ASH8

Thanks Zoom,

Yeah, Battery acid and brake fluid damage mainly, its pretty amazing that these cars are in such good condition

RedSheDevil

Tho don't you think that acid/fluid will be all over the engine as well? I'm assuming it can't be good for rubber parts etc.

zoom44

id have to jon the ILWU local 8....

OCMarsh

My dad is a casual longshoreman and has been working on this ship. I haven't had a chance to ask him about it yet. Some weird union dispute has made it so all the fulltime longshoremen like my friend are forced onto other jobs and the casuals are stuck on the Cougar Ace. My dad isn't much of a storyteller, so I doubt he would have much to add to what Zoom posted.

zoom44

ask him how i can become a casual, please im serious- i dont have a job and i could push cars for a little while

RedSheDevil

^^ install glasses cam!!

OCMarsh

It's extremely tough. Every few years they will open up about 50 casual jobs. Then hundreds of people will line up and apply. After that it's pretty much luck of the draw. Going from a casual to a permanent employee is even harder. If I hear they are going to accept applications (and I remember) I'll send you a PM.



Anyway, I just talked to my dad so I asked him about the ship. He pretty much echoed what was already said. He has seen one car with extensive damage from smashing into a pillar. He saw several other cars with minor dents (maybe from falling debris?) My dad is a man of few words, he basically said the work is slow and easy.

OCMarsh

I was scanning the Mazda site for any new info and I saw the car list. It looks like about 200 RX8's were on the ship. I had no idea it was so many.

zoom44

here is the link

http://www.mazdausa.com/MusaWeb/disp...ter=aboutPress

only Mazda3s for Canada but i bet that set them back. the 3 outsells civic regularly in canada. not having stock must hurt. ohh 5 Mazdaspeed6s shame. quite afew MX-5s as well

ASH8

Also looks like about 30 MX-5 PRHT Models too in that mix...FX70's

Mazdaspeed RX8 ver2

ouch..

zoom44

yeah i figured- there were supposed to be some here already. hope they salvage some.

Aseras

wonder is the cars will all come with a salvage title?

QCrx8

Its been a month, I wonder if anyone has ran across one of these cars for sale on a used lot.

Fuel4theFury

well if you have they wouldnt have that many miles on it.

OCMarsh

I asked Mazda how one would go about buying one of these and they said to "keep checking their website for details"

Well, there hasn't been any details. I really wonder what their plan is.

zoom44

all the cars are off and have been sorted into fix and crush groups. the "fix" cars will be cleaned up and then sent out to the other normal mazda ports (including the 2 inland ports ) to get repaired and processed out to the dealers. this will still take some time. the insurance still has to settle on everything before the cars move.

ASH8

Thanks for the up date Zoom......
Can you put one ....MMMMM..... MX-5 PRHT in the post for me...

SureShot

When attorneys & insurance companies get tangled up, things will get delayed.

It’s not just dealing with damage claims.
This is a very big transporter that is out of service.
There has to be production inventory backlogging in Japan.

About 20 years ago there was a damaged Toyota shipment here in Jacksonville.
The Insurance company was so pissed at the litigation that they had a bunch of drivable cars sent to the crusher under Heavily armed guards!

RX8USMC

tragedy... all I want is a navigation system......

Stavesacre21

Just saw that page 34 of December's Car and Driver has finally publicly made the Cougar incident known. A 2x3" picture of the cougar as well as a lil section talks about the incident.

Oddly, the 8 wasn't even mentioned to be on board...claims CX-7's and Mazda3's

zoom44

I know this had fallen off the map with my inability to get mazda to talk about it before or during 7stock. but i just got this report, written by my freind Mark Rechtin of Automotive news who helped during Mulligan gate and broke the story on the engine recall, it includes the final tally of the vehicles

December 15, 2006

Mazda to scrap all cars on board Cougar Ace

Mark Rechtin

LOS ANGELES -- Mazda North American Operations will scrap all 4,703 vehicles that were aboard the freighter Cougar Ace when it foundered at sea this year.

Previously, Mazda stated it would have engineers evaluate all the vehicles to determine which to scrap or to sell through a used-car program. However, given that the provenance of the vehicles might come into doubt in several years' time, Mazda decided to avoid a potential customer-satisfaction nightmare by scrapping all the vehicles.

The Cougar Ace went into a 60-degree list on its trans-Pacific run in July when its ballast was displaced, but the ship was towed into port and righted. Some of the cargo was under water. Other cars were dry, held in place by their mounts, and showed little visible sign of damage.

"We just couldn't take the risk of there being unforeseen issues down the road," said Mazda spokesman Jeremy Barnes.

"There were two camps of potential buyers. One was, 'Where can I get one cheap?' The others were worried they might get one by accident and weren't going to shop Mazda as a result."

The tally of lost vehicles was 2,475 Mazda3 sedans, 329 Mazda3 five-doors, 56 Mazda5 minivans, 1,329 CX-7 crossovers, 214 RX-8 sports cars, 5 MazdaSpeed6 sedans and 295 MX-5 Miata convertibles.

Although maritime insurance is a relatively convoluted process, the main insurer of the cargo was industry conglomerate ACE Ltd., based in Hamilton, Bermuda.

zoom44

dont want to say i told ya so ash my freind but........ i think you owe me a pint, mate!

dmc27

^pwnd!

Thanks zoom. Though this did make my mind rattle a bit in it's housing. This was soooo long ago . . . attention span failing . . .

ASH8

Yeah I do...WOW..sorry about the other thread..I got it at 5.02...and did not open mail...

Thats a lot of cars to scrap...
Think of all that GOOD gear...engines, tranny's, diffs....etc,etc...such a waste..

...had a good laugh on my other post....delete it Charlie if you want..
you should have started a new thread on this news, I did look at General first!!

So, yes, I do owe you a beer ..a slab (24,30,36 375mil cans)....MMMm.. is that...

XXXX (Four EX) Queensland Beer..
Fosters
West End "draught"...my beer..
Bud..

You better send me you postal address...hang on you probably will...I am getting deeper in...how about when you come to Australia...

ALL those Mazda's....gee