By John Coyle

Editor

In July of 2006, the cargo ship Cougar Ace capsized in the North Pacific. At the time, she was carrying over 4700 Mazdas bound for the US, and it took weeks to get the ship righted and offload the cargo. While the trickiest part of the ordeal was over, Mazda brass still had a difficult decision to make: Just what should happen to the cars? Citing legal issues—no one really knew how the vehicles had weathered the ordeal—Mazda opted for destruction, and created a disassembly line in Portland, Oregon to render the condemned cars into scrap metal. For gearheads, this idea might be a little painful—how many RWD Miatas will never get to spin their tires?—but in a morbid way, it's kind of fascinating. The Wall Street Journal just published a cool piece on the process, and the video below sums it up. For an awesome article about the efforts to save the Cougar Ace—and the harrowing accident itself—make sure check out this article from Wired.

Comments

Theon
May 2, 2008 5:53:17 PM

GOD WILL JUDGE THEM ACCORDINGLY.

Jon
May 2, 2008 2:19:21 PM

Well you see.. thats why this world is going to end very soon cause we cant seem to salvage anything anymore and just waist as much of the earth as we possibly can... besides mazdas reputation would go way the hell up if they manage to sell a bunch of their screwed up cars to us for cheaper... as long as we know what we are buying... anyone anywhere would be fine with it!

95blckfirebird
May 2, 2008 12:54:11 PM

so...

but yea they should have sold them to movies that needed cars to crash or just gave them away for any other good reason....jackasses

goldsS2000
May 1, 2008 9:39:33 PM

this guy would have been more than glad ta take a speed6 off their hands

Austin
May 1, 2008 7:13:40 PM

They could have at least given them to fire departments for extraction training. The cars would eventually get destroyed anyway and they would do some good, but overall it was a good idea to crush them. The cars would most likely have problems later on.

Charles Mansons love child
May 1, 2008 6:10:46 PM

Mazda, It just feels right........to DESTROY them!

Brandon
May 1, 2008 6:03:29 PM

yo , Mazda definetly came out on top, i'm sure insurence gave a huge payout and they got the scrap for all the vehicles- non running vehicles in scrap yards go for like $200-400 X 4700. and they took the tires n wheels off so add a little more on that yet.

Zooty
May 1, 2008 5:10:43 PM

haha, if your that worried about miatas you might want to check your sexual preference..

May 1, 2008 3:57:07 PM

Mazda could probably get more money on scrap or reusing the parts from the cars than they could for selling them. Its nothing more than a smart finacial move for mazda.

Marcus
May 1, 2008 3:53:16 PM

They should have had a mass giveaway. The first 4700 people get a car.

7urtle
May 1, 2008 3:00:24 PM

they should of donated them to automive schools and programs.

sirus
May 1, 2008 12:00:43 PM

that makes sense. the cars looked undamaged but they could have beem damaged in a small way which could have caused some major problems in the future for those cars. i would have done the same thing

Ryan
May 1, 2008 11:37:47 AM

That's fucked up

Ryan
May 1, 2008 11:37:18 AM

That's fucked up

Daniel
May 1, 2008 11:24:39 AM

C'ant we save tire, wheel, wiper, glass ???

retroman
May 1, 2008 10:17:12 AM

Not every day does a no milage car go to the crusher. Sad indeed...

NEXTWHIP.COM
May 1, 2008 8:48:39 AM

Crooked used car dealers everywhere are in tears. They could have sold these cars claiming slight water damage and make a killing.

Vincenzo
May 1, 2008 8:35:59 AM

i wouldn't mind buying one of those for half the retail price or something like that but I guess Mazda made the right decision and destroying them all but still sad to see a brand new $20,000-$40,000 car gone like that.

danny
May 1, 2008 8:02:14 AM

im crying right now

May 1, 2008 7:48:44 AM

Shoot, wish they could have dropped me off a Mazdaspeed 3 before destroying them all!

rudy v
May 1, 2008 1:40:12 AM

damn, very good qc's up at mazda, quality controls must be rigiurus

shiface
Apr 30, 2008 9:37:40 PM

damn...they shoulda just donated them to the movie producers or w/e intead of crushing em!!

Daniel
Apr 30, 2008 1:53:48 AM

It is a shame that so many (potentially) perfectly good cars were destroyed, the real travesty is the way it was done: every part was destroyed for economic reasons! Sure the airbags are so sensitive the they may have been effected by the high salt content in the air, but there are many components that could have been utilised in someway rather than destroyed. For example: drilling holes in every (nearly unrecycleable) tyre to ensure "total write off" status is insane.

Gary Faules
Apr 29, 2008 6:46:49 PM

OK, so I will probably date myself with this one but destroying large numbers of cars is nothing new. However the one that stands out in my mind was the very first year Honda shipped cars to the U.S.. The DOT found out that exhaust fumes could seep into the car via the defroster. Yes, they were air cooled engines and used a heat/defroster system that worked on the same principle as the old VW bugs. Even though the part required for the recall would have cost less than $20 Honda knew the labor and time needed to repair everyone of them would not allow them to sell on the scheduled date so they had every single one of them destroyed. It is important to know that when a manufacture destroys the whole lot of cars they can write it off as a loss but ONLY IF EVERY SINGLE PART IS DESTROYED. This means they can't sell the tires, engines, transmission or nothing. I remember seeing photos of Hondas stacked right on top of each other on flatbed trucks to be taken and destroyed. They were so small (nickname Cracker Jack Boxes) that they could stack them sideways on flatbed trucks.

Jim
Apr 29, 2008 1:46:03 PM

Though it is a shame that so many Mazdas had to be crushed (I do have a soft spot for them) I think it was the most responsible thing for the company to do. I bet if they had ended up selling them or donating them, someone would have said "Oh, it's probably Ford just trying to make more money, who cares who gets hurt." However, Mazda and FO-Mo-Co took the hit, and they should be commended for that.