How and why Mazda destroyed $100 million worth of cars

[NetfreakBombay]

A ship was carrying 4703 brand new Mazda cars from Japan. It almost sank. Ship spent weeks bobbing on the high seas, listing at a severe 60-degree angle, before finally being righted.

That made all cars a suspect in terms of quality. And Mazda decided its better to destroy cars (and claim insurance) then taking risk of selling lemons.

This news story talks about why it chose to destroy cars and unique problems that creep up. And why can't it sell cars to stunt studios etc.

Source :

A Crushing Issue: How to Destroy Brand-New Cars - WSJ.com

Includes cool video of cars being junked.

[Nitin]

4703 CARS!! Mama miaa!!! All scrap metal now.
Imagine a spanking new car being shredded to bits. But a fair move on Mazda's part,else they'd have a chance of spoiling their excellent reputation.

[n_aditya]

Sad to see so many new cars destroyed. Good to see them covered by insurance. Best thing is the spirit of the company which decided to protect its reputation and not sell the cars. Hope this inspires other car makers to follow suit.

[CorsaLove]

Brand Reputation!! Good thing done by Mazda instead of getting 4700+ cursing customers.

[flyingspur]

Holy moly. Now we know what happened to all the Lauras before they were sold in India !!

[vnabhi]

Madre mia ! At least they could have sold one to me at 10% value. Boo hoo

[gods-envy]

i think that was a good move by Mazda
destroy the cars instead of getting a bad name for themselves.

[NetfreakBombay]

For all we know, it could be a mean business move... Insurance might be paying more then others for each car

[1100D]

Vet sad, but the right thing to do. If you see the picture of the freighter listed, you'll probably agree that, it was never sure what fate the cars would have in the long run. Rather than unleashing potential deattraps on customers willing to get them for a pittance.

But I wonder what Ford would have done, had this happened 2 years back, and the cars in question were Aston Martins.

[snaronikar]

Certainly a very good move. Imagine if these cars would have been sold and one after another meets with accidents. The company would have fought more legal battles and lost more money in settling cases rather than $100mn right now.

[VIPER_SRT]

Get this! In Jan this year a ship contaning morea than 400 BMW's including M3's were damaged/destroyed.

E92 BMW M3s, 1-Series and others destroyed in tipped cargo ship

My BMW dealer had almost 10 cars ordered in that shipment including 2 M3's.

[Nitin]

Originally Posted by VIPER_SRT

Get this! In Jan this year a ship contaning morea than 400 BMW's including M3's were damaged/destroyed.

E92 BMW M3s, 1-Series and others destroyed in tipped cargo ship

My BMW dealer had almost 10 cars ordered in that shipment including 2 M3's.

I could handle the Mazdas. But the M3???
Ouch!! that hurt even more..

[NetfreakBombay]

The cars that weren’t totaled will be repaired at the BMW Elizabeth Receiving facility and will be sold as new.

Hope they told customers about this repair.

[SirAlec]

they could have exported all of them to india.
where aftersale service is just not excercised properly, forget warranty.

[Xehaust]

Am happy with their move, but why could not they sell the cars as stunt cars or something?