The idea of getting a 'beater' for the winter is appalling. You have a great winter vehicle that can handle just about everything Mother Nature can throw at it! Take the time to give it a good undercoat with Fluid Film or whatever you want to use and you will be good to go. Fluid Film is made from Lanolin (thus the smell) but you get used to it. Works good on snow blowers to keep snow and slush from sticking.

 

I think taking a flawless rust free LR and sending it to it's grave is appalling. You can undercoat the bottom of a vehicle ALL DAY long, but the spray from driving behind other vehicles gets ALL OVER the vehicle not just underneath it. It will get on the roof, go down the pillars, down into the windshield cowling, go down the glass and into the doors (hence why my friend has gone thru several door sets on his winter vehicle), and it will rust from all directions not just from the bottom of the vehicle. Wherever that slush can run down into = it will eventually form rust.

My first 97 XD was from Iowa and it's nickname is "Rusty but Trusty" however it's not really a joke anymore. Mechanically she's a true gem, but body wise it's terminal stage 4. B pillars separated from the rockers, rear floor is nearly free floating, all fender area's are rusted thru, then the bulkhead windshield cowl area is awful, the windshield frame area, all the door bottoms are now showing bad corrosion aluminum skin wise and the metal bottoms are starting to rust thru. D1 Frame however isn't even affected, but the body is total garbage at this stage. I will sadly be retiring her from road duty as it's getting to the point if it's in a wreck it's going to literally crumble around me. Great off road toy though!!! Did I also mention any 5min job on it (when I first bought it) was a 2 day ordeal due to rusty fasteners..

Yes I get it a LR is in it's element in the winter months, but if you truly love your vehicle I'd advise against it. When I mean a beater I don't mean a pinto. I mean a LR that's not as flawless/pristine as your baby or main LR.

Heck even my 06 RRS from being up north for 2 years of it's life the rear tow hitch area is literally flaking apart in some spots. I've done my best to repair it, and treat it, but the rust is there.

 

All great feedback and perspectives, appreciate it greatly. We decided to stay put in CA. Cars weren't the main reason but one of a top few. Our daily drivers are all old boys. The Disco, an L322 and a OG Tacoma. All pristine mechanically and cosmetically, and if moving to salt country means losing them, well, yeah, that would suck.

Working on them is so much fun, even when they're a pain, but part of the joy factor is not having to expel time and energy simply fighting seized or crumbling fasteners. We owned a 2004 from Pennsylvania for a couple years during the covid era and the same project on that rig would take 4x the time as the CA 2002 simply because of rust issues. I remediated as I went, so it got better and better over time, but I was still looking at the immense project of a full frame replacement eventually and even then it would never truly be perfect.

Seems silly to make a decision on where to live based on vehicles, but like it or not, they're a daily component of our modern lives and at this point they're also just special to us.

 

I bought the Disco to be a winter beater. I already had the P38. My wife’s DD was a Mustang which is a fantastic car, but terrible in winter. I ended up liking the Disco enough to daily drive it (I like the P38 even more but it currently has an engine vibration that I haven’t had time to sort out). As for rust, even here in the interior of British Columbia, the Disco has very little. Compared to my son’s ForeRunners, the Disco is rust free. The P38 has no rust and as far as I can tell, if P38’s stay away from ocean water they never rust at all.
I would never move away from BC even if it meant that my vehicles rusted more quickly.

 

With the price of vehicles these days it makes a lot of sense

 

And quality too TBH. They just aren't made to be worked on anymore.

 

I grew up in central Louisiana, have lived in Texas, California, indiana, South Carolina twice, Illinois in the Chicagoland area, Virginia, and North Carolina. I was always surprised when talking to people who lived in Chicago and they would say something like how much they love Chicago and I would ask them where else had they lived? They would say oh I've lived here my whole life, my response would be go live somewhere else and tell me how much you love Chicago. It always baffles me people who willingly live in snow country. We lived in Bakersfield in california, ski resorts were less than 2 hours away but it never snows in Bakersfield, hell it never gets below 50° basically. In my mind there are lots of reasons to not live in snow country, Vehicles is just one of them

 

Great skiing 35 minutes away. I’m not moving

 

Well, up here when it is -35 below, you know who is the true diehards are. they are the ones out driving their Series 1 Rovers.... (Minnesota)

 

Yikes, -35! Fortunately it doesn’t get that cold where I live. I used to drive my 2A all winter, but it did have some heat.