Corrosion concerns

[Yani 300]

Hi Guys,
I test drove an MG 5 SW a couple of weeks ago and was very impressed with the car, but recently I saw a u-tube video of a guy who after 9 months put his MG ZS up on a ramp and had a look underneath,he noticed staining on most of the welds, and suggested that there was maybe no rust protection as most modern cars have to protect the car , and maybe this was a cost cutting measure by MG, just wondering what your thoughts were and if so is this something we need to think about aftermarket ie; Waxol etc. Many thanks Ian

 

[Mark Holmes]

I’ve no issues with mine..

 

[Mgkev]

Stories like these are worrying and seem to get a lot more attention than other issues. Both ZSs on the internet with rust issues are white coloured like mine. I have checked mine for rust but so far all is OK. I have however rust proofed mine as best as I can but I still monitor it as and when.
I wonder if the rusty ones were some kind of preproduction cars that didn’t go down the assembly line as per all others.

 

[DaveG]

I got my red ZS treated using the KROWN system cost £272 but worth it for peace of mind.

 

[Baz]

Fuss over nothing ,I see he has not aloud comments on the video.I have traded in several cars over the years and never seen a salesman crawl under the car to check for rust ,as i really keep a car very long I am not bothered by these videos more like sour grapes to me.

 

[meetyg]

Because I'm considering buy a ZS EV, and read about these rust issues, I started searching a bit about which cars are galvanized. I thought that probably, these days, all or most of the cars are using galvanized steel, but it turns out I was wrong.
Mainly German cars (VW, AUDI and Porsche, etc...) are galvanized. Other than that, its still not industry standard, like I thought.

I haven't looked recently under my current 2015 Peugeot 208 to look for rust, but at least I haven't seen any on the body panels.
But here in Israel it rarely snows (maybe a little in the mountains), so salt and snow are lesser of a problem.

I'm planning a test drive next week on the ZS EV, I'm curious to see if there are any rust spots on the demo car (although the dealer might think I'm crazy looking under a demo car).

Anyways, I was thinking that maybe I'm a bit over worried about rust, just because this is a Chinese made car, and we still have stigmas about it...
I never thought of searching for rust on the underside of any new or used car I bought.

 

[Steptoe]

Co-incidentally I have just been crawling under my 2 week old (blue) ZS touching up the underseal!

It appears that during production various sections of the chassis are masked before applying underseal,

As these areas were mostly around captive nuts this is presumably so that the components (eg. the battery tray) would seat down in position correctly aligned. Unfortunately as the production run also caters for the ICE version many of these boltholes are not used (i.e. those for the petrol tank) and furthermore some of the fitted components also have a 'collar' of missing underseal.

This gives a very patchy appearance underneath which I didn't notice when glancing underneath in the showroom. The purpose of underseal is to protect the chassis paintwork from stone chips so my efforts won't protect from any internal rusting that may materialise. I understand that the chassis and body are formed from Zinctec steel.

 

[meetyg]

Which underseal are you using?

 

[Steptoe]

Which underseal are you using?

A tin which has been at the back of the garage for years, didn't notice the branding, lol!

I don't usually have new paintwork to treat so can't remember when I last used it. If there is any rusting present at all I prefer to use Waxoyl.

As you haven't yet purchased it might be as well to look under the vehicle you are considering; perhaps the dealer will do this job as part of the PDI.......my missing bits were on the longitudinal chassis rails just inside the sills and underneath at the back where the petrol tank would go.

 

[Yani 300]

Fuss over nothing ,I see he has not aloud comments on the video.I have traded in several cars over the years and never seen a salesman crawl under the car to check for rust ,as i really keep a car very long I am not bothered by these videos more like sour grapes to me.

Yeah I agree most people get cars on lease or pcp now, but some people are retired as I am and are not not able to get credit or pcp anymore so can only by cars cash only , so are looking at keeping a car much longer, so rust issues are a concern.

 

[Yani 300]

I know that new MG’s come with a warranty for 80,000 miles or I think 7 years what ever comes first but do they like most manufactures give you an anti perforation warranty ?

 

[Yani 300]

Ok just checked with MG , and they do have a seven year anti perforation warranty , all’s good, think I will still get it treated just to be sure

 

[meetyg]

They have the anti perforation warranty, but do note that it covers rust when it creates "holes", meaning the rust goes all the way through to visible body parts.
I don't recall now exactly where I read this, but there are a few sources online, as the MG UK site also.