Will Forte’s MacGruber Miata is the gift that keeps on giving. For the third time in two years, the car is back on the auction block for a good cause—and once again, it comes with the chance to hang with MacGruber himself.
The 1996 Mazda Miata driven by the popular Saturday Night Live character in his spinoff movie and subsequent TV series was first put up for auction by Forte himself in October 2023, with all proceeds benefiting The Pangea Network, a charity that provides educational and financial resources to women and youth in Kenya and the United States.
Though the car fetched more than anyone expected, the buyer generously donated the car back to Forte the next year so that it could be auctioned off for charity again. Now history is repeating itself. Having won the car a second time, the same bidder is donating it back for a third charity auction.
At the time of the first auction, Forte did not expect the car to net a hefty bid, so he went all out on bonus offers for bidders: For $30k, Forte offered to throw in a page from the “KFBR392” notebook MacGruber used in the film. For $50k, he promised to personally deliver the car and take the winner out to dinner. To his surprise, the car sold for $55,000, prompting Forte to go above and beyond on his added perks.
The actor flew out to Dallas to spend a weekend with the winner, even teaching the buyer’s son to drive stick-shift in authentic MacGruber gear. “I brought the MacGruber outfit, and we made him wear the clothes,” Forte later recounted on The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast. “He had the clothes on and the freaking wig, and he’s just driving around.”
When the Miata went up for auction a second time, Forte offered the same added perks—and he’s doing it again this time around. Despite knowing just how much the car can fetch, the benchmarks for the bonuses basically remain the same.
If the winning bid surpasses $25k, Forte will provide a page from MacGruber’s “KFBR392” notebook. At $50k, he’ll “personally deliver the car to you anywhere in the lower 48 and take you out to dinner.” For $100k, Forte will fly the winner and a friend out to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the “ultimate MacGruber Tour” of filming locations, complete with the opportunity to don the character’s screen-used costume and wig.
Forte does warn prospective buyers that the vehicle has seen better days. With over 145k miles on it, the car carries some tears in the convertible top, a rear window that’s “cloudy with a chance of splits,” and an interior that has been through the ringer. “Let’s just say the seats have… endured some things,” the listing notes. While it doesn’t come with MacGruber’s MAC 1 license plate, the Miata is still covered in the graffiti “love notes” MacGruber wrote to Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig).
Forte first purchased the Miata from the MacGruber production in 2009. It sat in his garage until it was put to use again in the 2021 followup series for Peacock, where it sat on the studio lot for a couple of years after production wrapped.
When Forte purchased the Miata, giving it up for charity wasn’t his initial plan. MacGruber director and co-writer Jorma Taccone revealed on The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast last year that he had a different vision for the Miata’s future in mind.
“After the movie, we sort of convinced Will that we should buy the Miata, and me and John [Solomon, MacGruber co-writer] were also supposed to pitch in for it, but I don’t think we ever did,” said Taccone, who hoped to “trick it out” and “make it look like MacGruber’s actually driving stock cars now.” The idea, said Taccone, was to enter the car in real stock car races around the country. “And then he would just always come in last and always put on his turn signals, and just get lapped like a million times.”
The new auction for MacGruber’s 1996 Mazda Miata is open now, and closes this Sunday, September 21st at 7:30 PM ET. The bidding already sits at $12,500.
