Miata Buyers Still Give Preference to a Manual Transmission
New cars equipped with manual transmissions
become more and more economically unjustified areas of expenditures, since
annual sales figures for manuals lag significantly behind automatics and major
automakers, such as Toyota, start having doubts about the competitiveness of
manuals vs. automatics. But is the situation around manual cars so hopeless?
Let us have a look at the other well-known RWD model equipped with a manual transmission from Mazda, namely MX-5 Miata? According to the company’s representative Tim Olson, approximately 76 % of Miata buyers preferred the manual version, and only 24 % of customers decided to opt for the automatic. Both variants for the Miata have 6 speeds. However, these curious numbers are based on the sales statistics only for the convertible version of Miata, from July 2018 to April 2019.
2019 Mazda Miata
soft-top model
At the same time, buyers of the Retractable
Fastback (RF) Miata variant, seeking a more Grand Touring experience, shifted
more to automatics, significantly reducing the difference in sales figures: 52%
preferred the manual, and 48% opted for the automatic. We can assume that a
significant number of RF buyers gives preference to the automatic version,
because the hard-top Miata is a more comfortable daily driver-type car. Since
the RF is more costly than a base soft-top, customers may be lured to spend
another $1,350 to get the automatic.
2019 Mazda Miata RF
model
No one would argue that a gear stick is one of the Miata's main peculiarities that have been with it since its release more than three decades ago, and 2019 sales statistics shows that manuals still have a lot of admirers. However, let us not forget that fewer than 5% of the original first generation Miatas were automatic, but today it is clear that automatic cars become more sophisticated and gradually push out manuals from the world market.
