Damn that sucks, I know this civic is a POS but its not too bad. there no rust just faded paint, which is expected for a 93. theres 216k miles on the body but only around 80k on the d16z6 that was already swapped into it when i got it. So far i havent put any money into it other than gas and oil. Just wait around and jump on good deals man, your bound to find one.
why would you drive your msp in the winter???? it took me well over 5 months to find a decent msp in Minnesota, all were rust buckets since the state uses a chlorine based salt, it eats cars alive. my old BMW had succumb to rust after just 4 1/2 winters. but if you choose to drive yours in the winter that just makes mine worth more.
Proper rust proofing does work, I use mine often in the winter and the worst rust I can find is a little surface rust by one of the stut towers (I only noticed when I really inspected the car for rust before the winter season.) The only problem is maybe that you have to follow up and do it again every three years or so and it's definitely not free. Just be glad you don't run an Audi, some of the newer ones tend to be rust buckets after just 2-3 harsh winters here in Norway.
The MSP is manual, has limited slip differntial and if you know what you're doing it's capable of hill starting at 500 revs or lower and change gear at a split second before you hit boost, and the wheelspin that often comes with it, why not drive it?
My MSP has been buried in over 3' of snow since November. Today is the first day in almost a month it's actually been warm enough to start it so I don't run winter tires, no point when it won't even make it to the end of the driveway. I do run an alcohol based de-icer in the fuel system before I park it and top-up the tank as well as run heat tracing all over the engine bay to keep anything from cracking when it gets down below -40
