Mazda Sends 4,703 New Cars to the Scrap Heap
by Tim Stevens, posted Apr 30th 2008 at 5:39PM
Two summers ago, a cargo freighter, the Cougar Ace, was en-route to Vancouver, British Columbia. Its cargo was a fleet of cars from Japan, mostly from Mazda, which had 4,703 autos on-board destined for Canadian and American dealerships. While exchanging ballast water in the open ocean, the cargo ship tilted badly to the side and had to be abandoned. It was later up-righted and the cars saved (most weren't even wet), but despite this save, Mazda has decided to scrap every last one of the shiny, new autos.
Mazda decided it couldn't determine what could have gone wrong with the autos after being held at an angle for so long, and with the potential future lawsuits it foresaw should any of these cars ever fail, the auto manufacturer went the conservative (though extremely wasteful) route of sending them to the dump.
The tale of the Cougar Ace was told in 'Wired' magazine, including the heroic rescue of the ship by a crew of modern-day (legal) pirates who boarded and righted the ship. The pirates lost one of their team in the process, Marty Johnson, who slipped down the heavily inclined ship and suffered a fatal head injury. The story is a fascinating read and, apparently, is set to become a movie in the not too distant future. [Source: The Wall Street Journal, via BoingBoing]
Mazda decided it couldn't determine what could have gone wrong with the autos after being held at an angle for so long, and with the potential future lawsuits it foresaw should any of these cars ever fail, the auto manufacturer went the conservative (though extremely wasteful) route of sending them to the dump.
The tale of the Cougar Ace was told in 'Wired' magazine, including the heroic rescue of the ship by a crew of modern-day (legal) pirates who boarded and righted the ship. The pirates lost one of their team in the process, Marty Johnson, who slipped down the heavily inclined ship and suffered a fatal head injury. The story is a fascinating read and, apparently, is set to become a movie in the not too distant future. [Source: The Wall Street Journal, via BoingBoing]
