Customers May Be Grousing but Mazda Delights in Miata Mania

Customers are getting into near fistfights. The asking price of some used Mazda Miatas has soared to almost three times the sticker price of a new one. And some of Mazda’s own dealers have a sneaking suspicion that the car maker set out to make the hot little sports car a rare item.

These are the sort of problems any car company wouldn’t mind having.

“We’re very happy about the demand,” said George McCabe, deputy general manager of Mazda Motor of America in Irvine. “It’s really a dream.”

For everybody but the consumer, that is. In Orange County, customers have an average three-month wait before they can drive away in a Miata. Dealers are charging as much as $4,000 over the sticker price for a car that, starting at under $14,000, was intended to be low priced. And then there is the brisk market for out-of-state speculators hoping to cash in on Southern California’s lust for snazzy automobiles.

The Miata isn’t the first new model from Mazda to outsell hot cakes, however.

According to McCabe, it was the same story in 1978 when the RX-7 first rolled into showrooms. Back then, for about the first six months after the model came onto the market, eager buyers were willing to shell out more than double the $6,995 list price, he said.

So didn’t Mazda expect Miata mania?

Not to this extent, McCabe said. After all, he said, sports cars cost more to insure. And for years, manufacturers have been making them ever more upscale in design and price. The sports car segment of the American car market is tiny, and it has been shrinking for years, he said.

Today, McCabe contends, sports car purchases account for 1.2% of all car sales in the United States.

Moreover, Mazda’s plans to produce 20,000 Miatas this year and 40,000 next year breaks down to an average of about 3,000 cars each month.

Mazda executives vigorously deny speculation by some dealers that the car maker tried to create a collector’s item by limiting production. “That’s by no means true,” McCabe said. Instead, he said, the production levels were based on what company officials believed was a realistic supply for a sports car in a shrinking market.

“A lot of companies thought we were overly optimistic in thinking we could sell 3,000 cars per month,” McCabe agreed. “We just could never have justified (producing) more.”

Even so, industry analysts believe the sports car market may be speeding up.

Right on the Miata’s bumper is the Mercury Capri, an equally sporty and cheaper two-door model by Ford. New models should be hitting the showrooms by spring.

The Capri will feature the same type of engine as a Miata but should be priced $1,000 to $2,000 less. Further, the Capri will have back seats and a roomier trunk.

With competition already on the drawing boards, then, Mazda is not about to let Miata sales stall. Mazda will be “carefully evaluating” whether to step up production--after there is more of a track record, McCabe said.

“We can’t change production based on six weeks of sales,” McCabe said. So Mazda plans to wait at least six months--through winter on the East Coast--to see whether the demand continues.

“I hope it never tapers off,” McCabe said. “We would just encourage people to be patient.”