Quote:
Originally Posted by BavarianFanatic
Wikipedia is NOT a valid reference for much of anything technical.
Try this regarding rust as a form of protection:
http://www.aisc.org/WorkArea/showcontent.aspx?id=20278
At a generic level, "steel" IS an alloy by definition. But there's a multitude of different steel alloys. In fact there are dozens of different alloys utilized in a typical car based on the desired characteristics of a given component/body section. That crash bar in the dash is designed to retain it's shape in a side impact collision so it's a high strength alloy. The seats are designed to deform and absorb energy in a collision, but they need to withstand many years of constant abuse, so they're a medium strength alloy. Neither of these are mild steel which is what everyone is most familiar with when it comes to rust and corrosion. Mild steel will eventually rust away to nothing. More sophisticated alloys will not (at least not when protected from the weather/corrosive environments). |
So you're saying that there are various grades of steel. Each with varying degrees of rust resistance. I would say the inside of a car is relatively quite well protected from the environment assuming that you don't spill anything on it or pissing in your pants or keeping the door open for hours on end in the rain. This is happening on brand new cars straight from the factory. Why then would there be surface rust at all? Following your logic of different grades of steel. My only conclusion would be that someone decided to source a lower grade of steel that when exposed to the slightest bit of moisture in the air produces surface rust. In a BMW that is totally unacceptable, and there's simply no way you can make the case that it should be acceptable.
When a company decides that chasing $$$ as their primary goal it goes all to crap. Where did the passion go to make the best product in the world? Products come first, $$$ is the by-product! I'm not letting BMW off the hook for this!