The grass is green, the flowers are blossoming and so are the rust spots

Philip Darlington
Video Editor
Every year, we Canadians experience two car seasons. For a few months, we get to meticulously wash and wax our pride and joy; for the rest of the year we strap on extra grip rubber and crank the heater. It’s safe to say that Canada has the harshest environment as far as cars are concerned. We experience every type of weather, in one form or another, leaving people like myself wondering where that expensive warranty is actually applicable.
If you have ever owned a car in Canada you will agree that vehicles are lucky to see the other side of eight years of straight service. Between the salt, sand, slush, snow, ice, rain, wind, debris and other forms of what the traffic report like to call the “look-out-fors”, our pride and joys lead a tough life. However, I think the worst time of the year is actually not the winter. Oh no. The worst time of the year for our cars is the spring.
In the spring, we wash the white salt cuccoons from our cars and gasp as we remember that our car is actually blue! (Why is it that everyone seems to drive a blue or silver car?) The other day I was helping a friend un-crust his Mazda from its sodium chloride shell and, to his dismay, it had blossomed no fewer than one million little rust spots. To make matters worse, Mazda heckled with him over the repair of these spots.
I wasn’t there to hear the full story, but apparently the painter at the Mazda dealership had told my friend his car, along with all other Mazdas made that year, were made using an inferior grade of steel, making this a definite reoccurring problem. His recommendation? Sell the car and buy the following year’s model. Yeah right… I know Mazdas. No matter which model you buy it will not withstand the brutality of the Canadian climate. That being said, no car is immune to mother nature’s time of the year.  That’s the problem. Though many manufacturers are galvanizing their metal prior to painting and rust-proofing everything from the chasse to the wheel covers, there is just no escaping the imminent ebb of salty road brine and big rigs sling-shotting meteor showers onto our hoods.
The second problem with weather-related maladies is us. As far as I can tell, 95 percent of people know little to nothing about maintaining a car, and even less about how one works.  Being oblivious to the intricacies of car maintenance and manufacturing doesn’t bother me.  However, for those who missed science class, metal exposed to oxygen and moisture will oxidize – rusting, to the rest of you. Over time, its structure breaks down and, wouldn’t you know it, you now have a rough, brown patch or, worse yet, a hole.
Many of us do not treat the wound fast enough, letting the infection spread and, just like that, your car is worth nothing. Sure, you may say that, in this disposable economy, it doesn’t matter; but consider this. The car manufacturers would love nothing more than for you to buy a new car every few years while green peace will gladly take a break from cleaning our oceans with a toothbrush to remind us that statistics show it is more environmentally friendly to keep an old car running than to trash and replace it.
I can’t help but wonder if this expendable state of the world will ever change. We love throwing out and buying new, and many of us just want green peace to shut up. Now what? Well, as we are now in the season of washing and waxing our steel beasties, here’s a thought: why not spend a few bucks and get that auto acne fixed before its time to swap your Swiss cheese mobile for a shiny new one.