What I wouldn't give to show up at Lemons with a new RX-8 or a Miata.

Hell, even a Mazdaspeed 6

They should have let us Jalops have them, even for a little while just to play with. I bet every Miata would have had a Renesis or Mazdaspeed turbo swap.

I would have driven a shipwrecked 3/5 no problem. Probably wouldn't have had any more issues than my twelve year old, 215,000 mile Protege...

I hope Mazda learned their lesson.
This is what happens when the young handsome deckhand gets spotted portside by a boatload of Professional Cougars!

Here's what to look for...

Why crush them? Why not make a Cougaracemazdahenge?

I can see why Mazda went this route- if the cars had found their way to the buying public, it would have set off a wave of asbestos-style lawsuits that would have ended only after the very last of this batch of cars got taken off the road 18-20 years in the future.

Light bulb burned out? - Lawsuit
Turn signal relay dead? - lawsuit
Brake pads worn? - lawsuit
Crack in cup holder? - lawsuit

etc. etc. People would have blamed each and every annoyance on the Cougar Ace, regardless of whether it really had anything to do with the incident or not- Mazda even admits that there might very well be nothing wrong with any of these cars, but they just can't afford to take that chance.

Its a shame they were so dismissive of all the requests they got though, most of them sounded quite reasonable. What would be the harm in letting some inner city tech school dissect one for education, or letting a movie studio wreck one for the cameras?

"In a related story, representatives for GM, Ford and Chrysler have been meeting with officials with the Cougar Ace company for possible future shipments abroad."

isn't this what releases of liability for? as long as the person knows what they're signing.

It's just too bad that after all the work the salvagers put into it (not to mention the life of their colleague), it turned out to be all for nothing. Now, that doesn't change the fact that they got PAID, but still.

Million Man Attorney Army? I knew Farrakhan had to be involved with this somehow.

there are kids in africa going to bed hungry and without mazdas.

Commodity prices are up.

What a waste man i would have killed for a speed 3 motor to put in our new 5.

Zoom Zoom

@NICKNICK: Actually, that's a very good point. Sure, our clapped-out legal system prevents these fully-functional-just-warrantyless cars from getting into the hands of low-income Americans that could really use them (instead of the rusted out death traps they can afford), but there are other countries where reliable $1000 cars could do a lot of good without legal repercussion.

Forshame Mazda. With your sponsorship of amature motorsports, these could have been a great starting point for a Mazda3 cup. Even to park them in the desert and let loyal owners (I have 3 of your cars damnit!) come and get awesome engine swap components for scrap prices.

Now I'll never have a 2.3l Protege5.

Thank you Messrs. Nader, Claybrook, Celino, and Barnes. You've ruined it for the rest of us.

You know what I would like? An MS3 drivetrain in a Mazda5. And they won't let me do it on the cheap.

 
@workingonyourinvoice:

Not for nothing. Not only did they did
save the ship itself, their heroic work
avoided an environmental catastrophe
by keeping the ship from breaking up
and dumping its 100,000+ gallons of
fuel into the ocean.

They could have sold them as Fords, nobody would have noticed anything wrong.

@workingonyourinvoice: ah, darn... comedian beat me to it. That's what happens when you have to pretend to work between reading posts here...

@sos10: ZING!

COTD?

I understand not giving/selling them to the public, but I don't understand the need for crushing them. Why couldn't they part them out? Why must they be reduced to rubble just to re-use them?

The body panels certainly were useful. I'd imagine that some sort of salvage title on all the cars and sticking them in a salvage yard would work too. This seems utterly wasteful to me. Not to mention, this appears to gaining some degree of negative publicity from the buying public.

Plastic and steel...
...but that video was more painful to watch than I expected.

I think that the guy pushing the button to pre-deploy the airbags should have been wearing an executioner's hood.

M/V Cougar Ace incident [en.wikipedia.org]

The legal reason for committing this crime against Zoomanity may make sense if you're an attorney, but I find this heartbreaking, nonetheless.

@sos10: Ha!

"So we took the opportunity to destroy every vehicle."

What a load. They get more if not full value from the insurance company than they can get by selling the cars, plain and simple. The mere fact that the even attempt to pass any other reason off to the public is insulting. Mazda would have been better off saying, Our insurance company is covering the entire loss at full value.

