Rust continues to plague cars in Northern states - time to sell rust proofing again?

[Joe Marconi]

The damage from salt and other chemicals used on winter roads in the norther part of the country is reaching epidemic proportions. The body of the cars don't seem to be affected, but the undercarriage rot is a serious issue. Pick up trucks especially are prone to rust and rot. We see trucks with as little as 70,000 miles with serious frame rot, rusted through brake lines and fuel lines.

 

We have tried to sell rust proofing packages to customers with new cars, but with limited success. Aside from the increased sales with brake line and fuel line repairs, are any shops promoting rust proofing to their customer base, and how successful are you.

[John Pearson]

people really dont want to protect their investment. This is something that we are going to start investigating as alaska started using brine this year. up until this point we never had a salt problem.

[xrac]

The damage from salt and other chemicals used on winter roads in the norther part of the country is reaching epidemic proportions. The body of the cars don't seem to be affected, but the undercarriage rot is a serious issue. Pick up trucks especially are prone to rust and rot. We see trucks with as little as 70,000 miles with serious frame rot, rusted through brake lines and fuel lines.

 

We have tried to sell rust proofing packages to customers with new cars, but with limited success. Aside from the increased sales with brake line and fuel line repairs, are any shops promoting rust proofing to their customer base, and how successful are you.

Joe we do not see rust much here. However, we recently had a 2001 car with less than 100K on it where the subframe was rusted to the point of being dangerous. The body was in great shape.

[FROGFINDER]

would more thorough vehicle under carriage rinsing service help?

[D.Larson]

Good Morning Joe:) We have been offering rustproofing, with much success, for the past 8yrs www.CorrosionFree.com. The drip free gel will penetrate through the rusted surface to protect the metal underneath, and we do many vehicles from brand new. Does a great job on saving our client's vehicles!! Have a fun day!

[mspecperformance]

Joe, maybe to help the sales process you should document all the rust cars you see with high quality pictures. This way you can put together a bit of a visual demo for your customers. A nice way would be to put together a web page illustrating the damage rust can do and what the service can really do for their vehicle. I'm sure you could put it together in a matter of an hour if you had the pictures. Also if you use tablets as a visual aid, your SA's could easily click over to your webpage and show the dangers of rust then the features and benefits of the service.

[Tires Too]

I will second Diane's comments. We have been using Corrosion Free for a year now. It's been a great product and a new revenue stream. Once we started using Auto Vitals for our electronic inspections, our customers began seeing pictures of the underside of their cars and asking us what could be done to help prevent the rust. It's a very easy sell once the customer has seen the extent of the rust under the car.

 

Frogfinder, yes more frequent under car washing also helps to slow down the rusting process. In NH in the middle of the winter, when it's 0 degrees, washing the vehicle is not ideal.

[alfredauto]

Washing the salt off weekly is really the best bet. Touch up bare metal immediately. Once the metal starts to oxidize its too late. I sell fluid film undercoating which is a lanolin based oil, I like to believe it works.