Mazda Destroys Thousands of Cars From Ship Mishap

Mazda Motor Corp., the Japanese carmaker controlled by Ford Motor Co., is destroying more than 4,000 new cars caught up in a shipping mishap in the Pacific two years ago, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The carrier Cougar Ace, with 4,703 vehicles held securely in straps on board, developed a list in bad weather and drifted for several weeks, the newspaper said.

The ship was eventually righted and Mazda, which said it didn't know whether the cars had been damaged, decided to build a ``disassembly' line in Portland, Oregon, where metals such as platinum are separated from catalytic converters, air bags are inflated and accessories such as CD players and alloy wheels are removed and destroyed, the Journal said.

Finally the cars, worth an estimated $100 million dollars, are crushed and shredded, to be sent back to Japan for recycling into cars again, the newspaper said.

The Mazda 6 1.8TS

Even within the context of the first-class magical realism that tends to inform mission statements in the automotive industry, Mazda's desire to "challenge everything you thought you knew about motor cars" is an advance into new territory. I'm not sure what the car that "challenged everything you thought you knew" about cars would look like, but my suspicion is that it may turn out like a boat. Or an elephant. Or a boat crossed with an elephant.

Either way, such a car probably wouldn't, if we're being honest, come out looking like the Mazda 6 TS hatchback. Don't get me wrong: this is a handsome, highly desirable and rather cool car, with an energetic, feline crouch to it. But at the same time: four tyres, one in each corner; bumper on the front; doors on the sides; wing mirrors on the wings ... A lot of what I thought I knew about cars before I met the Mazda 6 turned out to be confirmed by it, rather than tossed aside in a breathtaking top-to-bottom rethink of the basics.

Still, it's like they say: you can't reinvent the steering wheel. And who wants a car that looks like bits of a boat welded to bits of an elephant in any case?