The End of an Era, the Final Eight...er, Thirteen
Many Miata enthusiasts are now aware of the plant fire that supposedly ended production of the NB Miatas (and the MSM in particular) in December 2004.
However, further research indicates that is not the complete story.
There are eight cars (6 MSMs and 2 SEs) with a build date of December 20, 2004, several days after the December 15th fire. There are two possibilities here, One is that these cars were free of the paint shop where the fire occurred and were then completed afterwards within Plant 1 or two, they were actually completed in Plant 2 similar to other affected vehicles. Further research has proven that NB production did actually continue in the Ujina No. 2 Plant for several months after the fire. In fact, there were over 400 units produced between January and April 2005 before the model changeover to the NC in May.
So let's take a look at the Final 8 in VIN sequence as we now know MSMs were NOT produced in Build # sequence.
The 6 USA model MSMs:
Chassis # VIN Build Date Color Model Notes
414646 JM1NB354650414646 2004-12-20 Velocity Red GT last known location - IL
414649 JM1NB354150414649 2004-12-20 Black Mica STD last known location - WA 414650 JM1NB354850414650 2004-12-20 Velocity Red GT last known location - UT
414651 JM1NB354X50414651 2004-12-20 Titanium Grey STD last known location - VA
414653 JM1NB354350414653 2004-12-20 Titanium Grey STD last known location - CA
414654 JM1NB354550414654 2004-12-20 Black Mica GT last known location - CA
The 2 Australia model SEs:
Chassis # VIN Build Date Color Model Notes
400771 JM0NB30P400400771 2004-12-20 Titanium Grey GT Initial reg. - Victoria
400772 JM0NB30P400400772 2004-12-20 Black Mica GT Initial reg. - Queensland
Chassis # 414654 The last MSM
Chassis # 400772 The last SE
BUT THERE'S MORE......
Interestingly enough this was NOT the final production of these vehicles worldwide as there were 5 Japanese Roadster Turbos produced near the end of NB production later in March 2005.
This 2005 Pure White model with black cloth interior was the last Roadster Turbo produced on March 16, 2005 signalling an end of an era. A Turbo Miata/MX-5 has not been factory produced by Mazda since.
