AL!!! It's time to get some "Cougar Ace Edition" stickers made up. Throw in a couple of accessories, and you've got yourself an instant collectable.

Straight up trade on the Protege.

http://www.autoblog.com/2006/09/11/c...-new-vehicles/

Looking for a cheap new used (nused?) Mazda3?

Mazda has announced that none of the 4,700+ vehicles aboard the ill-fated cargo ship Cougar Ace will be sold as new vehicles. According to a press release issued by the automaker a short time ago, cars that are damaged beyond repair will be scrapped immediately. Cars that are deemed fixable and saleable, however, could be sold through Mazda's dealer network as used vehicles. Mazda stresses that no decision on saleability will be made until after the full load of vehicles is unloaded and inspected in Portland, OR.
Cougar Ace left Alaska under tow on 9/1 and is expected to arrive in Oregon tomorrow.

For its part, Mazda is being completely transparent about this and will publish the complete list of VIN numbers for every vehicle aboard the ship at MazdaUSA.com and their Canadian site, Mazda.ca, As has been stated before, the cargo consists mostly of Mazda3s and Mazda CX-7s.

Cougar Ace suffered a near-catastrophic mishap on July 23 when an error during reballasting at sea sent the vessel into a steep list. She stayed afloat, however, and her crew was rescued. Sadly, an accident on board claimed the life of Marty Johnson, a naval architect working on the salvage team that ultimately righted the ship off the Alaskan coast in late August.

We're pleased to see that Mazda is handling this the right way. Publicizing the VIN list is a great good faith measure, and doing so inoculates them from accusations of trying to pass on damaged goods to customers. In fact, we wonder if the list will actually help them close a few deals along the way (assuming some cars are in repairable condition).

Think about it: given their history, some may view the cars on board as odd collectibles -- reminders of a fascinating and dramatic maritime event. In this case, the VIN list serves as irrefutable proof of the cars'
backgrounds.

Still, you won't find us lining up for one if they show up in dealerships.
We prefer cars whose trips across the ocean are more boring and uneventful.

 

cool...

I didn't hear about this until now...I guess I need to redeem my membership with "the loop" lol

 

This happened as we were waiting for delivery of our new Mazda - so our concern was that our car was on this thing! Gladly that wasn't the case.

I'll bet a lot of these cars will be sold as "not street legal" cars that will end up on the track. Many manufacturers (BMW in particular) sell their lightly damaged crash test cars to the public as "not for street use" vehicles. With Mazda's renewed motorsport intrest, I'd be surprised if they didn't go this route for the more water logged examples. Could be a cheap(er) way to build up a track car!

As was said though - I applaid them for their transparancy in the issue. Especially in the wake of all the flood damaged vehicles that came out of New Orleans last year.

 

Only about 1000 cars on the boat were destined for Canada, most being CX-7's from what I'm told. I bet there will be some awesome deals on those cars and dealers will be in line to get them! Since most of the manufacturers are self insuring, they will be looking to recover whatever costs they can and I doubt they would be donating these cars as race cars or otherwise.

 

No, there's no way they will be donations, but I'll bet that instead of scrapping the more "wet" cars, they will try and sell them as "not for street use" models that will end up on the track.

Like you said, those with little to no damage will end up on the dealer floors with big discounts.

 

Well I dont know about the US, but as far as I am aware Mazda Canada has never sold a car to the public that is unfit for street use. They have had prototypes that I have tried to buy and they have crushed them instead!

 

Damn them.

Hopefully Mazda USA will regognize that they could make some money out of this and increase their presence in (non-miata) grassroots motorsports.

We'll see.

 

From my days in an OEM, BMW, for some reason, is a little less lawsuit shy than most companies.

Any BMW would more or less destroy itself on the GM ride and handling loop. Things like bent wheels and broken suspension components, etc.

Now, whether GM's tests are too tough, or bmw just works a little close to the line, it doesn't matter, those's just the facts.

 

You know my beater would coast over those test tracks without so much as spilling the large double double wedged between the idiot cluster and the windshield though......right?

I'd like to see one of the cars off this boat that still has some sea-weed hanging off the rear tires, that'd be a collector!!