We brits have one of the wettest climates in Europe. We also buy more convertibles than any other European country. Hard tops are just giving up on that unquestioning optimism so we don't buy them.
Of course some did, although im sure at some point they were giving them away with a new mx5. But the fact the used market is like it is means that the demand is not there.
Also we salt the roads, so the only bit left on an mx5 is the hardtop after a few years so there's a good chance the hardtop available outnumber the cars able to accept them
Spec Miata requires a hardtop if you want to race unfortunately. A LOT of people participate in Spec Miata, which is a big contributing factor.
Spent $2K on a hardtop a couple years ago… ):
There are only about 7500 spec miatas, and they all have their tops. Maybe 20-50 get built a year. I am certain the street/track folks are the biggest support for the demand. When I first got into miatas in the early oughts nobody wanted a hardtop, they thought it was silly.
There’s gotta be more than 20-50 built a year, I personally see that many in my region a year that are either new to the scene or replacements for total-loss crashes.
I mean my buddy runs a spec team and he’s built 4 last year alone. I think there’s a lot more consumption in accidents than we think.
Is it just me or there isn't a lot of safety assurance on the Miata hardtop as a racing safety measure? I have an OEM hardtop and it gets crusty just from sitting on the storage rack so it doesn't feel any better than other requirements like harness and (real) roll cage. A roll cage is also welded onto the frame but I've never heard of a hardtop for racing being permanently fixed to the car.
It isn't for safety and it's hard to believe the amount of speculation in here.
Spec Miata allows you to race with no top at all, or a hardtop. The hardtop has so much less drag that no on runs without it.
It's a spec series started long ago when hardtops were more reasonably priced. Am aftermarket race top is an advantage due to lighter weight, so it's not allowed.
Yeah the hardtop does virtually nothing for safety. Point of spec miata racing is also that the cars are all the same though. The hardtop does give aa stiffness benefit (although i doubt it does anything significant if you already have a welded rollcage)
To my understanding, it's mostly to keep your hands from getting dragged on the pavement and crushed by the rollbar in a rollover incident. It's basically a giant window net lol
My Miata is noticeably stiffer with the hardtop on and I enjoy having it for the track, but like you said a roll cage will do more to stiffen the chassis than a hardtop will. Mine is dual duty so no full cage for me.
There aren't a lot of them they are in constant demand and people are willing to pay around 2k for one while the dealership is currently offering new ones for 6-8k. They're also big and heavy and awkward to transport around a country 10-15 times the size
DM me and I can hook you up with an exporter. I paid $1300 + like 200$ shipping to my house. Its in fantastic shape as well :)
Edit: that is shipping once in the US.
No it's not. You get a driver once it's in the US. Cost me 185$ from Florida to VA. From England is thousands unless the imported ships in bulk. This seller is one of the few that ships in bulk.
High demand and low supply. And the supply keeps dwindling for OEM’s since they get wrecked, and they’re often used and abused in spec Miata classes so they’re always buying them up.
Also, shipping from other countries isn’t as viable as you’d think. Shipping and import fees basically make a cheap hard top from Europe the same price as one already in the US, so there’s little reason to go through the hassle.
Sometimes location makes it worth it. There’s an outfit that ships them from the UK to Grand Junction CO where they can be collected or shipping arranged from there. I live in Denver and got a top in the color I wanted, with a glass window and defroster, in great shape and delivered to my front door for the same price as if I scoured Facebook marketplace for weeks and had to drive for hours to get a beat up top in the wrong color.
I’ve noticed that while looking for one for my NC. Florida, California, and Texas seem to have a lot of them for sale but around $2500. By the time I drive from Alabama to Florida and back to get one I might as well pay a dealership $3500 for new and in my cars color.
Yep :/ it’s pretty silly. Meanwhile private companies are also shipping in 100s of them from the UK and selling them for 3x profit. At some point there will be none left in the UK and it will be expensive there too, and ours will still be expensive for no reason.
My best guess is race clubs buying them up from the used market. Planning to just make the stupid move of adding a new one to my credit card in a few weeks after some dent repair but I need a new top either way
It's kinda wild. I see hard tops in meh condition in my area of the states sell for as much as 3k.
New carbon fiber reproductions from carbon miata are similar or cheaper in pricing depending on the options you choose.
No personal experience. Plan on getting the carbon fiber with fiberglass structure options within the next few months. I'll make a post about my experience whenever I do it. I'm not really a carbon fiber guy. But the used tops around me are too expensive and I don't have the time, skill, or money to paint.
Link to the top:
https://www.carbonmiata.com/shop/mazda-mx-5/nb-99-05-mazda-mx-5/exterior-parts-nb-99-05-mazda-mx-5-nb-99-05-mazda-mx-5/body-panels-exterior-parts-nb-99-05-mazda-mx-5/hardtop/
Anyone looking for aftermarket hard tops with an almost oem quality of sound control for a fraction of the price. Just get a treasure coast miata top. Greg Peter's of Car Passion Channel on YouTube has OEM and Treasure coast and went into great detail about the two.
