Miata Mailing List: May 1993, Message #145
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   From: (none)
Subject: Mazda Profits (was Miata Coupe)
   Date: (none)

Speaking of the amount of money that Mazda might make on a more
expensive coupe, Mazda already makes a handsome profit on the Miata
even though it is not exhorbently priced.  When the Miata came out I
read that it cost Mazda $100,000,000 to develop and bring the Miata to
production.  This figure is about 5- to 10-times lower than the cost
to bring many other cars to the market.  How they did it I am not sure
although I know that they do not have a dedicated assembly line and that
the Miata is made with other Mazda cars and by changing the software
of the robotics, they can make any car they want within a 24 hour
period.  

I have heard that Mazda makes about $1,000 to $2,000 (not sure of the
exact figure) in profit on the Miata.  In fact, it is their most
profitable car relative to development costs.  At $2,000 profit per
car, Mazda can make a return on their investment by just selling
50,000 cars (at $1,000 per car profit they would have to sell 100,000
cars).  This is one of the reasons that Mazda went along with the Miata
project.  Since they have sold about 300,000 Miata's worldwide, Mazda
has probably made between $300,000,000 and $600,000,000 on the Miata. 
For this reason, I think that they will be very conservative in any
changes they make in the 1994 model.

Herb Samuels