I almost posted a similar story in this thread earlier today. This reminds me of my Grandfather's 1973 Cadillac, Coupe DeVille, affectionately known as "Green Acres". Now that I have time, here goes.

For the past 25 years, Grandpa never drove further than a few miles from his house, and eventually quit driving on the freeway altogether. I've watched from behind his car when he started it and seen water spray out of his exhaust pipe as soon as soon as it started. I figure the water had to be puddling in his muffler between trips, to do that. When his first muffler wore out, he took the car to Midas for a new one.

Every 2 years or so they installed another one for him, for free. Actually, come to think about it they eventually replaced every part in the system, except the manifold, so they probably ended up giving him several free resonators as well. We figure they lost a few bucks betting on him. He drove till he was 97. Once he found a very good independent garage, he wouldn't let anyone else work on his car, so all Midas got to do was replace the Muffler. Grandpa would have been happy to let his mechanic replace the muffler, but the mechanic told him to keep taking it to Midas.

This was in So. California, and grandpa never drove in the rain, so they could only be rusting from the inside out.

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1979 240D, 4spd manual, Power Sunroof, manual windows, 147k miles, Pastel gray/Black MB Tex.
1991 300D 2.5 - Smokes like it's on Crack!