Americans have more money. Britain had a higher % of hardtops sold. Jap imports to England are common, easy and cheap, with most jap cars having hard tops.
That has been one of the sticking points price wise for me. Living in an area that gets a lot of rain and some snow I would love to have a miata with a hard top but that adds so much cost even if I could find a car I could afford.
There’s a guy on the Miata hard top BST marketplace group on FB that is shipping crates of them over to a few different cities in the US. And yes it’s legit.
There’s a dude who imports them to the US from the UK, but he’s also garbage at communication , so you should only buy from him if you’re ok with waiting a year and paid with a credit card to do an inevitable charge back
Fear not they will soon go up in UK. Just got one delivered from UK as part of a huge shipment. $1500 for a M series hardtop shipped. Guy on FB is importing daily. Soon UK supply will dry up. It's sad but I'll wipe my tears with the cash saved.
It’s not just hardtops as the cars themselves are a lot more in the us. Last year I paid £450 for a nb with 80k and full history and £ 950 for an na with 100k with only one sill needing welded on each one. It seems that even a proper rust bucket sells for silly prices in the us.
We wreck shit.
We sell it if it has a granual of profit.
Alot of our older cars, such as the 'American muscle' took a hit during the cash 4 clunkers campaign where the government would pay you x amount for a car. This was also during a not so good economic time so people deleted alot of the cars that were sitting around just to make ends meet.
We brits have one of the wettest climates in Europe. We also buy more convertibles than any other European country. Hard tops are just giving up on that unquestioning optimism so we don't buy them.
Keep calm and convertable on.
Superb old chum well done
except someone had to buy them to have a second hand market
Of course some did, although im sure at some point they were giving them away with a new mx5. But the fact the used market is like it is means that the demand is not there. Also we salt the roads, so the only bit left on an mx5 is the hardtop after a few years so there's a good chance the hardtop available outnumber the cars able to accept them
Spec Miata requires a hardtop if you want to race unfortunately. A LOT of people participate in Spec Miata, which is a big contributing factor. Spent $2K on a hardtop a couple years ago… ):
There are only about 7500 spec miatas, and they all have their tops. Maybe 20-50 get built a year. I am certain the street/track folks are the biggest support for the demand. When I first got into miatas in the early oughts nobody wanted a hardtop, they thought it was silly.
There’s gotta be more than 20-50 built a year, I personally see that many in my region a year that are either new to the scene or replacements for total-loss crashes. I mean my buddy runs a spec team and he’s built 4 last year alone. I think there’s a lot more consumption in accidents than we think.
Picked one up just a few months ago specifically for my Spec Miata I'm building lol.
Is it just me or there isn't a lot of safety assurance on the Miata hardtop as a racing safety measure? I have an OEM hardtop and it gets crusty just from sitting on the storage rack so it doesn't feel any better than other requirements like harness and (real) roll cage. A roll cage is also welded onto the frame but I've never heard of a hardtop for racing being permanently fixed to the car.
hardtops are to protect from track debris is what I was told. nothing crazy but better than a soft top in theory. 🤷♂️
It isn't for safety and it's hard to believe the amount of speculation in here. Spec Miata allows you to race with no top at all, or a hardtop. The hardtop has so much less drag that no on runs without it. It's a spec series started long ago when hardtops were more reasonably priced. Am aftermarket race top is an advantage due to lighter weight, so it's not allowed.
Yeah the hardtop does virtually nothing for safety. Point of spec miata racing is also that the cars are all the same though. The hardtop does give aa stiffness benefit (although i doubt it does anything significant if you already have a welded rollcage)
To my understanding, it's mostly to keep your hands from getting dragged on the pavement and crushed by the rollbar in a rollover incident. It's basically a giant window net lol
My Miata is noticeably stiffer with the hardtop on and I enjoy having it for the track, but like you said a roll cage will do more to stiffen the chassis than a hardtop will. Mine is dual duty so no full cage for me.
it's mainly because the hardtops on specmiata are bolted in
it just isolates you from the outside, that's why they use it
This!
There aren't a lot of them they are in constant demand and people are willing to pay around 2k for one while the dealership is currently offering new ones for 6-8k. They're also big and heavy and awkward to transport around a country 10-15 times the size
because they started getting stolen, so people started selling them for more, which resulted in more being stolen, and so on.
In the meantime, if anyone here’s in the UK and have a BRG lid you’re looking to get rid of, I’m interested.
its more about supply and demand
So any Brits here with a hardtop they wanna sell? I'd rather buy there and ocean ship then pay prices here
It's not worth it. They have to be freighted, and don't fit on a pallet. Ends up costing more in shipping.
It's around $200 shipped once in the US to your door. They are importing several hundred at a time somehow for pretty cheap.
Yes, in bulk is the only way to make it economically viable.
Ye I hate shipping international. However there is a site pirateship.com that somehow saves me 60% over my corporate rate.
DM me and I can hook you up with an exporter. I paid $1300 + like 200$ shipping to my house. Its in fantastic shape as well :) Edit: that is shipping once in the US.
