I just got my Mazda3 sedan back from the body shop. It's a 2005, exactly 4 years old, with almost 138,000 miles. I brought it in because it was developing rust in the rear quarter panels where it meets the bumper right at the wheel well. That wasn't too bad, as it just required repainting from bare metal. However, the B-pillar rear door frame had what appeared to be worse rust under the black sticker Mazda puts on there. You could see it bubbling up under the sticker. The owner of the shop that my wife and I have used for more than 15 years (who's had this shop for 22 years, and we trust absolutely) didn't expect any of them to be all that bad. He knew that there would be a piece between the sticker and the door. He expected that he just would need to deal with that piece, likely sanding the paint and rust off and repainting.
However, when he got it apart, it was much worse:
Not only was that outer piece completely rusted through, but so was the door underneath, which is separated slightly from the outer piece. He didn't understand how it could have gotten through both with that gap between them. He's never seen rot like that on a 4-year old car. He also said that age is a much stronger factor in rust than miles, and it would have been reasonable if my car had, say, 500,000 miles on it, but not 138,000. He ended up repairing the holes. He said if the rust comes back after winter (I live in Michigan), I will likely have to replace the entire door, probably to the tune of about $1000 total. I've owned three other cars prior to this one (and a 2005 Honda Odyssey that has shown no signs of rust and has more miles on it). The first was 6 years old with about 106,000 miles when I sold it, and the others were about 4.5 years old with more miles than my Mazda3 has (206,000 on my second car). None of them came close to this level of rust, and my 2001 Focus had no sign of it whatsoever (and the paint was in better shape, too).
The car is well outside the rust-through warranty, so I'm just out $950, but I'm amazed that I've had this problem with it. The car has been fantastically reliable prior to this, so I can't complain too much. It would have been more than that to fix, but the owner quoted me a maximum of $950 based on his assumption that it couldn't possibly be that bad underneath. For the work he ended up doing, it probably would have been another $100 or $200.
I sure hope all this rust doesn't come back soon; I was planning on keeping this car for many more years as my commuter car, buying a 2010 Nissan 370Z as my toy. The owner of the shop said rust is like cancer. It might come back in three years or it might come back in three weeks--you never know for sure.
However, when he got it apart, it was much worse:
Not only was that outer piece completely rusted through, but so was the door underneath, which is separated slightly from the outer piece. He didn't understand how it could have gotten through both with that gap between them. He's never seen rot like that on a 4-year old car. He also said that age is a much stronger factor in rust than miles, and it would have been reasonable if my car had, say, 500,000 miles on it, but not 138,000. He ended up repairing the holes. He said if the rust comes back after winter (I live in Michigan), I will likely have to replace the entire door, probably to the tune of about $1000 total. I've owned three other cars prior to this one (and a 2005 Honda Odyssey that has shown no signs of rust and has more miles on it). The first was 6 years old with about 106,000 miles when I sold it, and the others were about 4.5 years old with more miles than my Mazda3 has (206,000 on my second car). None of them came close to this level of rust, and my 2001 Focus had no sign of it whatsoever (and the paint was in better shape, too).
The car is well outside the rust-through warranty, so I'm just out $950, but I'm amazed that I've had this problem with it. The car has been fantastically reliable prior to this, so I can't complain too much. It would have been more than that to fix, but the owner quoted me a maximum of $950 based on his assumption that it couldn't possibly be that bad underneath. For the work he ended up doing, it probably would have been another $100 or $200.
I sure hope all this rust doesn't come back soon; I was planning on keeping this car for many more years as my commuter car, buying a 2010 Nissan 370Z as my toy. The owner of the shop said rust is like cancer. It might come back in three years or it might come back in three weeks--you never know for sure.
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