Mazda motors has answered a question no automaker ever wants to face: how do you efficiently destroy almost 5,000 new cars you didn't make a penny on? Ouch.
The Wall Street Journal explains: "It all started about two years ago, when a ship carrying 4,703 shiny new Mazdas nearly sank in the Pacific." Though the cars onboard "hey had remained safely strapped down throughout the ordeal -- but no one knew for sure what damage, if any, might be caused by dangling cars at such a steep angle for so long. Might corrosive fluids seep into chambers where they don't belong?" Might Mazda be at risk of selling 4,703 brand new lemons? If they didn't want to take that risk, how would they get rid of the cars? "Hundreds of people called about buying cheap Mazdas. Schools wanted them for auto-shop courses. Hollywood asked about using them for stunts." But Mazda feared lawsuits and a huge dent in its reputation if the cars should reach market, so they decided to destroy them all.
Autoblog picks up the story. "The process of destroying 4703 vehicles, however, proved to be quite a challenge. Airbags had to be triggered, wheels sliced and tires purposely punctured. For the airbag process alone, it would have taken half an hour for each car, so Mazda developed a device to inflate them all at once on each car, saving countless hours of work. The result is a seemingly counter-intuitive disassembly line turns the nearly 5000 new cars into metal shards."
AutoWeek says, "Mazda declined to put a price tag on the demolition, which was covered by insurance. The company says all its insurance claims have been settled."
Kicking Tires, however, says "All told…an estimated $100 million worth of automobiles [will be] done in because they spent a few weeks angled incorrectly."
See what you can still buy from Mazda at U.S. News' car rankings and reviews.
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