad and quickly/ easily fixed where they had rotted in isolated areas.

 

[horatio]

No rust 2004 CLK.

There was light surface rust beginning to start on the inner edge of the rear arches which I diy’d after buying the car (about 6 years ago). I also: ground back surface rust / painted / undersealed rear subframe and removed plastic arch liners waxoyled inner arches.

My experience is the galvanised cars can still eventually start to go but it’s easy to catch it early. The W210 era is another ball game altogether!

 

[ajlsl600]

2023.......maybe. Jacked up a class last summer Jack went thru jacking point. 2 hr of welding but it is 02 car

 

[jolsepr]

i'm curious with all the talk of rust on mercs, what year if any is safe from rust, and if that year is let's say 2004, is that because the rust hasn't had a chance to appear yet ?

so, here's a wee poll, if you own a merc, look at the years above, if your merc has ANY rust then vote for that year.

Sadly I can only have 10 options so this was all I could fit in.

once you have voted, please reply below with the year/model of your car (preferably in W203/W202/W210 etc format)

cheers
anyweb

Mines a 2009 204s c320 cdi sport not a speck of rust on the bodywork and in excellent condition underneath, still got all the panels on underneath had them all off and no signs of any life changing corrosion very pleased to say the least, My dent man says its got aluminium panels don't know if that is the case but it would explain the lack of rust.

 

[Flyinspanner]

Aluminium does not mean it can’t suffer from corrosion!

Aluminium can suffer filiform corrosion.

It can also suffer from dissimilar metal corrosion (galvanic) when bolted to another metal like steel. (The alloy panels on the CL500 suffer - roof at C post, top of rear wing….

No car, no year is completely safe….. it just hasn’t shown up yet!