Unbelievable Waste: Mazda Destroys 4,703 New Cars Worth $100 Million

BoingBoing has an incredible video of nearly 5,000 brand new, straight from the factory Mazdas being flattened at a junkyard. The total value of these cars was $100 million. The Wall Street Journal has it:

It all started about two years ago, when a ship carrying 4,703 shiny new Mazdas nearly sank in the Pacific. The freighter, the Cougar Ace, spent weeks bobbing on the high seas, listing at a severe 60-degree angle, before finally being righted.

The mishap created a dilemma: What to do with the cars? They 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? Was the Cougar Ace now full of lemons?

Crazy – couldn’t they just have had mechanics test the cars to see if damage really was done? Or, sell them at a buy-at-your-own-risk discount? Hopefully the metal will at least be reused, because this seems like a huge amount of extremely unnecessary trash.

Link [Wall Street Journal] via [BoingBoing]