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September 24, 2008

Pics of the Cougar Ace’s Doomed Mazdas

By John Coyle

Editor

Most enthusiasts are aware of the plight of the Cougar Ace, the container ship which listed before its cargo of 4700 brand-new Mazdas was unloaded. After months of planning—and the death of one of the engineers involved—the boat was eventually rescued, but by then, the fate of the cars was sealed. To insulate itself from the liability nightmare these zero-miles machines presented, the Mazda brass sentenced them all to the crusher. Car and Driver has the best shots we’ve seen of the disassembly line constructed to render them into scrap, so if you’ve ever wondered what a R-rated version of Cars would look like, head over and check them out.

Comments

Mary
Jan 18, 2009 at 7:04 pm

This is a great example of the enormous waste man leaves due to stupidity. It made me very angry to see all those cars with brand new tires and what ever ealse that could have been salvaged. God forbid if they should do that, it’s much easier to crush them. OXY MORANS. Rest assured I willl never ever buy a mazda.

blair
Oct 21, 2008 at 12:47 am

mazda’s are crap

duane
Sep 27, 2008 at 4:18 am

now that was just painful to look at. i would have taken one and fixed it. jackasses.

jdogg
Sep 27, 2008 at 2:34 am

this makes me very mad
i would have become a long term and loyal mazda customer if they had given me just one of those as is cars
i do SCCA racing and i couldve used a mx5 or rx8

Anonymous
Sep 27, 2008 at 1:14 am

y does it look like the rims are faded our on the mazda

WTF
Sep 26, 2008 at 10:10 pm

OMG THATS SUCH A SAD THING TO SEE I DONT LIKE MAZDAS ONLY HTE RX’S BUT I GUESS ITS GOING TO BE RECYCLED WHICH IS GOOD AND THEY PROBABLY HAD INSURANCE ON THE SHIPPING SO MAZDA WONT LOOSE MUCH BUT STILL COULDA GIVEN ME ON “AS IS” LOL

Corey
Sep 26, 2008 at 1:10 pm

The ship has to dump water out, while taking new water in when crossing international waters. Stupid if you ask me. In this situation the boat dumped its water and didn’t take water in at the same time, reports don’t say if mechnical or human error. So with that the cars where suspended on its side (close to a month), with unknown problems done to them. Its a crying shame, but Mazda had to do what they had to do. I would have signed a waiver to get one. And I hate to say “Benjo,” 7’s are not made anymore.

Corey
Sep 26, 2008 at 1:09 pm

The ship has to dump water out, while taking new water in when crossing international waters. Stupid if you ask me. In this situation the boat dumped its water and didn’t take water in at the same time, reports don’t say if mechnical or human error. So with that the cars where suspended on its side (close to a month), with unknown problems done to them. Its a crying shame, but Mazda had to do what they had to do. I would have signed a waiver to get one. And I hate to say “Benjo,” 7’s are not made anymore.

Corey
Sep 26, 2008 at 1:08 pm

The ship has to dump water out, while taking new water in when crossing international waters. Stupid if you ask me. In this situation the boat dumped its water and didn’t take water in at the same time, reports don’t say if mechnical or human error. So with that the cars where suspended on its side (close to a month), with unknown problems done to them. Its a crying shame, but Mazda had to do what they had to do. I would have signed a waiver to get one. And I hate to say “Benjo,” 7’s are not made anymore.

sulo surffer
Sep 26, 2008 at 12:29 pm

all mazdas should be crushed, really ugly little cars, like
every japanese wonders, lol. Who cares what is fuel consumption, if you love cars ! God bless america.

Dunkel Mann
Sep 26, 2008 at 7:40 am

It doesn’t affect me in any way really, but having an RX-8 project car handed to me for free would be nice so i could make it less womanly-looking. it would be a long project…

JR
Sep 26, 2008 at 4:51 am

They were all insured.. i dont get why no one sees that they didn’t lose any money in the deal.

Anonymous
Sep 26, 2008 at 4:43 am

Mazda very easy could have used these cars for parts cars but no, they had to crush every single one of them.

