The cars are really bad in Mississippi because the tags for newer cars cost hundreds more than the tags for older cars. If your car is over 25 years old you can get an antique tag for $25 and you'll never have to prove you take it to a show or drive less than 300 miles a year with it. This last year they removed the inspection sticker requirement so now most of the cars don't have brake, indicator or lights at all. Forget using lights when the wipers are being used.
Well down there you likely don’t see much rust.
So with some wrenching skills you can do a quarter million miles pretty easy these days.
Even up here in the salt belt the Pick A Part is full of Mexicans keeping their 20 yr old minivans on the road.