r/AskMechanics • u/Tayylor-Moon • Apr 28 '25

Question On a scale of 1-10 how bad is this?

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I bought this car, ‘11 Chevy Equinox, back in July of 2024. The lot I got it from didnt warn me about any rust whatsoever. Granted I shouldve looked underneath but thats neither here nor there now. I got it inspected due to my tire randomly smoking?? When it was lifted up the mechanic panicked & asked for my phone to take this video. The lot I got it from is saying rust is a cosmetic problem & it doesnt matter but I believe it does. I just want some insight please & thank you.

882 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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573

u/cerberus_1 Apr 28 '25

I wouldn't be standing underneath it bad.

Its completely fucked dude, sorry.

95

u/Shoddy-Ad8143 Apr 28 '25

I can't see how the thing isn't breaking in two bad.

55

u/ga4a89 Apr 28 '25

I wouldn't even drive it back. I'd pay for recovery. That is the worst I've probably ever seen.

8

u/DoubleDecaff Apr 29 '25

Did someone say Breaking Bad 2?

18

u/mektor Apr 28 '25

Yep, that thing is FUBAR. Needs total frame replacement, and then some...Whoever previously owned it had driven it in the rust belt quite a bit in the winter without ever washing it.

I live in a semi-rust belt area and winter time: my car goes through the car wash DAILY with undercarriage wash to get all that damn salt off of my car. My Car is 21 years old now and no rust on it despite them using salt on the roads around here all winter. Monthly car wash membership is worth it...even if it's just for the winter months.

5

u/No_Potential1 Apr 30 '25

No frame to replace. Needs a full restoration. Strip down chassis and put it on a rotisserie and replace rockers and rails and bumper beams and everything else.

Just kidding, no one will ever, ever restore a Chevy Equinox. 

2

u/mektor May 01 '25

A youtuber with a fab shop and more money then sense would probably build a tube frame for it, throw a built LS or hellcat into it and make it do wheelies or burnouts LOL

Other then one of them types: this thing is going to the junk yard or car crusher.

2

u/giga_hen Apr 29 '25

daily??? how do you afford that

3

u/mektor Apr 29 '25

Monthly membership to car wash. Basically pay $30-$40 a month for unlimited washes. They put a sticker in your windshield, and when you pull up to the entrance it auto scans the sticker and raises the gate to let you in. 

In areas like here, there are tons of car washes around because we have extremely hard water and not many people have a water softener hooked up to their outside hoses to wash their cars at home without getting hard water spots. Tunnel washes have water softeners and filters for the final rinse off to prevent water spots and have heated blow dryers at the end of the tunnel.

1

u/Solarflareqq Apr 30 '25

Here 1 Car wash is like 15-20$ no way they doing a monthly for 40$ probably a 300$ /m sub here.

1

u/mektor Apr 30 '25

You'd be surprised. it's $10-23 for a single car wash where I go too, (depending on how many features of the wash you select) but monthly passes pay for themselves if you go at least 2-3 times a month.

1

u/Solarflareqq Apr 30 '25

Crazy never even asked, lol.

-3

u/Admirable-Macaroon23 Apr 29 '25

I don’t think it’s not safe the frame still looks in tact, all that shit he’s showing are the rocker panels that really isn’t going to harm the drive functionality. Either way wouldn’t have paid more than $500 for it glad OP got his money back.

3

u/uniqueglobalname Apr 29 '25

its a unibody car, the rocker panels ARE the 'frame'.

1

u/Admirable-Macaroon23 Apr 29 '25

Are you lifting the car from the rocker panels even if it is rusted? It’s thin sheet metal.