[Disco]

I'll be taking delivery of a new cx50 Meridian edition at the end of the month. I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts on rust proofing. Is it necessary/worth it? Or should I not bother?

For context, I owned a 2008 Mazda 3 for 12 years and the only reason I got rid of it is because it would have been too costly to fix the underbody which was rusting. Would like to prevent that with this vehicle.

 

[Litfuse]

Rustproofing a vehicle is a maintenance item. You’ll have to do something every year before the winter season. There are several options for you. You just have to decide if it is worth it or not. It looks like you keep your vehicles for a long time, so it may be worth the time and effort.

 

[Pitts Pilot]

Yep agree, what i have done quite successfully is upon delivery go under the car and take some towels damp with mineral spirits and wipe off under the car, mainly metal wheel well hardware / areas. Let dry and then buy a can of high quality rubberized undercoating and carefully apply to unibody /frame, welds, links, etc not coating rubber boots and moving joints. Did that on my Turbo CX-50 and also still have my rustfree 21 year old Toyota Solara. Lots of salt on Midwest winter roads. Every 2-3 years doing a touch up here and there. A little bit of a pain but i take off each wheel and carefully do within each wheel well, Good thing with 50 not as much metal in the wheel well areas that get direct salt contact.

 

[ZeekZirconPPT]

It is not critical imo and experience with Mazda. I learned a while ago that all the newer Mazda's (pretty much 2010 and after for all Mazda's) they are thermally weld-bonded and use double galvanized body panels, eliminating or at least significantly reducing rusting issues (like the early Mazda3s had).

The most important part is to have the salt and corrosive contaminants removed or washed off as soon as possible.

 

[Chuck50]

It is not critical imo and experience with Mazda.

Thank you. I was actually getting kinda worried about this. Been playing with cars in Phoenix the last 20+ years and never needed. Moved to eastern Iowa over the summer and I'll be damned if the humidity alone didn't turn my 100% rust-free, 25-year old Mitsubishi Montero mostly orange underneath. I thought Fluid Film was a service you could get anywhere, but not where I live now, so I had to buy a case of Blaster's Surface Shield, drop about 50lbs of 3/16" stainless steel skid plates, and do my first-ever undercoating job.

Without a doubt—the most vile, obnoxious, disgusting thing I've ever done on a vehicle. I didn't have time to do it to the Mazda before it got cold and I've been doing 2-3 touchless car washes a month since just to play it safe. (I'll still probably coat it next fall when a buddy and I do all our other vehicles, but still.)