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Why you should rustproof your vehicle.

Jordan June 13, 2013
Close-up of wheel and bumper of an old, rusted car.

In Canada, approximately 1.2 million vehicles are taken off the road every year.  Even if every single one of them is properly recycled (which they aren’t), the result in Ontario alone is 300 million pounds of unusable waste in our landfill sites.  Add the used oil, antifreeze, solvents, lead, mercury and other harmful materials that need to be properly disposed of, and one starts to get a glimpse of the huge pollution problem that end-of-life vehicles are creating.

Thankfully, there’s an easy way for us to help extend the life of our vehicles and, in turn, reduce the amount of waste in our landfills – rustproofing.

Here are some reasons why you should rustproof your vehicle:

Reduce waste.

Corrosion is an electrochemical reaction that causes 34 billion dollars of damage per year in North America alone. The use of de-icing chemicals has increased ten-fold over the years and the products used on today’s roads are more corrosive than ever before. Even brand new vehicles are susceptible to corrosion!

As part of a regular maintenance program, an annual Krown application lengthens the lifecycle of a vehicle, keeping it on the road and out of the junk pile. Prolonging the life of the vehicle you drive by even 2 or 3 years can make a huge difference to this vehicle-waste problem. Even if you decide to trade in your vehicle or sell it sometime in the future, keeping its body and mechanical parts properly maintained means you are being responsible and helping to keep that vehicle out of a landfill for years to come.

Maintain your vehicle’s safety.

Without proper protection against rust, a vehicle’s metal body can begin to corrode after just a few years, making new cars susceptible as well. After years of exposure to Ontario’s harsh weather conditions and road salt, rust usually starts to appear in weaker areas of our cars such as spot welds, door dings, scratches and rock chips. If left unchecked, rust can spread and also harm the mechanical parts that are essential to the safe running of the vehicle such as the gas tank, electrical connections and brake lines.

Krown protects these moving parts, electrical connections and other vital components, keeping the vehicle on the road, not in the shop or broken down at the side of the road.

Save money.

The average Canadian will buy 10-12 vehicles in their lifetime. Imagine if you could keep your vehicles longer, and buy half as many. What would that mean to you financially? It could mean saving tens of thousands of dollars on vehicles purchased and depreciation costs. The longer you keep your vehicle, the more money you save. A $20,000 vehicle will depreciate by almost $14,000 in its first five years, but only $4,000 in the next five years. Put another way, replacing your vehicles less frequently could mean enough money saved to pay for your children’s college and university tuition, a better retirement plan, less or no mortgage at all, and many other opportunities. The book “Deal With Your Debt” by Liz Pulliam Weston estimated that keeping cars for 10 years instead of five could save the typical person more than $250,000 over a lifetime.

Hanging on to your car longer means:

  • Fewer car payments. Unless you take out a very long loan, you can be payment-free after four or five years. If you take care of the car, any repairs you’ll need are likely to cost far less than you’d shell out in payments for another vehicle.
  • Lower insurance costs. Premiums tend to drop steadily as your car ages. You can save even more by dropping collision and comprehensive coverage when your total premium exceeds 10% of the car’s fair market value.
  • Time to save for your next car. Every month you can put off replacing a vehicle is another month in which you can build up your down payment for the next one. Put off the replacement long enough, and you could even pay cash.

A vehicle that is annually treated at Krown will last longer and will run better.  This gives the owner the opportunity to keep it for an extra 5 years or more and to save thousands of dollars.

Did you know that CAA Members SAVE $10 on a Krown Rust Control application plus SAVE 20% on all Krown merchandise? Simply present your membership card upon making your purchase to redeem your savings.