2023 Mazda Miata Gets a Price Bump and Attractive New Color

The 2023 Mazda MX-5 Miata will come in the excellent new Zircon Sand finish for a small premium.Photo: Mazda

The 2023 Mazda MX-5 Miata is getting a price bump over the outgoing model, but Mazda is adding a new color option borrowed from the Mazda CX-50 as a consolation prize. The new Miata will start at $28,050 not including $1,275 for destination. That’s an increase of $750 compared to the 2022 Mazda MX-5, which started at $27,300 and also had a cheaper destination charge of $1,015.

All told, the latest Mazda Miata will start at $29,325 for a Sport model that sits at the bottom of the MX-5 lineup. That’s not a dig, because a base model Miata is still the answer to, well, a lot of questions car lovers ask themselves, and it remains one of the best pound-for-pound values on the new car market.

But despite the mechanical bits staying the same, the Miata is steadily getting more expensive as the new pricing shows. The latest model will still come with a 2.0-liter four-cylinder Skyactiv engine, making 181 horsepower and 151 lb-ft of torque. Here’s this year’s breakdown of MX-5 Miata pricing, minus destination:

MX-5 Miata Sport – $28,050MX-5 Miata Club – $31,550MX-5 Miata Club, Brembo BBS Recaro Package – $36,050MX-5 Miata Grand Touring – $ 33,050

Those are the starting prices for each model, however, and prices can go up depending on whether buyers want a hard top instead of soft. The retractable fastback (RF), as Mazda refers to the hard top, adds between $2,300 to $2,500 to the MSRP. The RF is an option on the Miata Grand Touring and Miata Club with the Brembo, BBS and Recaro package. Funny enough, that specific model costs more than the top trim Grand Touring model, topping out at $38,500 not including delivery. That’s pretty steep for an MX-5 Miata even with the farkles.

The prices quoted above are all for stick-shift Miatas. Mazda’s roadster is still the rare model that makes an automatic transmission the “other” option, and it comes with a six-speed manual transmission by default. Only the MX-5 Miata Grand Touring will come with an option for a six-speed auto. That automatic transmission adds at least another $500 to the price, and while we’re at it, so does the paint: the priciest paint finishes will be Soul Red and Machine Gray Metallic, which come in at $595. The new Zircon Sand Metallic will cost $395.

Photo: Mazda

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The Zircon Sand paint is all-new for the MX-5 Miata, and it looks like Mazda borrowed the dark tan color from its off-road inspired CX-50. It’s probably the best new finish of the lot, so it’s a good thing Mazda priced it below the others. It gives me hope that intrepid Miata fans will run with it, and come up with gnarly Miata Safari mods. Why should Lamborghini and Porsche have all the fun?

While the Miata remains a good value, and the new color adds to that, the price bump is not great. Carmakers and countless other companies are tacking on higher prices under the guise of inflation. But the Miata is creeping towards the threshold of thirty large in the U.S., which puts it in a position that could force Mazda to reconsider the idea of the little roadster as being both fun and cheap.

Photo: Mazda