As Australia’s most popular fully imported brand, each and every Mazda spends some time on the high seas. However it isn’t all smooth sailing, with 4,703 brand new Mazda’s having to be destroyed after their freighter capsized en route to the US.
The American public put their hands up to use them in everything from drifting to training simulations, but to prevent them from winding up in the mainstream market the decision was made to destroy each and every one.
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*********Primo***********
Oh sorry i had to do that, just once.
I think the wall street journal needs a new reporter.
As if they couldnt use some of the parts (interior?)
Apparently there’s also one of the 400 Subaru 22-B 2 Door WRX STi at the bottom of Fuji Harbour in Japan if anyone is interested
And a couple of hundred Mercs BMWs Audis and Prsches in the middle of the atlantic – still in their boxes
hmmm… if only those boxes were waterproof. and i could dive to the bottom of the atlantic.
crouchy,
thats what i thought too.
maybe even use the wheels?
i do see their point in having to destroy them though.
it would probably cost them more to send someone to salvage the wheels and freight them back than simply opening a fresh box of wheels that arrive through the automatic ordering system.
one thing in manufacturing that is common, is that it slows the operations down and complicates the process once you start inserting bits and pieces into standard order formats
I seem to recall a similar incident involving Daihatsu cars bound for Australia 10 or so years ago. In that case the cars were affected by salt water while sitting on the docks in japan when a typhoon hit. The vehicles in that case made it too Australia and were donated to a number of TAFE schools for training mechanics. Shame they didnt do the same. But its the insurance company footing the bill here, not mazda.
Wheelnut, I think you may mean the 2-door STi models (normal ones with 2 doors) – not the 22B’s.
After payment of the claim, the cars belong to the insurance company, not Mazda.
If the Insurance Company tried to sell them, Mazda would justifiably object, as they would not have any warranty and could all rust apart and ruin Mazda’s image.
If I were Mazda, I’d also take the insurance money and watch them being crushed, rather than put potentially lethal cars into the US system – just imagine the litigation the Yanks would start if someone was killed in one of these cars due to, say, a rusted tie rod end breaking.
I would like to see the guys face that took the call telling mazda that the freighter had capsized
this pisses me off, i cant even afford a car and they do this??
Seems a crying shame, but I see their point especially in the light of stupid American litigation. You can imaging some thicko redneck driving his rusty reclaim Mazda has an accident then take a lawsuit out against Mazda.
I also find it annoying! Although the thing that really annoys me atm is the price of cars in Australia, $10k more then the U.S on avg yet we have the same avg income… puts me off wanting to buy some cars when your paying for eg $45k for a $30k WRX.
They won’t be zoom zooming
u should complain to your beloved Toyota TP as they are setting the price as market leader.
Noooooooooo… Such a waste! They can use it as spare parts
Are your sure those salt affected Daihatsu’s werent sold?
It sure would explain alot… hehe.
WTF TP – the article is about scrapped cars not bloody pricing structutres. Get real man.
What a load of shit.
They could have sold them just like Toyota did back in about 99-2000, when a boat was hit on the way over here.
The cars were all sold with water damage and panel damage at a reduced price.All customers where awear of this and all warrantys on corrosion were void.
And Reckless1,about the tie rod ends breaking, think before you speak. For example,There are 1000’s of 4wd sold in Australia and lots of these cars go into salt water, manufactures will still warrant these, by the time they break the car would have been out of warranty for years.
sorry, I commented before I saw the video, wait… so u mean Car Advice is running OLD “new”s???
JW, apparently it’s OLD Wall Street Journal news, AT LEAST! I wonder if it’s copy right protected. LOL…