Of course, the legaleze PR shpeel was 100% bullshit. In the end, it was simply more cost-effective to take the insurance claim and write the loss off for tax purposes.

Shame they couldn't have at least parted them out. Those Miata engine and transmission could have been put to good use in Lotus Seven clones, the turbo four bangers swapped into earlier Mazda, the Rx-8 motors into Rx-7s, etc.

That could have just cut them in half, sent the fronts to junk yards out West and and the back halves to junk yards back East. I've seen this done before with flood cars here in Texas.

Reason for not allowing them to be salvaged - to prevent lawsuits against Cougar Ace/Mazda from future buyers who as noted, would blame them for anything that went wrong with their cars. Even having a release of liability doesn't mean they'll get to escape the court system.

Reason for not parting them out - to protect Mazda and aftermarket companies from declined sales due to a glut of cheap OEM parts ... not to mention the potential for lawsuit again if something was "defective".

Reason for Mazda not all that caring - they got their money already; it's in CA's hands at that poit.

wasn't there a class action lawsuit by explorer owners against ford on the grounds of excessive depreciation caused by bad press/reputation surrounding the firestone rollover debacle?

any chance that there would be Cougar Ace related depreciation that mazda (ford) doesn't want to hear about (again)?

Ugh.

What a waste.

Let's just say on average each cost $20,000.

20,000 X 4700 = $94,000,000

That's just insane!

It's just a ruse. Head down to any darkened alley near a Mazda dealership with a back containing $5000, and say "The mongoose howls at the blue moon." Then, touch your noise in a corresponding number to the car you want. It'll be in your driveway in two weeks.

If you listen carefully, you can hear those mazdas saying, "Yes, but why is the rum gone?"

A complete waste.
I agree, there should have been a Mazda Fail Boat Rally Cup---just think of the PR they could have gotten with that!

Too much trouble. Could you imagine the hell with having to deal with tracking 4700 serial numbers and validating that these cars did not have VINs swapped with another legitimate car. I say this was the smartest thing to do.

@sos10:Most reliable Ford ever-- the public would know SOMETHING was up.

I can't watch :(

I agree that this was the safest option for them, but wouldn't it be cool if they started up a Spec Mazda3 cup for race and rally?

I've been thinking about it, and they don't even need to give up ownership of the cars. Just prep the cars, provide the spares (which can be other C/A cars), and charge racers a certain per race/season fee to race in the series. Instant good karma, and a couple bucks in the pocket, too.

And since they retain ownership of the cars, there's no chance they'll get into the hands of the unsuspecting public.

That'd rock.

Wonder what happened to the 100 Isuzu vehicles also on board. Who wants to bet they're simply sitting on the lot at Isuzu dealers?

@xjs: Isuzu Dealers?

What a sad video. All it needed was Sally Struthers and people would have started sending relief money.

Tragic, but reality... I'm sure they were not allowed to do anything with the vehicles once the insurance company paid them. The insurance company are usually then the rightful owner of the property. Now, I'm sure in a situation like this the policy specifies something about what the insurance company is allowed or not allowed to do as well. It's very likely that they were no other legal options and or they would not get paid with the other options.

So, it's either get paid for the insurance company and crush the car's (which also probably added a substantial chunk to their net income).

Or

Get less money, have more liability, and way more complexity "doing the right thing".

Tragic, but reality...

What a waste.

Have a mazda Bullitt rally.
It would of course have to follow the Bullitt chase scene course and jumping is required. sInce the mazda is kind of a cousin of the mustang I think it would need a few mercedes as villain cars.

You know, the buyers of the cars could sign a liability waiver. Dumbasses.

They should have used them for crash testing, at least society would benifit and the cars would still be destroyed

Do you guys not have recycling laws over there?

I note that wheels were removed pre-crushing (discs and calipers were still present) but I assume the engines/ gearboxes and interiors are all stripped prior to crushing and recycled accordingly?

@2CVDJ: They crush them, then throw the whole thing in a giant shredder that cuts them up into tiny pieces. They then use various sorting techniquest to separate the different materials which are disposed of accordingly.

A surprisingly large amount of the entire car gets recycled in the end. With the price of scrap metal through the roof, it makes sense.

I live in Portland, and a buddy of mine wanted me to go with him to watch these getting crushed (you can see many of the cars in the parking lot from the St. Johns Bridge), but you can't close enough to actually see them...