Here’s wishing you all a very happy and healthy New Year! May we all age as gracefully as this ’67 Galaxie. Or even the Subaru, if our genes aren’t quite up to dazzling folks at such an advanced age.
2013 was another year of surprisingly strong growth at CC; I keep expecting our stats to start leveling off, but not quite yet. In 2013, some 1.58 million Unique Visitors dropped in to CC; some maybe once, others several times a day. That’s up 87% from 2012. Page Views also increased from 4.14 million to 6.88 million, up 66%. Here’s the top 10 most-viewed posts of the year, as well as some other highlights of 2013.
I’ll list the ten most viewed posts for the year, but please keep in mind that these numbers are the result of google searches and/or links from other sites, and don’t reflect “popularity” in terms of our regular readers. We rank high in google searches, so if we have an article on a subject and there aren’t many others out there, it will drive traffic to us. I know many of our regular readers found their way here because of such a search, liked what they saw, and came back for more.
#1. Engine History: The Ford 4.6 Liter V8 by Jason Shafer. This one has turned into a monster, generating 150-200 views day in, day out. Not only was it the most viewed in 2013, but it’s now the most viewed post ever at CC. A google search for Ford 4.6 helps shows why.
#2. Automotive History: An X-Ray Look At GM’s X Frame 2012’s most-viewed post got bumped to #2 by the Ford 4.6.
#3 The Best And Worst Selling Cars of 1985 (And All 159 In Between): This one caught me off guard. I used info from Matt Glasier’s bestsellingcarsblog.com to put this together, and it’s obviously a popular subject. I would love to do more, one for each year, but it’s not that easy to get the stats. Matt just happened to have them for 1985, and even then there were some discrepancies. You’d think they’d be readily available. But if someone wants to do the research to compile the stats for other years, you’d be a very popular person indeed.
#4 The Legendary Buick Nailhead V8 This has become a regular on the top ten list here ever since it was published in early 2011.
#5 1965 Lincoln Continental CC: Sometimes extra effort gets rewarded; other times not.
#6 1984 Jeep Cherokee CC: The story of the Cherokee’s French connection hasn’t been well-enough known, so it got picked up by a few other sites and linked back.
#7 Mercedes W124 CC : Calling It “The Best Car of the Past 30 Years” probably got it some attention. I’m not exactly prone to understatement.
#8 The Short And Odd Life of the Two-Door Station Wagon: This one was #9 last year, so it’s turning out to have an oddly popular and long life. And I can’t even take credit for the pictures…
#9 The Worlds Greatest Wagons: Peugeot 203, 403,404, 405, 505: This evergreen was #3 last year, so maybe there’s only so many Peugeot wagon freaks in the world. Now if only Peugeot had made a two-door wagon…
#10 1990 Caprice Classic Brougham CC by Tom Klockau: This homage to the classic Brougham is also another repeat from last year’s list. Got to have at least one brougham on the list!
That’s what drove traffic to our site for one reason or another. But what I’m proudest about is all the fabulous posts written by our ever-growing list of writers and contributors. There have been a raft of superb CCs and other stories, and unfortunately, there’s just no way I can do them all justice here. The quality just keeps getting better and better. Thank you all for taking the time to share them with us all.
I guess one story really does stand out for me, Adam Simpson’s Car Of A Lifetime Story about the ’59 VW he’s literally owned since he was three. It’s such a gem, and one you couldn’t make up. It’s hearing your stories that really makes CC worth it for me; I’m getting a bit tired of telling mine, but I’ll keep at it if it inspires you all to keep telling yours. Thanks for another marvelous year of car stories.
Cheers, Paul! Here’s to an even better 2014.
Not a bad firework night here in Eugene, btw. I love the smell of sulfur in the morning.
Love that Lincoln…
…but, I found this for all the old LTD lovers amongst us
Thanks Paul. I remember when I first sent you an overview of my story and you immediately said that you wanted to put it on here.
Just an FYI, the Beetle is off the road currently for some gearbox issues and also is going to be raised back up a bit. It will no longer be so lowered.
That VW Bug COAL was my favorite CC post of 2013, no doubt about it. And that’s saying a lot. Hopefully it won’t be your last article for CC!
+2. Very enjoyable article, and I too would love to hear about your other cars.
+3 Why haven’t we heard more from you?
My own fault for being sidetracked. I will get on that.
I actually am planning one for my best friend’s dd once he fixes it. It’s an older watercooled VW that you very rarely see (in fact the only one I have ever seen in person)
As far as my other cars, I’ve owned 19 cars, 17 of those Volkswagens so if you want to hear more COALs from me, I hope you like VWs, haha.
Happy New Year!
I can see why the post on the Caprice Classic was so popular. For people who grew up in the 80’s, the Caprice was a common sight! Sedan, station wagon, coupe — they were all over the place in the 80’s. This post has the memory factor behind it.
I graduated from high school in 1989. I grew up in a “row house” in a medium-sized city in Eastern PA. Several people in my neighborhood owned Caprices. At that time, my neighborhood was composed mostly of elderly people of Pennsylvania Dutch descent. They tended to be very brand loyal, and they tended to like larger cars, like the Caprice.
That’s why I like your site so much. The pictures of the cars, especially from the 1980’s and early 90’s, bring back so many memories.
Thanks for the recap. I somehow missed most of these. I’ m going to read the nailhead Buick article right now.
Congradulations, Paul.
To celebrate, I actually clicked on an ad!
Interesting that these are the Top 10 but the 4.6 article only generated 68 comments?