The Final Seven

Many Miata enthusiasts are 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 seven MSMs with a build date of December 20, 2004, several days after  the December 15th fire. The assumption has been that these cars were free of the paint shop where the fire occurred and were then completed afterwards. 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.

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So let's take a look at the Final 7 in Build number sequence per the 2005 Mazda VIN list.

       (Note: According to this list MSMs were NOT built in VIN sequence)

Build #      Build Date                   VIN                               Color            Model          Comments

 1422       2004-12-20***   JM1NB354X50414651     Titanium Grey      STD     initial registration Woodbridge, VA

 1423       2004-12-20       JM1NB354150414649      Black Mica           STD     initial registration Seattle, WA

 1424       2004-12-20       JM1NB354350414653      Titanium Grey      STD     Salvage - Santa Clara, CA        

 1425       2004-12-20       JM1NB354550414654      Black Mica           STD     highest serial number in Upland, CA       1426       2004-12-20       JM1NB354650414646      Velocity Red         GT       initial registration Belleville, IL        

 1427       2004-12-20       JM1NB354750414638      Titanium Grey      STD     for sale by dealer Westwood, MA

 1428       2004-12-20       JM1NB354850414650      Velocity Red         GT       last MSM build number per Mazda records

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 *** I believe the correct Build date for Build # 1422 is actually 2004-12-15 (confirmation pending).

Interestingly enough this was NOT the final production of these vehicles worldwide as there were 5 Japanese Roadster Turbos produced later in March 2005, more on those cars at a later date.

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Build # 1425   The last MSM?