The counterpoint is that if you make a car that rusts out in 5 years, and your competitor makes a car that rusts out in 15, I’m not going to buy your car at all.
Consumers are no longer willing to accept cars that can’t make it 100,000 miles without major problems, and that includes rust speed holes.
I can’t provide a link but Canada was ahead of the US in implementing rust perforation protection. US info sites usually ignore Canada., Staff at the Canadian Automobile Protection Agency has turned over many times, so they won’ t remember Phil Edmondston.
When he left the organization he unsuccessfully ran for political office for the New Democratic Party, a left wing organization.
Now he is either retired or acting as an independent consultant.
His annual book, Lemon Aid, is still published, I believe. If you are in Canada, go to any public library and they will have the latest copy as well as back copies.
My last copy of Lemon Aid was published in Canada by Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 195 Allstate Parkway, Markham, Ontario, L3R 4T8. I believe that has not changed.
Lemon Aid sells about 1.4 million copies ion Canada they claim.
Yes, I found all that as well but no links to any legal requirement to warranty rust through for 5 years. Supposedly, Phil lives in Panama now.
I searched a list of FMVSS (Federal Motor Vehicle Standards) that define the requirements for cars sold in the US and found no such regulation. Same for the Canadian equivalent. I can only conclude that this is a voluntary thing for the manufacturers and not a law from what I can find.
The Canadian government strong-armed the car makers to provide the rust warranties. The public was overwhelmingly behind the decision. They started with the rocker panel protection and then went to more galvanizing for critical parts. Ford, as expected protested the most.
It’s now a given that state of the art rust protection is applied.
Back in the 70’s Syracuse University was commissioned by Fisher body to do a detailed study on why vehicles rust and how to prevent rust.
What I remember from the report was the biggest one thing manufacturers could do was eliminate shelves. A shelve was basically anything exposed to the elements that could collect and hold water.
The second best improvement was coating all metal (exposed and unexposed). Factory applied rust proofing.
If my memory serves me correctly, the Chevy II (the top trimline was called the Nova) introduced in 1962, had a system where the rocker panels were flushed out when it rained. Rainwater came in through the cowl and was directed through the rocker panels. I don’t have any idea as to how well it worked.