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So, What Do You Think?


Razors Edge

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...should be done with the 4,000 cars?  Crushed? Sold/donated? Used in movies? Cleaned & discounted? Spare parts? 

It seems insurance will likely "total" them, but does it make sense for them to be destroyed - especially in a tight inventory market?  

Some analysts estimated the value of the cargo at nearly half a billion dollars.

“We fear that large parts of the nearly 4,000 vehicles from several group brands were so damaged in the ship fire that they can no longer be delivered,” Volkswagen said in a statement, adding that the damage is covered by insurance. The Volkswagen group of brands includes Porsche, Audi, Bentley and Lamborghini. 

The Felicity Ace was loaded in Emden, Germany and was headed for Davisville, R.I., when it caught fire. The ship’s master, or captain, alerted authorities about the fire and the decision to abandon the ship, MOL said last week.

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11 hours ago, Bikeguy said:

Didn't they all burn??  Not much you can do with a burned out car.

The breadth and definition of "burn" vs destroyed by fire vs a complete loss vs some other nuance is why I am wondering on the relative usefulness of those 4,000 vehicles.  I have a hard time believing that the 4,000 vehicles are completely burned but the ship is still salvageable.  My guess is some %age are truly toast, but many were just in an oily smoke filled hold for days, so they are so smoke damaged, no one would want to buy them at retail.  But does smoke ruin everything, or just the idea of VW taking the cars back, disassembling and cleaning and refurbing them, and then selling them as "almost new" seems unlikely.  And the VINs probably get tied to this disaster and would be challenged in titling some way (or insuring), so it seems a mess where the "easiest" (for an insured ship and manufacturer) is to write off as a total loss.  But then what? To the crusher? What a waste.  If you've been to a 3rd world country, these vehicles would have massive value, just nothing near $500M.

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2 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

the ship is still salvageable.

Then again... the ship below is salvageable too.   

The ship with the cars... they will float it back to a port and figure out what is still good (probably not much), then recycle most of the bad stuff.  Depending on the condition of the ships steel hull (too much heat is bad) they may just scrap the ship too.   

Not sure if any of the cars would have survived.  If they did, I'm sure they will be sold, probably as new.   I'm not worried...  I'm keeping my Subaru for a while. 

Ship Salvage Accidents and Injuries - Maritime Injury Center

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