I have seen many cars which lived their life close to or next to the beach (most of our country has a coastal climate).
They rusted from any and all directions, so, I’ll have to disagree
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I grew up in a beach town and spent 20 years in the Navy, so I have lived about half my life in beach towns on both the east and west coast and in Japan. I NEVER saw cars rust out there like they do in snow country. The only rust on cars that I ever saw in coastal areas were on cars that came from the rust belt.
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I have no experience on how cars rust that are near salt water. I can only relate to what snow areas.
With there being a strong correlation between property values and proximity to beachfront, most of the people who live near the beach take care of their car’s paint job. They tend to wash and wax their cars frequently and park them in car ports and garages. That’s why it’s rare to see a rusty car parked at a home near a beach. In some rural beach areas, and throughout Florida where the air is salty, I see a lot of cars with sun-bleached paint jobs and moderate rust (including mine 
).
I agree completely, it is the salt water, but if you are only getting 15 inches of snow a winter you are not experiencing the almost daily brine bath our cars are getting. The problem is compounded by the presence of Lake Erit which,until it freezes over keeps out temps crossing the freezing point of salt water. If it were colder longer the salt would do a little less damage.
I have read advice from others that I should get my car washed more often in the winter. That sounds good until you realize that there is no way to get your car home from the car wash without driving through salt water.
By the way, around here we measure salt by tons per lane mile.
Not correct. We will usually get the 15 inches 1/2 an inch at a time which equals salt on the roads every time + we get a lot of rain in between which will freeze, if they don’t get the salt shaker out. Which they will probably do up to 50 % of the days during the winter. It’s probaly somewhat less this winter.
The only place I have ever seen cars rust from the top down was in the Middle East in coastal towns.
There 70s model US vehicles would rust on their roofs and beltline while the bottom part was still pristine.
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The rust created by salty sea air can only create rust after your paint job is deteriorated, so before you see any rust on a beach car in the US, you’re going to see a sun-bleached paint job for several years before there is exposed metal to rust.
As an example, I’m reminded of The Dude’s car in The Big Lebowski.
