Honda Scraps 1,000 Flood-Ravaged Cars In Thailand

[webfact]

Honda scraps 1,000 flood-ravaged cars in Thailand

BANGKOK, December 27, 2011 (AFP) - Japanese automaker Honda on Tuesday began destroying more than 1,000 cars in Thailand to reassure customers that no vehicles damaged in the country's recent flood crisis will ever be sold.

The scrapping process at Honda's plant in the central province of Ayutthaya is expected to take one month, the company said in a statement.

The plant is located in the Rojana Industrial Park, where heavy flooding in early October brought production to a halt and aerial pictures showed hundreds of new cars submerged in muddy water.

"While we were able to relocate many new cars that were awaiting shipment to a safe area, 1,055 vehicles that remained in the plant were finally damaged by the flood," said Pitak Pruittisarikorn, executive vice president of Honda Automobile Thailand.

"We will not sell any of the damaged cars to customers, or sell or reuse any of the parts," he added.

Most of the cars to be scrapped are mid-sized City sedans and Brio and Jazz hatchbacks. Production has yet to resume at the factory.

Thailand said earlier this month that over 700 people died in the floods, which at their height affected 65 of the 77 provinces in the low-lying nation and forced the closure of seven major industrial parks, disrupting global supply chains.

The waters have since receded significantly but many areas still face a major clean-up operation.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2011-12-27

[webfact]

Honda scraps 1,055 flood-damaged cars, vows to remain in Thailand

Ayutthaya - Honda Automobile (Thailand) Co Ltd on Tuesday began destroying 1,055 cars that were damaged in this year's floods while vowing to continue manufacturing in the kingdom.

The cars that were scrapped were made at the Rojana Industrial Park when the industrial estate in Ayutthaya, 100 kilometres north of Bangkok, was flooded October 8.

The factory has the capacity to assemble 240,000 cars a year and is the second-largest automobile factory in Thailand. It makes Brio, Jazz, City, Civic and Accord models for the Thai market and 30 other countries.

"I want to confirm that Honda will not move its manufacturing to another country," said Pitak Pruittisarikorn, executive vice president of Honda’s Thai subsidiary. "We will stay close to our customers and Thai society."

Production was halted October 5 as the swollen Chao Phraya River threatened to swamp the park, which was built on a natural flood plain.

"While we were able to relocate many new cars that were awaiting shipments to a safe area, 1,055 vehicles that remained in the plant were damaged by the flood," Pitak said.

-- The Nation 2011-12-27

[webfact]

Honda destroys 1,000 flood-damaged vehicles to regain customer confidence

AYUTTHAYA, Dec 27 - Honda Automobile (Thailand) began destroying the first lot of 1,055 passenger cars badly damaged in severe flooding at its car delivery centre at Rojana Industrial Park in Ayutthaya province, north of Bangkok.

Several models, destroyed today include the 217 Brio, 213 Jazz, 353 City, 150 Civic, 91 Accord, 30 CR-V and one Freed.

Pitak Pruittisarikorn, an executive vice-president of Honda Automobile, representatives from the Thailand Automotive Institute, the Office of the Consumer Protection Board, the Thai Industrial Standards Institute, the Provincial Excise Department and the media witnessed the event.

Mr Pitak said all processes were supervised by the company, and related state agencies and industrial organisations to prevent re-use of all destroyed parts in order to regain public confidence.

All processes were being carried out within the Honda premises will be complete by February, when production is expected to resume. The plant has a production capacity of 240,000 units annually with 7,074 employees.

The plant was under water for a month, but the water situation returned to normal on Dec 8. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2011-12-27

[harrry]

If they are all like the second photo skilled thai panel beaters will have them back on the road in a week.

[newermonkey]

I think the Freed should be destroyed as its an abomination anyway... But this action is a huge waste of perfectly re-usable spare parts.

I would have bought an accord at scrap value and have it running within a month. Does Honda think they are being clever making this announcement? All I see is a wasteful mentality that is all to prevalent these days.

[Maseratimartin]

Just sell them for 99999bath as a "for customizing version"!

I would directly take two!

Edited December 29, 2011 by metisdead
Bold font removed.

[newermonkey]

Just sell them for 99999bath as a "for customizing version"!

I would directly take two!

Exactly... they could have been used as one make one race cars, with the interior trim stripped out, add a nice Recaro race seat, full harness belt, a few mods, roll cage, cutout switch etc... perfect... cheap... useful...

