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This seems accurate to what modern car underbodies look like, a smooth underbody is very important for aerodynamics and therefore fuel efficiency. For race cars it is often even more important not only for fuel efficiency but for downforce.
Also rust protection. Northern cars just having the floor fall out is less of a thing.
All of those plastic covers are a detriment in the north east. All of the salt and sand gets inside of them then you can't clean it out.
why northern? I thought the Southeast was more prone to rusting as the Mexico Gulf is right there?
Probably salt on roads. Sea air kinda rots everything, salty roads just the bottom.
Salt only lowers melting point around 4°C, below is split. The occasional fire for heating the engine on the other hand...
Edit: Rollsplit being loose gravel.
I don't pretend to be an expert on salt (though I have certainly listened to the testimony of experts on salt), but I do know there are different compounds that all fall under the general heading of "salt," despite some of them not being salt at all. And that heading is probably one coined by a layman like myself.
As far as whether the other compounds are responsible for corrosion the way tradition salt would be, I have no idea!
Typically they are -- for two of the same reasons, first being that most of the "salt alternatives" in use, the original "salt" in this case being sodium chloride, are also chlorides (potassium or calcium chloride, usually) and it's that chlorine ion that's corrosive. They also all turn the meltwater into an electrolyte, forming an easy electrical connection between the various metals in your vehicle's parts and dramatically accelerating galvanic corrosion.
Technically any compound composed of positive and negatively charged ions that balance out to a net neutral is a salt, chemically speaking, and by definition they are compounds, i.e. held together with weak ionic bonds via their electrostatic charges and not molecules held together with strong covalent bonds. This means they like to liberate their constituent ions easily, allowing whatever-it-is they're composed of to readily react with something else.
TL;DR: Pretty much all salts, not just sodium chloride salt salt, are corrosion promoters.
that makes sense, my southern brain didn't even process that road salts could cause corrosion haha
In the north there's even people who will specifically head south to buy a car that's never spent a winter driving on salted roads. Road salt corrodes so badly it's nasty
Wow that's extreme, TIL
I think for some people it's more about killing multiple birds with one stone. One guy I know went to see a Dolphins game, bought a car and got some warmer weather during the coldest part of the year. Another bought a car while visiting family (and learned the hard way that radiators are sometimes refilled with water and therefore will freeze in the winter if brought north) and another had their 20 year old truck die while hauling their RV and bought a new truck from the nearest dealership. So maybe it's not widespread, but every one has talked about the benefits of a car that's never seen salted roads