Random: The Mazda MX-5 Has Been The World’s Best-Selling Sports Car For 25 Years

Welcome to Random, a new series at Car Throttle where we bring you the stories nobody looks for, but turn out to be oddly interesting

You know that figure about the Mazda MX-5 that its manufacturer likes to trot out every now and then? The one about it being the world’s best-selling sports car? Well, turns out it’s been doing that for 25 years now. That’s good going.

The company announced today that, after cementing its place as the best-selling two seater sports car worldwide in 2000, it’s yet to be unseated a quarter of a century later. Granted, that’s a lot less surprising now than it was, say, 20 years ago, given how few pure two seater sports cars remain on sale, but it still feels like something worth celebrating – the MX-5 is ace, and we’re glad so many people around the world agree.

Mazda’s stat people have been busy, because the company’s given us a few other interesting tidbits alongside this announcement. Stat number one: nearly 1.3 million MX-5s have been built at the Hiroshima plant since the car launched in 1989. Stat number two: over 135,000 of those cars have been sold new in the UK.

Stat number three: since launching in 2015, over 30,000 fourth-gen MX-5s have been sold in the UK. That averages out at nearly 3000 a year, although so far, only 859 of those sales have been in 2025. Come on, car buyers of Britain – get it together.

Stat number four: despite that measly 2025 figure, it’s still the best-selling non-luxury (i.e. not a Porsche) sports car in Britain so far this year. Although we’re not sure what else it’s even up against.

Stat number five: the special edition MX-5 is a well-documented phenomenon, and indeed, some 56 of them have been offered in the UK since the car launched, most recently 2023's Kizuna.

Finally, stat number six: when the original MX-5 went on sale in Britain in 1990, it cost £14,429, which is more than £35,000 adjusted for inflation. Today, a basic 1.5-litre MX-5 starts at £28,585, which is actually only a few hundred quid more than a basic VW Golf costs these days. Remind us again why UK sales are only in three figures so far this year?

Right, no more stats, just a good old-fashioned subjective statement which, really, should be taken as fact: the MX-5 is brilliant, and quite frankly it’s fully deserving of its long reign as the world’s favourite sports car. Long may it continue.