Report: No Hardtop for the 2016 MX-5 Miata

2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata (Credit: © Mazda)

It appears as if the 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata will shed one of the most popular options found on the NC Miata, the power retractable hard top. At least this is according to a report from Automobile Magazine based on limited facts and a lack of information from Mazda.

Automobile was at the ND Miata’s debut, and like many of the journalists in attendance, got a closer look at the MX-5 after the brutally boring launch event ended. According to the report, the two ND Miatas on display were both soft-top models and there was no information on whether a hard top would be part of the ND Miata immediately or in the future. However, Automobile did learn that there will be a hard top available for competition models. This hard top may be a fixed, clip-in type or a retractable version.

Here is my take on all of this, for what it’s worth. Sure, Mazda’s main focus for the new Miata is weight savings, and this is obvious with its huge weight loss, but dropping the hard top altogether is not a wise idea. The hard top is one of the few weight-increasing options that buyers embrace as there is a night-and-day difference between the road noise in a soft-top Miata and a hard-top model. I know because I own a soft-top Miata and have had a few hard-top NC models on loan from Mazda’s press fleet. Additionally, the take rate on the optional hard top was around 52 percent to the soft top’s 48 percent since 2007 and to cut an option that 52 percent of your buyers go for just doesn’t make sense.

Unless Mazda pulled off some wizardry by dropping all of that weight and installing a soft top that blocks out road noise like the NC Miata’s hard top, my bet is the hard top will return midway through the first model year or with the 2017 model.

Let me know what you think in the comments.