Edited December 29, 2011 by metisdead

[kennalder]

I think the Freed should be destroyed as its an abomination anyway... But this action is a huge waste of perfectly re-usable spare parts.

I would have bought an accord at scrap value and have it running within a month. Does Honda think they are being clever making this announcement? All I see is a wasteful mentality that is all to prevalent these days.

I think the Freed should be destroyed as its an abomination anyway... But this action is a huge waste of perfectly re-usable spare parts.

I would have bought an accord at scrap value and have it running within a month. Does Honda think they are being clever making this announcement? All I see is a wasteful mentality that is all to prevalent these days.

Sure, then a few years down the road and the corrosion starts to take its toll and Honda gets a bad rap, as no-one knows or remembers they were flood damaged in the first place. It was the only sensible thing to do if they want to maintain their reputation as a quality car maker.

[Daffy D]

Good for Honda.

Making a big publicity of the destruction will restore customer confidence.

Selling flood damaged cars for 1 baht or even giving them away would come back to haunt them a few years down the line.

:-)

[jomtienbob]

I think the Freed should be destroyed as its an abomination anyway... But this action is a huge waste of perfectly re-usable spare parts.

I would have bought an accord at scrap value and have it running within a month. Does Honda think they are being clever making this announcement? All I see is a wasteful mentality that is all to prevalent these days.

It's a publicity stunt so that the uneducated masses don't think that there is a swathe of defective cars (hondas) on the market which there no doubt will be of every type from the dealers that were flood affected.

[transam]

I think the Freed should be destroyed as its an abomination anyway... But this action is a huge waste of perfectly re-usable spare parts.

I would have bought an accord at scrap value and have it running within a month. Does Honda think they are being clever making this announcement? All I see is a wasteful mentality that is all to prevalent these days.

It's a publicity stunt so that the uneducated masses don't think that there is a swathe of defective cars (hondas) on the market which there no doubt will be of every type from the dealers that were flood affected.

Just look for dead fish in the trunk.

[mrdome]

I think the Freed should be destroyed as its an abomination anyway... But this action is a huge waste of perfectly re-usable spare parts.

I would have bought an accord at scrap value and have it running within a month. Does Honda think they are being clever making this announcement? All I see is a wasteful mentality that is all to prevalent these days.

Yes, of course they are clever making this announcement. And you'd make that decision & announcement too if you ran them. The psychological impact of people finding out their car may have received a previously "flooded" spare part can be incredibly damaging to the brand down the road, let alone the question of liabilities if sued.

[WarpSpeed]

Just sell them for 99999bath as a "for customizing version"!

I would directly take two!

Exactly... they could have been used as one make one race cars, with the interior trim stripped out, add a nice Recaro race seat, full harness belt, a few mods, roll cage, cutout switch etc... perfect... cheap... useful...

They already have a couple of one make series races both Jazzes and Civics on Honda Fest race weekends so certainly a few of them could be added to those series.

[wxyz]

they should have built a high rise care park, hehehe

[kartman]

They will be on the roads again as new Toyotas,Nissans,Mitsu's and of course Hondas once they've come out of the metal recycler's so don't forget your 'Made from flooded Honda's' sticker on the new purchase.

[rotary]

The world is now saved from at least 1000 crapy Honda cars.

[WarpSpeed]

The world is now saved from at least 1000 crapy Honda cars.

Yes, flooding has way of doing that to new cars .

[ignis]

Often is the Insurance Companies, they will only pay out if the goods are totally destroyed

[Shurup]

That is not a waste of cars. They are doing the right thing (almost). Almost is because it would have been smarter to dissasemble them, treat the metal parts against corrosion, discard all the interior parts and you would have a lot of good spare parts which are no worse then the brand new parts if treated properly.

Destroying them is the right thing to do so people are confident cars wouldn't go into sale after the simple clean-up.

As for selling them for 99,999 baht, yeah, some poor folks would buy them to restore and to own just because that's all they can afford. Most however would buy to restore and then resell, and what do you think the resale price would be? I am sure they would be making x2-3 times they invested in teh cars and do you think they will claim that the cars were flooded? Noooooo!!! No gonna happen - not in Thailand. At the end Honda's reputation will suffer so they are doing the right thing.

[wandrinstar]

Joe Publics Fooled Again., they don't cost much to make anyway.About 850 GBP for a City.

[Spoonman]

That is not a waste of cars. They are doing the right thing (almost). Almost is because it would have been smarter to dissasemble them, treat the metal parts against corrosion, discard all the interior parts and you would have a lot of good spare parts which are no worse then the brand new parts if treated properly.

