Mazda MX-5 celebrates its 35th birthday.
35 YEARS: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAZDA MX-5.
- Re-Inventing the Roadster: On February 9, 1989, the Mazda MX-5 celebrated its world premiere
- Production Record: More than 1.2 million Mazda MX-5s built across four generations
- Comprehensive Update for Even More Driving Pleasure: The 2024 Mazda MX-5
The automotive world marvelled, and fans of affordable roadsters were thrilled: On the 9th of February, 35 years ago, the Mazda MX-5 made its debut at the Chicago Auto Show.
Built like a classic rear-wheel-drive sports car, but with a groundbreaking front-mid-engine layout for optimum longitudinal weight distribution, the Japanese roadster revived a then almost extinct car segment. The compact and lightweight Mazda MX-5 redefined the joy of open-top driving. Mazda engineers achieved this by adhering to the traditional Japanese philosophy of Jinba-Ittai, which views the horse and rider as one unit. Applied to the Mazda MX-5, the driver and the roadster form a close bond, providing balance, agility, and lightness. The MX-5 has earned numerous awards and prizes over the years, which continue to prove its excellence.
The world cannot get enough of the Mazda MX-5: Pure driving pleasure and an iconic design, the Mazda MX-5 has seen continuous development across four generations (“NA”, “NB”, “NC”, and now, “ND”). The current iteration of the Mazda MX-5 continues to provide joy for enthusiasts of open-air driving since 2016 with the RF version featuring an exciting fastback design and an electrically powered, folding ‘hard-top’ roof system, alongside the soft-top roadster model. Total production of the Mazda MX-5 at the Ujina plant in Hiroshima has just reached a record 1,256,745 units. 533,301 (over 40 percent) of the total production of the MX-5 has been sold in North America under the Mazda Miata nameplate, followed by Europe, where 391,503 Mazda MX-5s have been sold. In the Japanese home market, 225,510 units of the sports car were registered, under the iconic model name Mazda Roadster (first known as the Eunos Roadster).
