Miata Mania Miffs Mazda : Buyers are paying as much as $4,000 over sticker price for the hot new sports car. But the auto maker’s marketing plan called for it to be affordable.
A customer at Kramer Mazda in Santa Monica offered the $25,000 in the briefcase he was carrying to buy a new Mazda MX-5 Miata sports car. It was too much--$11,200 more than the price of a stripped-down version of the two-seater convertible and about $7,000 more than a fully loaded version.
“I told him we have set a price, we had a list of names and we’d be happy to put him on the list for when the cars come in,” said John Lyon, sales manager at Kramer Mazda.
Car shoppers, crazy over Mazda’s new sports car, are bidding up the price of the Miata and willing to pay as much as $4,000 over sticker price. Mazda suggests a retail price of $13,800 for the base model.
The bidding frenzy is raising concerns with the Japanese manufacturer and among dealers about price gouging and putting the Miata at odds with Mazda’s marketing plan to offer an affordable sports car.
“I could have, on several occasions, taken more money for the car.” said Kevin Eckhart, general sales manager, at Martin Mazda, Woodland Hills. “It got to a point where what is fair for a car is fair. And you don’t want to gouge the public if you want to sell them a car again.”
George J. McCabe, deputy general manager of Mazda Motor of America in Irvine, said the current pricing is “totally contradictory” to Mazda concept of offering an affordable sports car. “ Mazda is trying to sell the car as a low-priced alternative to its RX-7 model, which sells for up to $28,000.
Part of the reason for Miata’s sharp run-up in price is the scarcity of the car. It went on sale July 1 but most of the 842 Mazda dealerships in the United States initially received fewer than a half dozen of the cars. But Mazda plans to produce 20,000 this year and 40,000 next year.
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“I hope the demand will remain high for the Miata, but once we get into full production and get rid of back orders of three or four months. . . . I think the car will sell at the sticker price.” McCabe said.
The Miata’s unusual design and rave reviews in the auto trade magazines have also contributed to the premium price by creating a lot of excitement and demand for the car.
A German tourist in Florida purchased one Miata at Gunther Mazda in Ft. Lauderdale to take home. He ordered another two to be shipped later.
Harold Stieg, a Detroit lawyer, delayed his departure for a vacation so he could pick up his Miata five hours after it arrived at Autobahn Motors in Bloomfield, Mich. “I was so excited that the salesman was so cooperative . . . I gave him a bottle of champagne.”
Stieg, who ordered his red Miata in February, paid a little more than $18,000, before tax and license, for his car, which has most options. But Autoweek, a trade publication, reports that the Miata is fetching handsome premiums over the sticker price: $4,000 in California; $2,000 in Chicago; $1,000 in New York, and $500 in Detroit.
Adding premiums to the sticker price of hot selling cars is not unusual and not illegal. But some Mazda dealers are concerned that some shoppers may be jumping the gun. “I say let the market settle down, be sensible about buying the car,” said Lyon at Kramer Mazda. “You don’t need one right (now).”