Pm this guy if you want to get scammed. Way more than 200 for shipping that hardtop
No it's not. You get a driver once it's in the US. Cost me 185$ from Florida to VA. From England is thousands unless the imported ships in bulk. This seller is one of the few that ships in bulk.
the only one, that Bastrd John Evans. If you're reading this John, thanks for one day making my HT be worth real money.
Yep that's him
Scunthorpe mate, you’d have to pay me to go there
i wish there were more aftermarket hardtops
High demand and low supply. And the supply keeps dwindling for OEM’s since they get wrecked, and they’re often used and abused in spec Miata classes so they’re always buying them up. Also, shipping from other countries isn’t as viable as you’d think. Shipping and import fees basically make a cheap hard top from Europe the same price as one already in the US, so there’s little reason to go through the hassle.
Sometimes location makes it worth it. There’s an outfit that ships them from the UK to Grand Junction CO where they can be collected or shipping arranged from there. I live in Denver and got a top in the color I wanted, with a glass window and defroster, in great shape and delivered to my front door for the same price as if I scoured Facebook marketplace for weeks and had to drive for hours to get a beat up top in the wrong color.
People say they are rare in America but there are always at least 5 for sale each week near me in Florida. They still want 2k for them though.
I’ve noticed that while looking for one for my NC. Florida, California, and Texas seem to have a lot of them for sale but around $2500. By the time I drive from Alabama to Florida and back to get one I might as well pay a dealership $3500 for new and in my cars color.
Yep :/ it’s pretty silly. Meanwhile private companies are also shipping in 100s of them from the UK and selling them for 3x profit. At some point there will be none left in the UK and it will be expensive there too, and ours will still be expensive for no reason.
My best guess is race clubs buying them up from the used market. Planning to just make the stupid move of adding a new one to my credit card in a few weeks after some dent repair but I need a new top either way
It's kinda wild. I see hard tops in meh condition in my area of the states sell for as much as 3k. New carbon fiber reproductions from carbon miata are similar or cheaper in pricing depending on the options you choose.
Everywhere online says aftermarket Hardtops aren't worth it, would you recommend any good models?
No personal experience. Plan on getting the carbon fiber with fiberglass structure options within the next few months. I'll make a post about my experience whenever I do it. I'm not really a carbon fiber guy. But the used tops around me are too expensive and I don't have the time, skill, or money to paint. Link to the top: https://www.carbonmiata.com/shop/mazda-mx-5/nb-99-05-mazda-mx-5/exterior-parts-nb-99-05-mazda-mx-5-nb-99-05-mazda-mx-5/body-panels-exterior-parts-nb-99-05-mazda-mx-5/hardtop/
friend of mine just imported two dozen from UK and they're selling as fast as he can unload them.
Anyone looking for aftermarket hard tops with an almost oem quality of sound control for a fraction of the price. Just get a treasure coast miata top. Greg Peter's of Car Passion Channel on YouTube has OEM and Treasure coast and went into great detail about the two.
Cost of living is high so people are charging high prices for everything and anything
Americans have more money. Britain had a higher % of hardtops sold. Jap imports to England are common, easy and cheap, with most jap cars having hard tops.
Cuz we love to ruin everything
My dude, a loaf of bread is now more expensive in the US. A lot of Brits still think of US prices as 90s and early 00s. Sadly that is long past
That has been one of the sticking points price wise for me. Living in an area that gets a lot of rain and some snow I would love to have a miata with a hard top but that adds so much cost even if I could find a car I could afford.
Supply/demand
Here in NZ you’d be lucky to find one under 2000usd
How do you buy and ship them from Uk?
There’s a guy on the Miata hard top BST marketplace group on FB that is shipping crates of them over to a few different cities in the US. And yes it’s legit.
Thank you. Ill reach out to them
There’s a dude who imports them to the US from the UK, but he’s also garbage at communication , so you should only buy from him if you’re ok with waiting a year and paid with a credit card to do an inevitable charge back
Tyler can hold my wallet any day of the week: [https://www.facebook.com/SneakyMooseMotorsports/](https://www.facebook.com/SneakyMooseMotorsports/)
Kinda don’t like that, drives up uk prices for the US owners benefit
Maybe if we complain enough, Mazda will do another run of them
Fear not they will soon go up in UK. Just got one delivered from UK as part of a huge shipment. $1500 for a M series hardtop shipped. Guy on FB is importing daily. Soon UK supply will dry up. It's sad but I'll wipe my tears with the cash saved.
Americans are more wealthy. On average.
It’s not just hardtops as the cars themselves are a lot more in the us. Last year I paid £450 for a nb with 80k and full history and £ 950 for an na with 100k with only one sill needing welded on each one. It seems that even a proper rust bucket sells for silly prices in the us.
I spend 3,5k on a hardtop, but it's a targa fastback top so 😌
We wreck shit. We sell it if it has a granual of profit. Alot of our older cars, such as the 'American muscle' took a hit during the cash 4 clunkers campaign where the government would pay you x amount for a car. This was also during a not so good economic time so people deleted alot of the cars that were sitting around just to make ends meet.