I understand very little about vehicles or other things with a motor. I found a good pre-owned vehicle from 2013 for the right price and it checks every necessary box. However, an acquaintance of mine holds the opinion that I should pass on the vehicle because of some rust on the inside lower frame of the driver's door. It's unnoticeable from the outside. But the acquaintance says that in a year from now, the rust will spread and the vehicle will look like trash.
The rust is not a tiny spot on the frame, but rather kind of spread out on that door.
I don't care about the rust as it is, so if I can do some work to maintain it rather than fix it, I'm good with that.
If I am appraising a vehicle, and there is any visible rust whatsoever, it is instantly a wholesale vehicle, no matter how nice. Can not retail it. Huge value deduction.
Rust can only be truly fixed by cutting the vehicle apart and welding new sheet metal in, and even then you better hope they did a good job because if a speck is left behind it will soon be a spot, then a bubble, then full blown cancer.
Shit I just bought a new truck and ended up with an aluminum truck partly because so many even pretty new trucks had rust.
For me both in my business, and in my personal life, rust is an absolute deal breaker for any vehicle. [Reply]
I'd echo what Hometeam said. That little bit of rust may be the only visible sign of something amiss, but not the whole story. True enough it could be just a small ding that got salt into it, but it could also indicate the car has been in water. You don't want any part of that. [Reply]
We had a 5 year old truck on the lot, that was perfect and beautiful. Guy stopped to look at it, then he got on his back and inspected the under carriage. I thought he was a bit over zealous. WRONG!! It looked like someone put a new truck on the chassis of a 30 year old junk yard truck!! I was shocked that it made it's way to my lot. Guy gave it a hard pass, and I didn't blame him in the least. I refused to sell that truck. [Reply]