So I went to look at a 2016 ex today to replace my 2007 and was very surprised to see how rusty some parts already were after just 4 years in northern NY. I declined buying it and stopped by a dealer and looked under a 2017 which wasn’t as bad but still worse than I would expect. I looked at a 2013 too but didnt get pictures and it didn’t seem too bad.

Anyone else feel the 3rd gen seems to rust bad.


2016 rear suspension

2016 cross member and tie rod

2016 cat and exhaust

2016 recovery point

2016 hatch strut mount

2017 front suspension

2017 cat exhaust

2017 rear suspension

2017 recovery point

2007 front suspension

2007 exhaust and rear suspension

2007 crossmember and front suspension

 

I have a 2015, and I've spent a fair amount of time under it for exhaust and suspension mods- didn't take any pictures, but don't think mine had anything like the rust you're seeing. Of course, I'm in WA where the roads don't get salted, so I don't have much for comparison.

 

Wow that's a lot of rust. I'm in NOVA and we don't get the snow/salt like you all up north and my 2015 doesn't look like that.

 

This is what my 2002 CR-V looked like in 2005 in Minnesota. I parked in an detached garage with no draining. Outdoors on gravel or grass fairs much worse.

 

WOW!!! Am thankful to live in east TN, where snow is pretty rare down here out of the mountains, and my car is lucky enough to live in a basement garage (no direct heat source, but it never gets cold)...my '15 has next to no rust, which is good because I want this lil bugger to last me as long as possible

 

I’m in upstate NY (where they use a ton of salt) and my ‘15 isn’t that bad yet at 79,000 miles. That said it’s still rusting worse than my ‘09 Fit was at similar age/mileage.

 

Have you done any rust proofing? What's your closest "city"? Any chance on pictures?

 

The obvious challenge when you are looking at any used vehicle, is you can't really know how it was owned and operated.
From those pictures, it does seem like a abnormal amount of rust for that age of a vehicle.
I would say, I haven't read a lot of threads with the complaint being abnormal or premature rusting on 3rd Gens. So I wouldn't say that particular vehicle is representative of a inherent problem to the Generation or vehicle itself.
It just may be an previous owner that drove a lot in the winter and paid very little attention to the undercarriage and/or trying to remove salts and other road clearing agents.

Good decision to pass.

 

My favorite youtube channel is South Main Auto in upstate NY... the rust is unbelievable that he shows in his videos...

From watching his channel, I'd say the undercarriage on the 2016 is pretty typical.

For undercoating, a product like Fluid Film works pretty well. I've started using it the last year or so... Here's one of his videos on it..


Here's another video on why you don't use rubberized undercoating. It's scary to watch by the way..

 

a have a '19 purchased in july '18 , i,m on long island and we haven't seen much snow , none this year , so the car's still new ,just over 18G .still looks
pretty new under the car . your car's got alot of rust , i guess it's the salt , but that still seem like alot

 

Wow, it looks like the underside of my 24 year old Jeep.

 

sorry for hijacking this thread but i just have a quick question
on this picture you can see gray paint where the red overspray hasn't gone in the middle of the hoop and the two indentations further up , is that the top coat of the underside paint with the red just being overspray? my car is white and has the gray paint also with white overspray

im only asking as i have rubbed some of the white paint off when getting the rust off my tow eye with the gray paint remaining and if this gray paint is the complete paint of the underside and not just the primer i will leave it

thanks

 

I bought a 2016 Blue Fit and it appears that the bottom is pretty much all that grey paint so the red is probably just overspray and you're fine.

 

That is the problem living in the rust belt.

They do make coatings to prevent that.

 

My 2016 FIT already has what I call the patented Caravan hatch rust issue: The inner bottom of the hatch door where the weld joint is already has rust on it, with the paint flaking like crazy. The vehicle is rarely used in the winter when the roads are salted. My friend has a Civic that had most of it's paint peel off the roof over a span of 3 years. This is my last Honda, Cased closed.

 

In my opinion, what you're seeing is more about NY than the Fit.
We moved to Syracuse in 2015. Spend a few minutes watching traffic there and and you'll see plenty of 5 year old cars driving by with rusted through body panels. We brought a 100% rust-free 2007 Toyota Yaris with us. When I first got it inspected in NY the shop guys were calling each other over to have a look because they couldn't believe it.
We never drove much, especially in the winter, and I washed it regularly, but within 2 years it was rusting underneath and trending towards the condition in the pictures you show. At that point I started a very tedious process of wire brushing, priming, and painting areas of the undercarriage each spring. That helped, but only slowed down the decay process. By 2020 the car was in pretty bad shape despite my best efforts (worse than your pictures) and I feel lucky that I was able to sell it to someone who apparently didn't care about rust (I was honest about the condition).
We now live in central MA and, if possible, they may use even more salt here. I now have a 100% rust-free 2010 Fit (from the south), and we still don't drive all that much, and I still wash it regularly, and I'm pretty pessimistic that I'll be able to keep it in good condition. I have been doing research on products like Fluid Film, which I may try before next winter.

 

Yep, that's a New York thing, not a Honda thing. Look at any car that spends a few years in NY and you'll see some impressive rust progression. Unless you dip the entire car in POR-15, it's going to have corrosion issues (and the rust in NY is tenacious enough that I could see it finding a way to beat POR-15).

 

@monkeydave:

That paint job looks weird to me, too, monkey. At first, I thought it was a repaint. Sorry if I'm wandering off topic.

 

I'm in a snow area but we don't use a lot of salt because it's too cold most of the winter and salt isn't effective below a certain temperature so they mostly just throw sand down. Anyway, even without a lot of salt, in looking under my 2018 Fit I was surprised at the amount of surface rust. My impression is that Honda (and probably many other makers) don't bother putting very effective coatings on the underside of the car which most customers will never see and they use hardware and fasteners under there which don't have protective platings on them which years ago they might have had. The end result is a lot of surface rust which doesn't look good but doesn't really affect the car in any way, at least not for a long long time. Summary: The underside of the car is a victim of cost cutting which in Honda's opinion customers won't notice and won't complain about.

 

Also, Honda's finish paint and clear coat has always been sub-par. The issue of "cost cutting," which you cite, is destroying this once-fine car company.