We know that, for the most part, most American car buyers are pretty boring; it would be nice if most of the general public were enthusiasts like us. Every so often though, there are glimmers of hope that there are more people who enjoy buying and driving something they enjoy rather than just out of a need to get around. Rising Miata sales are one of those glimmers.
Mazda, like most other automakers, has released its 2023 sales results, both for the fourth quarter of 2023 and for the entire year. While big sellers were Mazda’s crossovers, one of the most surprising sales increases came from the Miata. Mazda reports that Miata sales were up 45.4 percent compared to 2022.
The Japanese automaker managed to move some 8,973 sports cars. I don’t care what anyone says: those numbers are both reassuring and impressive. It looks even more impressive when you break that number down by model. Those nearly 9,000 sales work out to 4,591 roadsters, an increase of 77.4 percent over 2022, and 4,382 of the folding convertible hardtop Miata RF which had a sales increase of 22.3 percent over 2022.
Those numbers might not be impressive to some who remember Miata sales in its heyday the 1990s, when Mazda was moving over 20,000 units a year. Even from 2006-2008, the NC Miata was selling over 10,000 per year. These sales do move it closer to the Miata’s main competitor the Toyota GR86 which sold just over 11,000 in 2023 and ahead of the Subaru BRZ which sold just 4,188 last year.
As for you buyers out there, keep buying this thing so Miata keeps it alive. It’s one of the last affordable roadsters on sale today, and Mazda seems to want to keep the ND around for as long as they can; Miata program manager Shigeki Saito saying in a recent interview that “For as long as possible we’d like to keep ND.”