Cig,

Do you keep your bike covered in a tarp while outside or just under a canopy? I noticed a huge difference in my Walmart bikes with rust when I started keeping them in the barn, rather than outside under a car port. The dew that comes in at night and leaves in the morning means basically your bike is getting wet 12 hours a day. Now that I keep my bikes in the barn, rust is no longer an issue. The rust on the nuts on your bike is probably cosmetic and easily replaceable for a few cents a nut.

And like you, I grease my chain about once a week and I've never had a Walmart bike have a chain failure...

My next Walmart bike will the Schwinn Varsity road bike.