Vehicle Corrosion Severity at Various Geographical Locations in the United States

Vehicle corrosion costs the public billions of dollars each year. The severity of vehicle corrosion is strongly affected by the amount of salt to which the vehicles are exposed. The main sources of the salt causing vehicle corrosion are the atmosphere and road salting. Some geographical areas experience minimal corrosion problems, but in other areas the corrosion problems are more severe. Knowledge of the severity of corrosion in a given geographical area is important when decisions are made about corrosion prevention and when corrosion related recalls/modifications are initiated. The object of this paper is to review the existing literature on corrosiveness in various geographical areas and propose a rational corrosion severity map.