February sales figures are in and with them, an update on sales of the 2024 Mazda Miata. Who buys convertibles in June? Floridians, Texans, Arizonans and Californians immediately spring to mind, but even here in Autoblog‘s Michigan offices, we’re already feeling the tug of drop-top season. We’re headed up to a delightful 70° as I type this, in fact, and we couldn’t ask for better weather as we check in with our second update to the 2024 Autoblog Miata Index.
Just what the heck is the Autoblog Miata Index, you ask? Why, it’s the only automotive sales metric that truly matters: 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, without further ado, here’s our February update:
The numbers
- Mazda Miata: 135 (-66.6%)
- Mazda Miata RF: 301 (-20.6%)
- Total: 436 (-44.3%)
Sure, it was February, but we’re comparing to sales from last February. We’re not climatologists around here, but we’re pretty sure February happens in the North American winter every year, so that’s not a particularly good excuse for slow sales. We’ll also note that the RF (which is the folding Targa-style top) outsold the standard cloth top (just as it did in January), 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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