Manufacturers and dealers love it up here, always ready to sell you something new and expensive that'll cost you a shit ton after the warranty is up.

All metals corrode. Your picture shows cladding coming off the substrate.
While aluminum does corrode, it does so completely differently from steel.  The initial oxide layer, which forms in seconds, is pretty damn tough.

Lots of problems with paint not sticking to aluminum bodies.  WK2s with aluminum hoods have paint bubbling on the edge of the hood all the time.  We have two.  My hood was repainted in July, started to bubble in December.

I think a lot of people use that term very loosely.

Please post pictures of the undercarriage of your "rust free" vehicles. I mean, there won't be any rust to be seen, right? Because they're rust-free.

Not having visible body rust is not an automatic indicator of being rust-free - not by a long shot.

Flaking paint doesn't cause structural damage.

Transmission fluid and automatic car wash.

Personally, I think garaging a vehicle is one of the most important things you can do to curb/mitigate rust.  Specifically, being in an attached or heated garage that stays above freezing, or at least prevents nightly condensation.

Couple of personal data points...

I had a 2001 Suburban, bought used in 2005.  Spent its entire life in Connecticut and Michigan.  Garaged full time once we moved to Michigan in 2006.  When I sold it to a friend in 2013, it had just the beginnings of rust in the lower doors and quarter panels.  Friend kept it parked outside, and within a year it's a rust bucket.  As in holes in the body work.

The replacement vehicle, a 2008 Suburban 2500 that's spent its entire life in Indiana and Michigan, has a surprisingly small amount of rust on it after 11 years and 190k miles.  Sure, there's surface rust on most of the undercarriage, but it's just surface rust, not structurally-weakening rust.  And I see no signs of any rust on any body panels.  No bubbling like I started to get in my 2001.  It's driven at most 3-4 days a month, and the rest of its time is spent sitting in a nice warm, attached garage, which never goes below 40°, even during the coldest Michigan winter nights.

Daughter's truck is a 2009 Sierra.  It's never been garaged.  Bought it used in 2015, a Canadian truck.  Had the bed off for some body work, and I was surprised how much rust/rot there was on the frame and rear undercarriage.  Tried to sandblast/clean/coat/paint it the best we could, but I don't think it's going to go well.  Also replaced the tailgate and rear bumper because they were starting to bubble/rust.

Even when it's not winter time and being exposed to salt, vehicles kept outside usually see a nice layer of dew/condensation just about every day.  IMHO, that keeps the rust going strong eating away at the vehicle.

Usually around 15 yrs for pickups.

I buy a used vehicle from the south every 5-7 years.

My current work truck is going on 5 years and needs to be replaced, the paint is gone from the frame now and the box is starting to rust.

Ive just accepted you dont get much life out of them here.

You never see a 20+ year old daily driver around here though except as a poor person's car. A few people have older cars that they only drive non-salt season, and use a beater for winter.

They just don't hold up to daily use through the winter unless you can wash them every day.

Go south and you can see trucks from the 80s all over the place with faded paint, cracked dashboards, and perfectly fine frames and panels.

In 2000 I was at a low point, underemployed and my Ford died, so my wife convinced me to buy a Toyota Echo, the least expensive model. Five years ago, I sold it to one of my employees for a dollar. She is still driving it every day, even though the last 3 years her mechanic thinks it wight not pass the annual inspection because of rust.

NY sucks salt.

Correct, they aren't shy with it either. Last week it snowed an inch or two, they dumped it on the roads, everywhere, the sun melted that dusting off in just a couple hours.

Stupid cheap salt from the mines.

I went east two weeks ago and the roads were all sanded, made a mess, but probably better than salt spraying your truck all winter.

Fluid film, every fall.

The salt gets to every car.  Most people lease cars or buy new ones every 3-5 years.  You do see older cars with rusted through fenders, quarter panels rusted, rusted wheels, etc.

Many years ago, I bought a new Lincoln Mark LT pickup.  I kept in the garage, parked in a garage at work and washed the undercarriage 5-6 times every winter.  After 10 years, everything on the truck had at least some rust on it.  The tailgate rusted through, all four chromed wheels were mostly rust, and the spare tire and rim rusted through and fell off of the truck.  The hood, fenders and roof were rusting under the paint, causing the paint to bubble up.  The worst spot was around the upper brake light on the cab.  The edges rusted through and I had leaks into the cab.

So, it doesn’t matter how well you take care of your vehicle up here in the Northeast, the salt will eventually eat your vehicle.  The alternative is no salt, which would make the roads impassable for 3-4 months per year.

Wow, enough with the details!

You build an aluminum truck (F150). My 2011 is already showing rust on the cab corner. I may trade up to an aluminum body soon. When you used to build cars primarily in the midwest, you make sure they don't last. It's by design.

Lived in the North for 40yrs. It all depends on how you keep up with washing the vehicle IMHO.
Some people never wash their cars in winter and if their area uses salt, the crud eats the vehicle alive.
Also there are those that have winter cars that look like a shitty rust bucket and a summer car that is nice.

Big difference between "corrosion" and rot. Corrosion will make the paint peel but at least you don't have a huge jagged hole left behind after 6 years.

Here they use cheese brine which is worse on your car than regular salt because it has other corrosive chemicals in it like magnesium chloride. I use my Subaru for a winter car. Japanese cars have better paint and also use more plastic on the lower fascia and wheel wells to prevent where rust starts the soonest. Pickups are the worst because the way they are constructed leaves pinch weld areas that are untreated where most of the salt sprays. The wheel wells and cab corners are the first to go.

That's because they use shitty paint and processes. Every airplane for many decades has an aluminum fuselage. Their paint lasts quite well and they go a hell of a lot faster than a car.

It is all on owner up keep. Some stuff will be 5 years old and a rusty bucket. Other times they can still be clean at 10 years.

Google fluid film. You just spray it on.

Aluminum certainly does oxidize and rot with salt.

Use the right aluminum and it holds up pretty damn well.

Bottom of my 2006 cobalt during a exhaust repair
It died this weekend.