2018 was a good year for Eighties Cars. We managed 39 blog entries—one every nine days. Posts were divided up into 22 featuring a specific car, 14 on auctions, and three on a new for 2018 series—”What Cars Are Collectable?” discussed Hagerty’s choices in this area. 2018 was also the best year for page views since I started the blog—we were up 78% over 2017. I also added a Vanished category for cars that seem to have disappeared entirely.
Every year, I look at the end of the year results for most viewed posts. For 2018, it looked like the key to the popularity of an individual post was generally in the rarity of the other coverage available for that particular vehicle. It also didn’t hurt to be a Chevrolet, a Buick, or a Pontiac. In reverse order, I’ll look at the top ten most viewed posts of this year.
10) 1987 Chevrolet Caprice Classic coupe—this is a very old (April 2014) but evidently evergreen post about the last of the big Caprice coupes. For the five years Eighties Cars has been around, it’s the third most viewed post overall. 3,110 coupes were sold in the 1987 model year.
9) 1989 Chevrolet Celebrity sedan—I doubt there are a ton of articles being written about any of the A-body cars. This August 2016 article inspired by a work colleague’s Celebrity continued to get a substantial number of page hits this year. 162,462 sedans were sold in the 1989 model year.
8) 1982 Chrysler LeBaron convertible—the return of the convertible does get covered elsewhere, and people are collecting these cars. So, why does this LeBaron post get three times as many page hits as the one on the Town & Country? 12,825 convertibles were sold in an abbreviated 1982 model year.
7) 1981 Toyota Celica Sport Coupe—another relatively early article that continues to get a lot of attention. The period when I wrote this article was around the point when I began to figure out that there’s usually a lot less information available on eighties imports versus domestic brands of the same era.
6) 1984 Buick Riviera T-Type coupe—one of my first posts on this blog gets continued interest on a car that Hagerty does see as collectible ($15,500 in #1/Concours condition, $5,400 in #3/Good condition). My rather strange interest in sporty Rivieras had me covering the 1980 S TYPE late this year.
5) 1980 Pontiac Sunbird Sport Hatch—now this is a rarely discussed car, so I understand why the portion of the internet that cares is coming here. They also seem to have vanished entirely from the streets of America.
4) 1980 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 coupe—these late second-generation Z28s have been sliding up in popularity and value ($33,300 in #1/Concours condition, $15,600 in #3/Good condition for the 5.7 liter/350 ci engine versions), which marks a hole in my overall thesis on what posts are popular. Maybe next year my post on the Camaro Rally Sport from the same year will get more hits.
3) 1980 Pontiac Grand Am coupe—another rarely discussed 1980 Pontiac makes the list. This was the most viewed post in 2017, so it’s been consistently popular. 1,647 Grand Ams were sold in the 1980 model year.
2) 1985 Buick Somerset Regal coupe—this post has been picked up by other websites a few times, most recently by Jalopnik. Hilariously, I don’t think I would have ever gotten around to writing about the Somerset Regal if I hadn’t actually seen one on the streets of Philadelphia a few years ago.
1) 1986 Chevrolet Camaro Berlinetta hatchback coupe—the Berlinetta is rarely covered, with almost all the eighties Camaro attention going to the Z28 and the IROC-Z.
Posts that no longer made the cut in 2018 that were popular in 2017 include 1985 Chevrolet Caprice Classic Station Wagon and 1981 Chevrolet Citation X-11 hatchback coupe. A post on the rise in the last quarter of 2018 was 1987 Mercury Lynx XR3 hatchback coupe.
Eighties Cars 