Will my w124 rust if I drive it trough winter
I bought my first car a few months ago. I don’t have a ton of experience with maintaining or fixing cars yet, but I’m trying my best to learn and take good care of it.
I have a 1987 Mercedes W124 230E, and I live in southern Norway. We don’t usually get huge amounts of snow here, but the roads are salted quite a lot during winter. I really need the car for transportation, and honestly, I also think it would be pretty fun to drive it through the winter.
The thing I’m worried about is rust. I’ve heard that snow, moisture and especially road salt can be really bad for older cars, particularly underneath the car. At the same time, I see plenty of W124s online being driven through snowy winters and even sitting outside in the snow, so I’m wondering how serious the problem actually is.
I’ve also heard that if you wash the car regularly, especially underneath, you can prevent most of the damage. The problem is that I don’t have access to water or electricity where I park the car, so I can’t just wash it after every drive.
The car currently has basically no rust, and there’s no exposed bare metal that I know of. I really want to keep it that way.
So my questions are:
Is driving a rust-free W124 through a Norwegian winter actually a really bad idea?
How much does road salt realistically accelerate rust on a car this old?
How often should I wash the underside during winter?
Is washing it at a self-service car wash every so often enough, or does it really need to be washed after every salty drive?
Is it better to wash the car immediately after driving on salted roads, or is waiting a few days okay?
Would a professional underbody/rustproofing treatment make a significant difference?
Are there particular areas underneath a W124 that I should inspect regularly?
Is parking outside in snow itself a problem, or is the salt and moisture underneath the car the bigger concern?
Would you personally drive a very clean, rust-free W124 through a southern Norwegian winter, or keep it off the road?
I know that avoiding winter completely would obviously be best for preserving the car, but I need the car for transportation and I’d really like to actually enjoy driving it.
What would you guys do?
For context, this is my first car and I’m still learning, so any advice is appreciated.
Here is a picture of it now