On 2/15/2016 7:15 PM, RonNNN wrote:

Carlo. It still has the original exhaust system. It has nearly 200K miles
on it, but in the last 3 or 4 years has only had maybe 5k put on it. I

I had a 75 Monte Carlo. Land Yacht. Doors took two hands to pull closed!

The 98 MC is more of an mid-sized car compared to the old "boats".

Yes, the *85* was classified as a "full size" -- despite FEELING like a
mid size. shrug Dunno how the bean counters come to these decisions;
just want to know how much it will cost to insure...

Living in New England, Midwest, Colorado, etc. was always brutal on
the exhaust systems -- seemed like I was *always* replacing some or all
of it on whatever I happened to be driving.

The only thing we deal with in my area is condensation. Far from the
coast and far from the ice and snow. Only on rare occasions are the roads
salted due to icing weather.

In the places I mentioned, salt was often used in lieu of plows.
Of course, there's a point (temperature) where the salt just SITS on
the roadway and doesn't *do* anything (lower freezing point).

In the meantime, it's eating away at your frame, exhaust, etc.

I would have to replace my shoes each Spring from the salt
that the leather had soaked up from the surrounding "slush"

I'm more concerned about moisture in the motor oil, wear and tear on
the battery (repeated starting loads), etc.

Being in my business all of my vehicles got oil changes at 3k, always.

SWMBO's last vehicle got changes every 6 months (3K). Oil never
got a *chance* to get dirty. IIRC, the "high usage" schedule
was much less frequent than that.

[batteries and tires are the high turnover items in this climate]

That's another thing the Monte was good at was tire wear. It's first set
of replacement tires was at 100k! I did replace the second set at another
80k, and the ones on it now are only the third set of tires and still
look like new.

Tires and batteries fail (here) primarily due to temperature.

I stress to SWMBO that the car should be ROLLING when she turns
the wheel (not stopped while the turning wheel just rubs off
rubber onto the hot concrete driveway).

Most folks only buy *one* replacement battery (after the factory
installed fails). Thereafter, just keep returning them for
free replacements (not even reaching the prorated portion of the
warranty schedule!)