Check out this link....may hear more about this in the future...

http://www.4doorzoom.1hwy.com/m6_rust.html

And pictures...

http://www.4doorzoom.1hwy.com/m6_rust_gallery.html

 

Quality!

 

Damn, that sucks!

 

I hope the problem is resolved before the "made in Mexico " Ford version of the Mazda6 is produced or they might change its name from the "Futura" to the "Rustura".

 

At that rust rate, by 100,000 miles you will be able to power the thing Fred Flinstone style!

 

Ouf.

 

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

 

What went wrong??. Something tells me a 1 year old car isn't supposed to rust.

 

Those cars are slick, too bad this had to happen.

 

Honestly, I was going to put my downpayment for Mazda6 this November... After reading this I am deciding to hold off for now.

That's the trouble - the car is new, nobody knows its problems. Give it 1 or 2 years and stuff starts to come out.

The thing is that in Europe and japan the car had been there for 2 years now.

 

Say, wait a minute... I've been told repeatedly by current conventional wisdom, of the infallible quality of these amazing foreign cars!

 

Up here in the North, we use salt to clear the roads of ice. In Europe they use sand.

Significant issue for a car manufacturer.



Now... let's see here...

What can we get you from GM that's something like or better than a Mazda 6?

Here's what I came up with, I have to ignore destination and sales tax and plate fees (cause you live in Canada - note that all prices are in US dollars):

A full-book 2003 Mazda 6 with the 220hp V6, 5-spd, leather, moonroof, etc... came in at $27,025, the incentives are either $2000 back OR 0% financing...

OK, so let's say your credit is perfect, that means that your payment on the Mazda 6 comes out to $450 per month. Mazda states clearly that they won't give the 0% to everyone.



A full-book 2004 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP with the Competition Group, HUD, leather, premium audio, 260hp V6, TAP shift automatic, moon roof, 1 year of OnStar, yadda yadda yadda... comes in at $32,375, $30,375 after incentives.

BUT, the Pontiac ALSO offers 0% financing ON TOP OF the $30,075 price after the cash back. So, the payment works out to right around $505/month over 60 months.

You can pretty quickly take another $2000 off the Pontiac by not getting leather, or the premium sound system or the moon roof, but that's all a personal decision for you. I don't buy a real car without leather... you may be different. If you were to do that, your payment would drop to $467/month.

At ~$17 more per month, there is no real choice in my mind. The Pontiac just up and blows the Mazda away. Bigger, faster, the bulletproof 3800 V6, safer, vastly more potential for performance, etc...



PS - there are GTP's that run 11's out there.... and noone is complaining about GTP's rusting...

 

The evos have been having a bit of a problem too.
EVO rust
Dealers are fixing this. General concensus is that this is not a big problem and is likely due to puting the bumper beam on before the paint has fully dried.

 

You know, this brings up an issue that I've long wanted to answer.....

Do the Japanese car manufacturers use recycled steel at a higher rate that domestics?

Do the imports have the dip galvanizing that domestics use?

Remember the GM paint disaster of the 80's? When the paint people thought they didn't have to primer the cars....

I hate to admit that during the late 70's I owned a couple of Mistubishi Plymouth Arrows and they rusted like pigs...but then my 74' Fiat X19 did too...my brother's Toyota PU is swiss cheese on wheels...and the seat vinyl material cracked when cold....POS for sure......doesn't sound like much has changed...

 

Doug,

Recycled steel isn't a bad thing, matter of fact, for many body panels nowadays, it is required.

Many body panels are now made of a material known as 050XLF. This is a high-strength, low alloy steel that displays strength characteristics twice as great as the steels formerly used (DQAK - draw quality aluminum killed, DQSK - draw quality, special killed, or DQIF - draw quality, interstitial free... "drawing" is the process of stretching steel to a desired shape, BTW).

HSLA's are generally produced in electric-arc furnaces. Electric arc furnaces require some scrap (recycled) steel to be introduced to start the melting/alloying process.

Basic oxygen furnaces (the furnaces used to make the lower-strength steels I listed) do not require charging with scrap steel to operate.

Pound for pound within a car, you'll find that US manufacturers tend to push the envelope more with reference to steel specifications for body panels. They tend to use stronger/more expensive alloys with more frequency.

Steels alloyed using the electric-arc process are inherently better controlled, contain fewer impurities, show more consistent properties and resist corrosion better.