A crushing issue: How to destroy brand-new cars

[nittanyalum]

I read this story in the WSJ today, it was really impressive. I give Mazda credit for doing the right thing and even though the cars were lost and it took a long time to get all the processes in place to dispose of them properly, it sounds like it was done responsibly and since they did it that way their insurance did cover the cost to destroy them all.

[jon1856]

High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas: The Race to Save the Cougar Ace

Latitude 48° 14 North. Longitude 174° 26 West.
Almost midnight on the North Pacific, about 230 miles south of Alaska's Aleutian Islands. A heavy fog blankets the sea. There's nothing but the wind spinning eddies through the mist.
Out of the darkness, a rumble grows. The water begins to vibrate. Suddenly, the prow of a massive ship splits the fog. Its steel hull rises seven stories above the water and stretches two football fields back into the night. A 15,683-horsepower engine roars through the holds, pushing 55,328 tons of steel. Crisp white capital letters — COUGAR ACE — spell the ship's name above the ocean froth. A deep-sea car transport, its 14 decks are packed with 4,703 new Mazdas bound for North America. Estimated cargo value: $103 million.
http://www.wired.com/science/discove...urrentPage=all

[Coramoor]

Originally Posted by nittanyalum

I read this story in the WSJ today, it was really impressive. I give Mazda credit for doing the right thing and even though the cars were lost and it took a long time to get all the processes in place to dispose of them properly, it sounds like it was done responsibly and since they did it that way their insurance did cover the cost to destroy them all.

Did they do the right thing?

I tend to disagree. These cars could have been used for a purpose to benefit lots of people, yet due to the pervasive lawsuit culture it is cheaper and easier to just destroy them.

[jon1856]

Originally Posted by Coramoor

Did they do the right thing?

I tend to disagree. These cars could have been used for a purpose to benefit lots of people, yet due to the pervasive lawsuit culture it is cheaper and easier to just destroy them.

And after reading both stories, just what purpose could these cars have been used to benefit made kind???

Seems as if recycling them was a pretty good way of doing so. Just MVHO.