patrick.net

Hail, tornadoes, floods; these all cause huge annual losses for automotive insurers. After a payout they often stipulate they be destroyed in a specified manner. I remember a photo of acres and acres of brand new cars at some seaport lot in Texas. They had been flood damaged by storm surge and paid out as a total loss; the insurer ordered the cars cut in half so they could be parted out but not made into and resold as whole cars. Row upon row of them sawed across the floor and roof between the driver and passenger doors, middle of every car slumped to the ground.

There's a Bad Tube video somewhere of a large number of new cars being transported on the deck of a large boat. They hit rough seas, the salt water starts hitting the cars, and every single one eventually sparks through its battery and the cars have electrical fires for a total loss. They started out new, became scorched wrecks.