March and Q1 2024 sales figures are in and with them, an update on sales of the 2024 Mazda Miata. Bad news, sports (car) fans: 2024 is a slow one so far for our favorite roadster. And if our index means anything, then that’s bad news for the enthusiast market. But don’t worry; this is an entirely unscientific thing that we do entirely for our own amusement. And yours, hopefully.
See, the Autoblog Miata Index is the only automotive sales metric that truly matters … in our minds. It simply measures the number of Mazda Miatas sold so far in 2024. Well, technically, we started by counting the Miata sales from 2023, but you get the idea. Why? Well, we like Miatas, for starters, and as a metric for how many True Believers™ are out there buying cars, it’s as arbitrarily good (or bad) as anything else. So long as folks are still buying our favorite little Japanese roadster, then the enthusiast outlook can’t be all bad, right?
Right?
Anyway, here’s our March and Q1 update:
The numbers
March 2024 Miata sales:
- Mazda Miata: 174 (-70.2%)
- Mazda Miata RF: 412 (-17.6%)
- Total: 436 (-45.9%)
Q1 2024 Miata sales:
- Mazda Miata: 457 (-66.0%)
- Mazda Miata RF: 954 (-23.5%)
- Total: 1,411 (-45.5%)
Blame winter all you want, but the cold season comes along in the North American winter every year, so that’s not a particularly good excuse for poor numbers when we’re comparing to the same period last winter. We’ll also note that the RF (which is the folding Targa-style top) has consistently outsold the convertible every month in 2024 so far, which makes sense for the dead of winter; that makes it unlikely that we’re looking at some sort of statistical outlier. Miata sales are simply off to a slow start in 2024.
So far, 2024 is shaping up to be a slower year for Mazda’s little convertible than 2023. Mazda sold 8,973 Miatas in the U.S. last year — an increase of 45.4% over 2022 — and 15.7% over its total volume from 2019. So 2023 was a good year for the Miata — and as it turns out, a pretty darned good year for the industry overall. See? It’s science.
2024 could be even bigger for our favorite roadster. Why? Updates. Whether you want to call this the ND 2.5 or simply the refreshed ND2, the 2024 Miata gets an updated differential and an overhauled infotainment system that is much more feature-rich and pleasant to use. But updates don’t always translate to sales improvements, especially when they’re accompanied by production downtime to accommodate new parts or designs. Fortunately, while these updates do include new components, they’re not anything wildly different from what’s already shipping, limiting any interruption to manufacturing. Hopefully, that means full steam ahead. Happy Miata-ing!
Note: Yes, this is silly. We’re fully aware it’s silly. This silliness may morph into some other form of silliness for any (or no) reason at all. Watch this space. Or don’t. -Hurd
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