Anonymous
Sep 26, 2008 at 1:02 am

i don’t even like imports, but i have to admit, to see two Rx-8’s being treated like scrap metal.. really made me cringe, in all honesty it was a good choice to off them for liability purposes, but it just sucks seeing that happen, and yea, i wouldn’t bitch- but could they at least have given me one? i like project cars.

retroman
Sep 26, 2008 at 12:25 am

Wasn’t there a similiar blog on this site a several months back?

Benjo
Sep 25, 2008 at 10:34 pm

ASSHOLES!!!
coulda saved me an rx-8 or 2
lol
thats a real shame for all the mazda rx-8, 6’s, and 7’s!!
3’s suck balls though..ohh and miata’s too :P

Benjo
Sep 25, 2008 at 10:34 pm

ASSHOLES!!!
coulda saved me an rx-8 or 2
lol
thats a real shame for all the mazda rx-8, 6’s, and 7’s!!
3’s suck balls though..ohh and miata’s too :P

bigtom
Sep 25, 2008 at 9:00 pm

my wife almost cried… shes wanted a mx5 / miata forever.

lil j0k3r
Sep 25, 2008 at 8:40 pm

wow that iz really messed up but honestly how the hell does a boat like that just tip ?. idunno it was smart ov mazda to do wut they did but they could have done somthing so that the parts and possiblely some of the cars could be sold and mazda not held liable for the defects if the buyer know the history. and with economy lookin how it is good luck tryna get new mazda up and out soon. thoze rx-8z are soooo nice itz a shame

Turbo_d225cimike
Sep 25, 2008 at 8:15 pm

I can’t imagine having to operate that machine crushing those 2 rx-8’s it would be like killing a nun. You just can’t do it.

GMS
Sep 25, 2008 at 8:03 pm

Comon now…cars in salt water. They are f-ked no matter what. Everything electrical is ruined, interiors soaked, and everything metal is gonna rust that much quicker. Madza was right in crushing those cars.

But screw it…they were only madzas! Crush em all I say.

If I wanted an oil burner, I’d buy a DIESEL!

Mike
Sep 25, 2008 at 3:18 pm

I know it’s difficult for people to see why they would need to crush these cars. But it’s a question of ethics and unknowns. Mazda would have saved and obviously made a lot more money by selling and/or parting out these cars. The problem with that is liability. Each of these cars goes through rigorous testing before shipping out to make sure everything is ideal for the consumer. However, due to the unknowns of the vehicles current operating condition, the potential backlash from something like this isn’t worth the profit made. I think Mazda made a very wise, although difficult decision in doing this! But still, it is very sad to see two RX-8’s with their beautifully crafted Wankel Rotary engines being crushed.

Vince
Sep 25, 2008 at 2:40 pm

This hurts alot to see such amazing cars crushed! If you go check out the photos they go 2 RX-8’s ready for crushing that made my stomach turn inside out, so sad to see this.

JR
Sep 25, 2008 at 2:36 pm

There is no reason for them to even try to sell them. They have the shipping process all insured and since they probably got a big fat check for the cost of all those cars they probably have to crush them. If they try to resale them they will not be able to collect the full price insurance check on each car.

Think about it… Get full price for each car from the insurance company, or maybe sell the parts of them which would be a huge finical loss for them.

And for the record.. they are thinking “green” all of those cars that are getting shredded will be recycled into new cars.

What they are doing is probably the best thing they could do.

Franxou
Sep 25, 2008 at 1:58 pm

It is not the first time, it happened too last year. It is sad that the fact that they want to keep making this “japanese” quality is costing them a shipload of cars from time to time.

XtremeZAO
Sep 25, 2008 at 1:11 pm

I thought this happened already. I remember reading an article on cardomain like a couple months ago. Dont tell me this happened again?

gary
Sep 25, 2008 at 12:45 pm

doesnt look like anything wrong with it stupid ppl what a waste think green

corey
Sep 25, 2008 at 11:09 am

This is retarded
How many thing’s are still perfectly good on all of thease car’s
interior ,seats,rims, door’s ect could be sold for a very cheap price but big corperate giant’s figure. If somone is going out to buy a car there either gona buy it at full price or discounted price .

7urtle
Sep 25, 2008 at 5:56 am

could of sold it to me as is

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