The 5 year thing is an exaggeration, but it definitely isn't a myth. The midwest and new england area gets a lot more snow than the western US outside small mou

The 5 year thing is an exaggeration, but it definitely isn't a myth. The midwest and new england area gets a lot more snow than the western US outside small mountain towns. Also, the western US tends to use more environmentally friendly road salts that also don't cause as much corrosion as rock salt (NaCl). In the east, roads are heavily salted with rock salt and it is (or was common when I lived there) for cars to to be heavily rusted out 10 years in. People still drive those cars, but parts break more frequently. When I moved to California in 2007, a local mechanic freaked out about all the rust on my 2001 car and advised me to sell it immediately. I kept that car and eventually sold it on to someone from the east coast who didn't see any issues.