Figures shared by Mazda show a big rise in sales of the MX-5 convertible during 2023. The automaker sold 45.4 percent more units of the model than in 2022. Mazda Canada saw the same trend here as well.
As a general rule, when a product is in its eighth year on the market in the same form, you can expect sales to be stable or dropping slightly. Very rarely do they rise significantly.
It's quite an extraordinary feat achieved by the car we still like to call the Miata.
Mazda sold 8,973 MX-5s in the U.S. in 2023. Interestingly, in 2022, the RF hardtop version outsold the soft-top model. In 2023, sales were virtually nose-to-nose: 4,591 units for the soft-top model, 4,382 for the retractable hardtop.
In 2022, Mazda sold 3,583 RF models compared with 2,588 soft-top variants.
While it’s clear consumers continue to turn en masse to SUVs, it's also clear there's still interest in cars – including small, sporty ones.
2023 overall was a good one for Mazda in the United States, mind you, with the company recording sales growth of 23.3 percent. The CX-5 led the way with 153,808 units sold, followed by the CX-30 with 77,075. Mazda also sold 30,821 units of the new CX-90 in its first full year on the market.
In all those cases, sales dwarf those of the Miata, of course. But considering the niche position of the two-seater and the age of the current models, its results remain impressive. No surprise then that the company has already said it wants to keep the current, aging version on the market as long as possible.
We contacted Mazda Canada to give you the results of the model's domestic sales results for the model over the past year. The MX-5 sold 1,038 units in Canada from January 1 to December 31, 2023, an increase of 54.2 percent compared to 2022.
Mazda's overall performance for 2023 in Canada was also up, with sales jumping 35.3 percent.