Sure, salty air can be very bad for everything that corrodes. When we lived in Honolulu, it was on the slopes of Diamond Head and the prevailing wind was off the ocean bringing tiny droplets of salt spray. The aluminum window screens were crumbling with corrosion. If you lived near the ocean, I'd expect that older cars would suffer greatly. Newer cars have much better rust proofing. My 940 Volvo had lived on the island for a number of years before I bought her and I'm glad she was zinc plated. There was even a ding to the rocker panel that had lost paint, but there was no rust. However, I did have rust issues with one of the window frames in the door and the area under the hinges for the rear hatch rusted through causing a rain leak after 100K miles in my care. She also had an intermittent issue with the knock sensor not being seen, and then an intermittent no start problem that I realized was due to corrosion at the wiring harness connections in the ECU, probably due to years of living in Hawaii.
Kihei is on the dry side of the island, and the breeze mostly goes out to sea, meaning it's dusty, but not salty. Living up country on Haleakala's slopes in Haiku or Kula means you are above the salty air, though it does rain more, so there's that. Almost no one has garage so most cars get some exposure.
At one time I was looking for a BMW donor for various reasons and I could have gotten an early 3 series for free, but it was so rusty after sitting in the yard for years that when I opened the door, there was a pile of rust in a little cone sitting on the threshold. I passed. It was very bad. The owner eventually had to pay to have it towed away.