They also left a bunch of gas just in case in the future we used something different. How did they think the gas would last 50 years??
I had seen this story and it was definitely a case of poor storage location. The whole idea was very cool,but we all know what happens when it is not high and dry. I have had simililiar problems just trying to keep some old engine block or part from deteriorating in a dry building,so a whole car would be a nightmare under those conditions. It would have held up better than that at the bottom of a lake without all the extra oxygen to help it rust.
A funeral director must have been in charge...even in 1957, we knew better than to bury it like a casket.