Recently bought 2016 Prius Four has rust underneath. Should I return to Carvana?

Here's a few personal examples taken last night.


2018 Honda that sat for nearly a year on the dealer lot about a mile from a salt water bay before purchase:






2013 Ford that also sat on a lot near a salt water bay for over a year before purchase. Sits outside at night.





2012 Honda from South Carolina:



2012 Mazda from the northern Louisiana/southern Arkansas area (can you say rain?)



And finally a 2018 Prius from Oklahoma:



IMO, the OP has a rust issue.

 

I agree that the rust issue is real. But as I said, that's true for any car driven in the snow/salt belt during winter. For a car driven in the snow/salt belt for 4 winters, it looks normal. Nothing out of the ordinary. All my cars a few years old looks like the OP's pic.

This is the pic of my 2017 Prius Prime after two winters in New England salted roads.

 

Just don't trot out the Sienna photos.

Unless you want to make us non salt belters jealous.

 

You mean this? Yeah, but our Sienna was 13 yeas old.

 

From my point of view, the car obviously has rust, the rust happened over those 4 years with its former owner, and may or may not have been factored into the price paid. Hopefully it was.

Either way... it's rusty, the rust has nothing to do with build quality, and the car is still extremely likely to deliver a total of ~15 years good service. It just might cross the finish line looking a little rougher than one that wasn't parked at the beach house for the first four years.

 

OP purchased from Carvana so that pretty much guarantees they paid top dollar for the convenience of online shopping and curbside delivery. Even with lots of pictures and promises, it's still a gamble. BTDT

 

Sure but still.

Here's a 91 Corolla that was in the family until last year:


28 years old at the time and still looking as good as a 91 can look.

But a truck decided it didn't want to stop at a light and rear ended it.

People kill cars out here, not the elements.

 

I think you are making conflicting statements here.
The rust is real.
It is NOT an "issue".

Unless maybe you intend to keep the vehicle for 30 years and 500,000 miles.

 

I would say, my very optimistic expectancy of any cars in our region is 15 winters of normal daily operation (6k miles during winter months) on heavily salted NE roads. The people who expect longer life out of a car will definitely have an issue. My feeling is that 4 years in the snow/salt belt and then rest in sunny south may not be an issue, but I don't know.

 

BTDT. Many years back, I bought a 9 year old Mazda protege wagon in Austin that originally came from Indiana. Almost every task on that car involved a battle with fasteners that were either frozen or broke during removal.

Experienced shops factor vehicle condition into their labor and parts estimates.

 

My Prime had a couple of winters in NH. Rust not bad at all and hasn't gotten any worse. However, when we lived on a little island (on the windward side, no less), I had our truck detailed every other week at least and still had to take it to a body shop at least once a year. The cleaners always washed the bottom and one time pointed this out to me.


Yup. It ate right through the frame.

I'm sure, though that the regular washing and waxing helped. I wonder if you and the others up north in the salt, see any difference whether you frequently wash in the winter or not.

 

I had mixed messages on frequency of wash during salt season. On one hand recommendation is to wash as frequently as practical and definitely wash after each snow and salt event. I did that for a few years. Then I read in PC that washing car in automatic car wash during winter season is like washing the car with salt water, thus not recommended. The thing is that during winter, low temperature prevent washing car on driveway. Only place I can wash my car is at heated car wash. If the water at those car wash is filtered recycled water, then yeah, I am washing a car with salt water, in fact longer they recycle the water, higher the salt concentration would be. So, I stopped washing my car during winter all together, unless I have very warm day I can use hose from the faucet at home. Unfortunately, I don't have enough data on effect of washing or not washing my car during winter. I have owned only a few cars that I kept longer than 10 years. Those are not washed diligently, but washed only occasionally (once a month or so), those cars did not last longer than 15 years. If I had washed more frequently, would the car lasted longer? Or if I had not washed the car at automatic car wash during winter at all, would the car lasted longer? I don't know the answer, and I don't think I will ever own enough cars long enough to test the hypothesis one way or another. lol

 

Thanks, @Salamander_King. That aligns with my experiences living in Ohio. Car washes almost all use recycled salt water. I was wondering about the value of building something if we ever move back there that would be freeze proof that I could drive the car over and spray the bottom. Just wondering if it would be worth it. I guess it depends on how long I hope to keep the car. I had an old Dodge Ram that I really wanted to drive forever, but I was afraid I was going to fall through the floor. LOL!

 

OK, maybe.
But the body panels are likely to rust through first.
And maybe some poorly protected electrical connections will corrode.

The frame itself and most other "under body" components that you can get to and try to protect......actually are protected pretty good by the initial coating of rust that forms. IF you wash the salt off of it occasionally, like would happen normally when driving in the rain spring and summer.

 

At work, I found a 2008 Civic from New York that just moved down here.




At triple the age of the OP's 2016, it still has less corrosion.

FWIW

 

We've had a slew of Hondas and that's been my impression too. Maybe they're galvanizing the frames, or something similar? Bolts held up well too.

OTOH it might be because they're older, prior to restriction of some coatings??