Unalaska, AK – The 4,700 Mazda vehicles that were trapped for a month on the car carrier Cougar Ace are being scrapped, the company announced today. Mazda said in September that the vehicles would be sold as used cars, even though most of them survived the shipping debacle unscathed. But the company said today that it had reconsidered "after thorough testing by engineers from our North American and Japanese R&D centers."

The Cougar Ace arrived in Portland, Ore. on Sept. 12 after sitting for several weeks in Dutch Harbor, where salvage crews tried to restore the ship to an even keel. The car carrier rolled on its side in the North Pacific in July.