2019 was a decent year for Eighties Cars. We managed 23 new or substantially revised blog entries—one every sixteen days. Posts were divided up into fifteen featuring a specific car, seven on auctions, and one announcing a change: Eighties Cars Is Slowing Down For A While. Despite, this 2019 was the best year for page views since I started the blog—we were up a substantial 62% over 2018.
Every year, I look at the end of the year results for most viewed posts. For 2019, it once again 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—our readers seem to be GM-centric. In reverse order, I’ll look at the top ten most viewed posts of this year.
10) 1980 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 coupe—these late second-generation Z28s have been sliding up in popularity and value ($34,600 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. This post’s ranking did drop from #4 to #10 this year.
9) 1987 Chevrolet Caprice Classic coupe—this very old (April 2014) but evidently evergreen post is about the last of the big Caprice coupes. For the six years Eighties Cars has been around, it’s the third most viewed post overall, and it moved up one spot in 2019. A mere 3,110 coupes were sold in the 1987 model year.
8) 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 ($15,100 in #1/Concours condition, $5,100 in #3/Good condition). Dropping two spots this year.
7) 1980 Pontiac Grand Am coupe—another rarely discussed 1980 Pontiac makes the list. This entry was the most viewed post in 2017, so it’s been consistently popular, though it dropped from third to seventh this year. 1,647 Grand Ams were sold in the 1980 model year.
6) 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. Dropping down one spot from last year.
5) 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 and moved up from #9. 162,462 sedans were sold in the 1989 model year; Chevrolet sold over 2.1 million Celebrities in the 1980s.
4) 1987 Buick LeSabre T Type coupe—a new entry for 2019 is the T Type many don’t know about. A good number seem to be looking as this page received a lot of hits. 4,123 LeSabre T Types were built for 1987.
3) 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 seen one on the streets of Philadelphia a few years ago. Down from #2 in 2018, but still the second most popular entry all time.
2) 1987 Mercury Lynx XR3 hatchback coupe—a post that was fast rising at the end of 2018 makes it all the way to #2 in 2019. Mercury is, of course, an orphan make, but this blog entry has been viewed five times more than my entry on the 1981 Ford Escort hatchback coupe.
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. In spite of this, Hagerty does value this car, currently at $13,400 in #1/Concours condition, $6,200 in #3/Good condition for the version with the optional V8. It repeats as my most viewed post and is the all-time most popular entry.
Posts that no longer made the cut in 2019 that were more popular in 2018 include 1982 Chrysler LeBaron convertible and 1981 Toyota Celica Sport Coupe. A post on the rise in the final quarter of 2019 was 1980 Buick Riviera S Type coupe.
Thanks to all who viewed this blog in 2019!
Eighties Cars 