Mazda Confirms 2025 Miatas Stuck at US Ports Due to Parts Issue [Updated]

There’s good and bad news for customers waiting on their 2025 MX-5 Miatas this week. The good news? Mazda has acknowledged that there is, in fact, an issue impacting deliveries. The not-so-good news? It may not be resolved immediately.

“We are investigating a potential issue with a vehicle control module in certain MX-5s,” Mazda’s spokesperson told The Drive in an email. “Out of an abundance of caution we have temporarily suspended deliveries of 2025 MX-5s. The Mazda team is working hard to remedy the hold up as efficiently as possible.”

As of this update, Mazda has not yet offered a timeline for when the delay might clear. The issue is affecting enough customers that word of holdups made its way to multiple online Mazda communities in recent weeks. Following a tip sent by a customer whose Miata hasn’t moved since arriving at the Port of Los Angeles three weeks ago, we found reports of similar delays from several other buyers across forums and social media.

Based on limited information from dealers, it appears that Mazda is waiting on some replacement parts before those vehicles can be shipped out for delivery. It’s unclear precisely which module is the problem—some VCMs manage the powertrain, while others deal with stability control, for example—though our tipster and others have reportedly heard that the culprit here pertains to the latter.

When vehicles are held in port, it’s often to address an issue that might have been discovered after a car has left the factory. Sometimes, they require a new physical part to replace a defective or improperly installed component. When Volkswagen was forced to withdraw the emissions certificates for its diesels during its emissions scandal in 2015, thousands of its vehicles were stranded in ports waiting for a fix. Sometimes those holds are just over software updates. In those cases, dealers are often capable of offering the fix. But dealing with it at the port makes for better control of the process, reducing the likelihood that a car somehow slips through the cracks and ends up in a customer’s hands with a defect.

Despite Mazda’s suggestion that all 2025-model-year MX-5s are being held, it appears that some MX-5s are actually making it to customers, which suggests that the issue is specific to only a certain subset of Miatas. Our tip came from a customer who ordered a 35th Anniversary model (pictured), and after perusing Miata.net, it appears he’s not alone. But in that same thread, other members have reported taking delivery of the same trim, suggesting that not all of them are similarly impacted or that Mazda is starting to clear the backlog.

Quite a few current-model-year Miatas are already on U.S. lots—a cursory look at Autotrader turned up more than 700 new ones at dealerships. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a new issue kinking the flow of new cars into the country.

If there’s any silver lining here for Miata buyers, it’s that vehicles that have already entered their final port of call in the United States aren’t at risk of being assessed any further import duties. In other words, customers can rest assured that no matter which way the political winds blow, these delays will cost them only time, not money.

Update Thursday, April 24, 2025, 9:30 a.m. Eastern: After publication, Mazda confirmed to The Drive that MX-5 deliveries have been halted due to a “potential issue with a vehicle control module.” The story has been updated to reflect this.

Do you know anything about new Miatas having trouble making their way to dealerships? Drop us a note at tips@thedrive.com.

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