> Is there a qualitiative or quanititative difference between
Illinois road
> salting and New England road salting?
> Does washing off the salt once in a while (or more assiduously)
do the
> trick?

don't know about the difference, but when i lived in chicago, the
salt was murder. the recommendation was to wash it off, in one of
those drive-through-spray-underneath car washes, every week! the
theory was, you got a lot of the salt off the metal/paint, and
you diluted what was left.  the newspapers recommended making a
garden hose attachment out of pvc pipe with holes drilled in the
pipe every inch (like a big wand that sprayed) to use to wash
underneath the car.  they also said it would only delay the rust
... not prevent it. and they reported that those Rusty Jones and
Ziebart rust protection plans were worthless .. expensive wastes
of money. a non-protected car would last about 2.5-3.0 years
before any rust appeared. guess how long the warranty was for
Rusty Jones? yup ...2 years. and they would only apply the
'protection' to brand new cars. just a rip-off racket.

only trouble was ... do NOT get out of the car and close the
doors after driving through the car wash!!!
your doors can freeze shut with all the water running off the
bus! :) had that happen to me .. luckily, i had left the rear
hatch unlocked and was about to open it and get back into the bus
and open the doors from inside.

good luck!
joel