Leaving work Monday night decided to take a quick detour to the local Wegmans in Dewitt. Up ahead was a SIII driving along in the fast lane. I noticed his tires at first as I need to replace mine and they filled out the wheel wells nicely. Figured I'd follow him to see if he's going to the store as well.

This car was a two toned light battleship grey and rust....lots of it.

I'm always curious to document a rusty example of a car to see the bad spots

 

Shouda got pics!

 

Sorry, fell asleep while drafting this the other night.

Really nice older gent, he bought the car new and has driven it daily here in Central NY. He claims he needs to pull out the welder!

 

Wow, yea too late for antibiotics on that one...

Those window corners are amazing though!!!

 

Ouch!

Wonder how he has managed to get past registration inspection?
That's gunna fail the "Sheesh Officer, I hadn't noticed."

Cheers fellas,

 

I don't know about New York specifically, but here in the US, its state by state, and many states like Texas, don't require a safety inspection at all. Its really up to the civil courts to determine punitive liability if your poorly maintained vehicle causes damage or injury to another, i.e. you buy liability insurance that covers you up to some minimum amount and beyond that, only fear of a bazillion dollar judgement, a monthly payment to the heirs of your victim for the rest of your life that leaves you homeless and destitute, compels you to fix your rusty car. Granted, since 16.5% of humans can't plan or imagine consequences much past what they are going to have for breakfast, fear is not a perfect system but I guess the flip side is that when we impose restrictions on what people can drive, 16.5% of inspectors let their little bit of authority go to their heads and they create endless red tape. That's why its state by state as we can't come to an agreement nationally that satisfies everyone across the political spectrum.

Wow! Rust has been described as like an iceberg in that what you see on the outside of a car is usually only about 15% of whats really there. That's shocking. I watch a lot of those British car restoration shows (their metalworking skills are incredible to watch) and it's always amazing to me that they'll even mess with a car this bad. Sometimes I think they wouldn't except that the worse off the car appears to be, the greater the ratings on whatever channel or streaming platform they're on. Surely they know it'd be cheaper to buy a solid car here in Texas and have it shipped around the world than to pay somebody a living wage to fabricate nearly a whole new body shell from scratch. But they're doing it just for views.

For the old gentleman tho, I'm sure its got sentimental value, but if he were a family member of mine, I'd be trying to get him to stop driving it. A minor accident and authorities would be using dental records to identify his remains after the car disappears from around him in puff of red dust.