All in all, 2020 was a positive year for Eighties Cars. We managed 51 new or substantially revised blog entries—one every seven days. Posts counts divided into 37 featuring a specific car, six covering auctions, seven miscellaneous posts, and one announcing a pandemic-influenced change: Eighties Cars Is Speeding Up Again.
Five marques made their first appearance in specific posts in 2020: Jeep, Maserati, Renault, Triumph, and Volvo. I have no set plan on what marques to cover the most—Chevrolet ended up in the lead, with Ford and Porsche also prevalent. Finally, 2020 was by far the best year for page views since I started the blog—we were up a substantial 38% over 2019.
Every year, I look at the end of the year results for the blog’s most viewed posts. For 2020, it once again looked like the key to an individual post’s popularity was often 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. This year, there was one more obvious pattern—four of the top ten posts were for 1980 model year cars. In reverse order, we’ll discuss the top ten most viewed posts of this year.
10) 1980 Chevrolet Camaro Rally Sport coupe—Rally Sports are given short shrift by most late second-generation Camaros followers, with the Z28 getting far more attention. Despite this, Hagerty does track them—seeing them as worth $17,600 in #1/Concours condition and $10,600 in #3/Good condition with the best available LG4 V8. This August 2018 post was a new entry in the top 10 this year—it was #16 in 2019.
9) 1980 Buick Riviera S Type coupe—this post is about a car that Hagerty and others do see as somewhat collectible ($13,800 in #1/Concours condition, $3,900 in #3/Good condition). Another new entry—up from #14 in 2019.
8) 1989 Chevrolet Celebrity sedan—I doubt many articles are 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, though it dropped three spots to #8. Chevrolet sold 162,462 sedans in the 1989 model year and over 2.1 million Celebrities in the 1980s.
7) 1980 Pontiac Grand Am coupe—a rarely discussed 1980 Pontiac makes the list (collectors generally think of the 1973 to 1975 examples). This entry was the most viewed post in 2017, so it’s been consistently popular—now seventh for two years running and the first in this year’s top ten to have over 1,000 views. 1,647 Grand Ams were sold in the 1980 model year, which marked the last year for the rear-wheel-drive Grand Am.
6) 1987 Chevrolet Caprice Classic coupe—this elderly (April 2014) but evidently evergreen post is about the last of the big Caprice coupes. For the seven years Eighties Cars has been around, it’s the third most viewed post overall, and it moved up three spots in 2020. Chevrolet sold a mere 3,110 coupes in the 1987 model year.
5) 1980 Pontiac Sunbird Sport Hatch—this may be an even more rarely discussed car than the Grand Am of the same year, so I understand why the portion of the internet that cares about it is coming here. These Sunbirds also seem to have vanished entirely from the streets of America. Up one spot from last year.
4) 1987 Buick LeSabre T Type coupe—unlike those Regals and Rivieras, this is a T Type many don’t know about. A good number who are interested seem to be finding this page, which was #4 for a second straight year. Buick built 4,123 LeSabre T Types in 1987.
3) 1986 Chevrolet Camaro Berlinetta hatchback coupe—the Berlinetta is rarely written about, with almost all the eighties Camaro attention going to the Z28 and the IROC-Z. Despite this, Hagerty does track this car, currently at $12,800 in #1/Concours condition, $5,900 in #3/Good condition for the version with the optional V8. This post dropped from #1 in 2019 to #3 in 2020 but remains the all-time most popular entry.
2) 1987 Mercury Lynx XR3 hatchback coupe—this post repeated at #2 in 2020 and is the third most popular all-time. Mercury is, of course, an orphan make, but this blog entry has been viewed almost five times more than my write-up on the related 1981 Ford Escort hatchback coupe.
1) 1985 Buick Somerset Regal coupe—this post has been picked up by other websites a few times, including a couple of years ago 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 back in 2014. Up from #3 in 2019, and the second most popular entry all-time.
Two posts that did not make it into the top ten in 2020, after doing so in 2019, were those on the 1980 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 coupe and the 1984 Buick Riviera T Type coupe. The best performing Chrysler product post was one on the 1980 Plymouth Horizon hatchback coupe (19th) while the best performing foreign car was the 1986 Honda Accord sedan (20th). The highest-ranking European car post was on the 1985 Volkswagen Cabriolet (45th and just ahead of the 1985 Mercedes-Benz 380SL convertible). A post on the rise in the final quarter of 2020 was the one written about the 1985 Chevrolet C20 Suburban Silverado SUV.
Thanks to all who viewed this blog in 2020!
Eighties Cars 
Some good posts this year guys. Even though I’m obviously a Ford man, I can still appreciate other manufacturer’s cars.
Keep the upward trend going. Perhaps you could do other decades too? 50s 60s 70s etc. Kerp you busy. 👍
Thanks, as always, for the comment.
I locked in on the 80s because a) I’m reasonably aware of them and b) there’s relatively little coverage of the era. But, all eras of cars interest me.
I’m still in the 80’s too. The early 80s was best for music.