The problem with that is adding the parts back into their inventory.

[WarpSpeed]

That is not a waste of cars. They are doing the right thing (almost). Almost is because it would have been smarter to dissasemble them, treat the metal parts against corrosion, discard all the interior parts and you would have a lot of good spare parts which are no worse then the brand new parts if treated properly.

The problem with that is adding the parts back into their inventory.

Don't see that as a problem, isolate them and use as warrantee parts.

[MoonRiverOasis]

[Woodsie888]

Joe Publics Fooled Again., they don't cost much to make anyway.About 850 GBP for a City.

30 years ago, you may have been close to the mark. You've wandered into another constellation with this one though!

[wandrinstar]

How long did you work in Fords Central Purchasing.Perhaps your right about the time span, but when i see a Rear View Camera Cost , i have to smile , they are about 1.50 GBP.. Along with many expensive outsourced parts they buy em for peanuts. Air Cons and Turboes would make you cry ,if you realised how little Ford pay for them. Thats all ,they don't loose as much as they would like have us believe is my point.

[Spoonman]

That is not a waste of cars. They are doing the right thing (almost). Almost is because it would have been smarter to dissasemble them, treat the metal parts against corrosion, discard all the interior parts and you would have a lot of good spare parts which are no worse then the brand new parts if treated properly.

The problem with that is adding the parts back into their inventory.

Don't see that as a problem, isolate them and use as warrantee parts.

Yeah that will involve money and logistics not to mention damaging Honda's reputation if one of these dubious parts failed in a short time frame, would they just keep on replacing recovered parts with recovered parts (how would they keep track of that), what if someone was killed and it was discovered that the cause was one of these recovered parts.

Is Honda out of pocket with these cars, I would assume they are covered by insurance.

Edited December 30, 2011 by Spoonman

[culicine]

That is not a waste of cars. They are doing the right thing (almost). Almost is because it would have been smarter to dissasemble them, treat the metal parts against corrosion, discard all the interior parts and you would have a lot of good spare parts which are no worse then the brand new parts if treated properly.

The problem with that is adding the parts back into their inventory.

Don't see that as a problem, isolate them and use as warrantee parts.

Yeah that will involve money and logistics not to mention damaging Honda's reputation if one of these dubious parts failed in a short time frame, would they just keep on replacing recovered parts with recovered parts (how would they keep track of that), what if someone was killed and it was discovered that the cause was one of these recovered parts.

Is Honda out of pocket with these cars, I would assume they are covered by insurance.

Honda donated 100 million baht to flood efforts so a couple of thousand scrapped cars are chump change. The cost to their reputation of recovered parts entering the market would be much more damaging that the cost of those cars.

Edited December 30, 2011 by culicine

[WarpSpeed]

That is not a waste of cars. They are doing the right thing (almost). Almost is because it would have been smarter to dissasemble them, treat the metal parts against corrosion, discard all the interior parts and you would have a lot of good spare parts which are no worse then the brand new parts if treated properly.

The problem with that is adding the parts back into their inventory.

Don't see that as a problem, isolate them and use as warrantee parts.

Yeah that will involve money and logistics not to mention damaging Honda's reputation if one of these dubious parts failed in a short time frame, would they just keep on replacing recovered parts with recovered parts (how would they keep track of that), what if someone was killed and it was discovered that the cause was one of these recovered parts.

Is Honda out of pocket with these cars, I would assume they are covered by insurance.

I wasn't suggesting they SHOULD do it I was merely answering the fact that it is not so complicated TO do it..

[WarpSpeed]

The problem with that is adding the parts back into their inventory.

Don't see that as a problem, isolate them and use as warrantee parts.

Yeah that will involve money and logistics not to mention damaging Honda's reputation if one of these dubious parts failed in a short time frame, would they just keep on replacing recovered parts with recovered parts (how would they keep track of that), what if someone was killed and it was discovered that the cause was one of these recovered parts.

Is Honda out of pocket with these cars, I would assume they are covered by insurance.

Honda donated 100 million baht to flood efforts so a couple of thousand scrapped cars are chump change. The cost to their reputation of recovered parts entering the market would be much more damaging that the cost of those cars.

See post above..

[kartman]

The cars and everything else connected to them will just be put in the Loss side of Honda's accounts .The Honda execs won't be loosing any sleep over it, now TVmembers................