January sales figures are in and with them, an update on sales of the 2024 Mazda Miata. Yeah, Mazda sells them in January too, even if it’s not the ideal month for Americans to be out shopping for convertibles. Nevertheless, here we are with our first Autoblog Miata index update of 2024. What is the Autoblog Miata Index? Why, it’s the only automotive sales metric that truly matters. That’s right, we’re just counting Miata sales in 2024. Well, technically, we’ve started by counting the Miata sales in 2023, but really, 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, without further ado, here’s our January update:
The numbers
- Mazda Miata: 148 (-58.4%)
- Mazda Miata RF: 241 (-34.5%)
- Total: 389 (-46.3%)
Sure, it was January, but we’re comparing to sales from last January. We’re not climatologists around here, but we’re pretty sure January happens in the North American winter every year, so that’s not a particularly good excuse. We’ll also note that the RF (which is the folding Targa-style top) outsold the standard cloth top, which makes sense for the dead of winter, so it’s unlikely that we’re looking at some sort of statistical outlier.
Around here we fully subscribe to the theory that M.I.A.T.A. — Miata Is Always The Answer — even when the question is “How is the auto industry doing right now?” 8,973 Miatas were sold 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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