Thousands of new Mazdas destroyed

[JRoberts]

I saw this on the news this morning. Mazda chose to disassemble, crush and destroy these cars rather than take the risk that they might reach the public.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1209...1291.html?fark

[hamrmech]

Re: Thousands of new Mazdas destroyed

i hate to see waste like that. in the name of not getting sued.. cant believe it. well, i can i suppose. i suppose its just as bad this way as if the ship had sunk..the cars would be just as destroyed either way. personally, id buy a car with ZERO air bags. i dont believe in them. i dont give a rats @ss who you are, what study youve done or how many crash tests have been done with and without them. seatbelts and paying attention are 100x better then having airbags. airbags are for driving on..

its a shame a guy couldnt sign on the dotted line and drive away in a mazda from that ship. i bet nearly every last one of em wouldve gone 200,000 miles with almost no trouble. hell, the sombitches would probably still run if you put em under water for a while..i know my wife ran her 323 without oil once.. i changed the leaky seal, put a new timing belt on it, and it went another 100k. clattered a bit..

[Gary 351C]

Re: Thousands of new Mazdas destroyed

That kind of stuff goes on all the time, not just with cars but everything. Years ago I worked for a large Japanese electronics company and got to watch two guys on forklifts completly destroy a brand new $12,000 copy machine because it had a very slight scrape from being shipped. After they had their way with it, it was dropped into the trash compactor and crushed. I asked why they didn't just donate it to a school or something, "Too much trouble" they said.

[SpiderGearsMan]

Re: Thousands of new Mazdas destroyed

too bad they didn't do that with engine popping RX8
today was a good day

[Freiburger]

Re: Thousands of new Mazdas destroyed

I'd like to see the environmental impact of manufacturing and destroying those cars counted against their CAFE standards.

[HoosierGTA]

Re: Thousands of new Mazdas destroyed

Seems that they could have been leased at a substancal discount (after signning a waver) and that you drive it for 4-5 yrs than it get crushed . Shoot they could have at least sold the aluminum wheels to people!

[Scott Liggett]

Re: Thousands of new Mazdas destroyed

This is essentially the same reason why they always crush test cars, press cars and the like. It's an easy way to avoid law suits and warranty claims.

But to be honest, does anyone here care whether a bunch of Mazdas get crushed or sunk or burned to the ground?

[HillbillySailor]

Re: Thousands of new Mazdas destroyed

But to be honest, does anyone here care whether a bunch of Mazdas get crushed or sunk or burned to the ground?

Yes, and for two reasons...

1. The amount of work and material that went into manking those cars was wasted. They could've had people sign a waiver and sold the cars, sold them all to junkyards, or whatever. They didn't even try to do anything with them.

2. Not everyone can afford a hot rod (or the gas for it). Mazda makes a good car. Like hamrmech said, the things probably would've been on the road for years with no problems.

[SpiderGearsMan]

Re: Thousands of new Mazdas destroyed

the RX8 was far from a good car

[DanStokes]

Re: Thousands of new Mazdas destroyed

I think it speaks well for Mazda that they didn't even want to take a chance at getting something out there with their name on it that might be tainted. Still, I agree that they could have done SOMETHING with them. If I understood the news story correctly, the materials will be recycled - which is not as good as wearing them out first.

When I worked at GMPG, there was a crew of at least a couple of guys who's full time job was scrapping stuff. They sledge-hammered engine blocks and trans cases, and even had a special bolt cutter that would cut a circle out of the side of tires - many of them new. They just didn't want to chance anything getting out there for which they could be liable. There was kind of a standing conspiracy to figure out how to sneak stuff out of there, but I never heard of anyone actually accomplishing much of that. GMPG Security was armed and willing to use it.

Dan

[Brad54]

Re: Thousands of new Mazdas destroyed

That's an OLD practice by auto manufacturers. In the early '80s my dad had to oversee the scrapping of an entire warehouse of AMC and Jeep stuff. Radios were smashed, tires punctured, dash parts pounded, power window lifts flattened, sheetmetal stomped on...here's a little known fact: you CAN wear out a 15-pound sledge hammer. Security was tight, too...dad walked into the biker bar across the street and said "If you guys keep everybody else out of there, you can take anything you want out of the dumpsters at night and take it to the scrap yard for scrap price." Kept those bikers in beer and weed for a long time, I'm sure.

I also heard a story from the '60s about a train car load of Chryslers. Something went wrong, and a bunch of the cars came shooting out of the top tier of the car in the rail yard. Chrysler scrapped the entire rail car load, not just the ones that fell off.

-Brad

[Fordplay0621]

Re: Thousands of new Mazdas destroyed

Imagine all the Mazda LSR Cars that could have been?

[Impalarod]

Re: Thousands of new Mazdas destroyed

I remember reading about this..what a waste to crush and shred everything.

[Schtauffer]

Re: Thousands of new Mazdas destroyed

The article mentions the stigma of the Katrina cars, and the same thing would have happened here. Had these cars been released into the public, they would have become known as "The Cougar Mazdas." After a class-action, that is.

I feel that Mazda made a good business decision. Yes, it is terribly wasteful. No, it is not irresponsible. They made the best decision they could have given the circumstances. Who is to blame? Sue-crazy, selfish, greedy consumers, and the lawyers who push people to sue.

Props to Mazda for at least trying to keep their hands clean. They do have a good product, bar the rotaries.

[HEMI]

Re: Thousands of new Mazdas destroyed

D.F.,I had the same thought.