Suburban Mazda rant

How can a dealer not have a car in stock to test drive???

So last weekend at the Dream cruise Tom Spangler came over to my place with his Cousin Brent who has a super clean 98 986 base 2.5L Boxster. In another couple of years I'm planning on getting a new 365 day a year DD and the two front runners are a 987 S and Cosworth supercharged NC (or ND) Miata. So Brent kindly let first me then SWMBO take his Boxster for a drive. We both drove for a good 20+ mins. I loved the car, the engine note, the ride and handling, everything except the power which would be fixed with a 987S. I want one. SWMBO liked it but was not as impressed as me and she’s dethly afraid of Porsche owner ship costs. So to even things up, last night we went to Suburban Mazda in Troy to drive a stock NC as a ride, handling, NVH, steering response base line. Tough E36 M3. They didn't have a single Miata there, not new, not a used one, non in pre-delivery, nothing! How can a dealer not have a single car in stock especially when you represent a relatively small manufacturer with only 7 different models in your line up!!! Have Mazda given up on the Miata?

We are going in to fall. If the Dealer had one he would more than likely be sitting on it until spring. That is a smart dealer that is watching his inventory and keeping his costs down.

The mystery of corporation/dealer/marketing triangle. More weird stuff happens in that triangle than the Bermuda Triangle.

There is a nice club racing version Miata at the terrible Mazda dealer near me. If the dealer didn't suck so much I would be excited that they have one.

In reality, yes Mazda is not far off Mitsubishi in terms of low volume and running on the edge of survival.

dean1484 wrote: We are going in to fall. If the Dealer had one he would more than likely be sitting on it until spring. That is a smart dealer that is watching his inventory and keeping his costs down.

I guess so, but August 21st is still a month away from the end of summer, and even here in Michigan we've got 2-3 months more top down weather ahead. I know I'm weird driving around in the snow with my top down, windows up, seat heaters and HVAC on full hot, but I like 'verts.

A quick google search shows Mazda sold ~10k Miatas in '08. That is not a lot of cars per dealer. I have to imagine Mazda will sell fewer this year, particularly since the ND is right around the corner. We're also getting to the time of year where a dealer will not willingly stock a convertible as there is a real risk of not selling the car and the car being on the lot until spring. People don't buy convertibles at the end of the season. At that point there is no way to turn a profit on a car when dealer is paying 10%+ interest for 6-8 months and the car will be a model year old.

Also consider that it's the end of the model year. The '14s are gone and the '15s haven't started arriving, yet. Plus, it's not a high volume model.

'vert's go into storage after Labor Day. With the new Miata coming soon, I'll bet most dealers will be hard pressed to keep many around. Take a trip down south maybe?

Any luck at the Farmington store?

When shopping for my wife's Kia Soul, the local dealership had zero on the lot. Zero examples of the hottest selling car to come along in a while. Maybe they were so popular that they couldn't keep them on the lot, but everyone else had a bunch and were selling them like hotcakes so I doubt it.

Well, You have a slow moving car + end of summer + end of model life + one dealer that probably got burned on miatas in the past = Nothing on the lot.

I can't imagine that dealers are eager to fill their lots with miata's knowing that the new model is right around the corner. Also, They have only sold 27K miata's in the US from 2010 to 2014. That is on average about 43 miatas sold per dealer in 3 and a half years.

Look for used ones on Craiglist and test drive one. Just don't let them know you're not in the market yet.

Dealers work together. Some call it racketeering others call it fair industrial standards. But basically depending on the automaker there could be maximum numbers of certain models that a dealer can receive. Some of it is also influenced by the car companies. It isn't happenstance or proximity to ports that causes NY city, SF and LA to get new cars first. It is marketing strategy that since the media centers are in NY and mid to southern CA that they get the "word" out on the not new cars.

The BEST local dealer may just blow through it's allotment of the hot car and find that no other dealers will sell or trade them anymore. Also the auto company may not be able to build to meet demand, and shouldn't. If you time it wrong then you can only find your car at the crappy dealers that no one wants to deal with.

Sorry your car wasn't there Adrian but that may be because the dealer is GOOD rather than sucky.

I agree with what the others said about the NC being a lame duck, going into fall, etc... The one thing I'll add is that at least in my experience I noticed some dealers "specialize" in Miatas, while others don't bother beyond the token one or two. There were dealers near me that had two dozen on the lot, between new and used, with salespeople who knew the cars. Then there were some that had just one or two and showed disinterest in trying to sell it. I wound up buying the NC I had from one of the high volume Miata dealers. I bought it in winter and got it for an absolute steal. I remember the sales manager showing me the car had been on their lot a few months already and would have sat until late spring if I hadn't bought it. I actually had a similar experience with Nissan Leaf shopping. Some dealers had several, others had none and wanted no part of them.

As much as I love summer, I'm counting the days for winter. Right now, I'm without a weekend toy, as I sold them in my move. I'm trying to holding off until we settle on the new house in January. Then I'll know my budget better...and it'll be prime season for grabbing a 'vert at fire sale prices. Top of my list is Miata, with Boxster, MR-S, Z3 also a possibility.

Come on guys, don't mess up my righteous indignation with logic and sense, where's the fun in that?

OK, good points all.

Gearheadotaku: No we didn't go to Farmington, we were in the area of Maple Lawn and it was convinient. As I say, it's a couple of years off and I wanted a fresh back to back comparison of the handling and steering in my mind.

Gearheadotaku wrote: 'vert's go into storage after Labor Day.

My wife's Cabriolet doesn't go to bed until the snow flies!

Yep they're probably not producing so many with the ND release in less than two weeks. And why would you buy an NC over an ND!? Some specs have been released and the ND is going to be way better! It'll be very hard to not make it look better too

GameboyRMH wrote: Yep they're probably not producing so many with the ND release in less than two weeks. And why would you buy an NC over an ND!? Some specs have been released and the ND is going to be way better! It'll be very hard to not make it look better too

I dunno about that. As much as I dislike the NC, giving it the front of a Mazda 3 isn't going to make it any better...