The best selling passenger car in 1985
(first posted 1/30/2013. I can’t vouch for its accuracy or completeness) In addition to documenting the best selling cars from some 170 countries around the globe, Matt Glasnier of bestsellingcarsblog.com has taken on the Herculean but useful task of compiling US historical car sales data. He’s starting with 1985, which is in the heart of the Curbside Classic era, so I thought it would interesting to revisit those sales stats, as well as to see how many of all 161 models ranked I’ve shot so far. I was somewhat surprised on both accounts.
Matt has given us kind permission to post his whole table. It looks good, but I suspect there might be some issue with the Chevrolet C10 number, which looks suspiciously low, maybe because the K-Series 4x4s are not included. And of course, the Ford F-Series includes F100, F150 and F250 models.
Biggest surprise (or not)? The Japanese hadn’t yet totally dominated the top passenger cars sales ranks. But note that Honda Accord sales are broken into two categories; US and Japanese origin. Combined, the Accord sold some 256k units, and would rightly have the #8 sales spot. But all that would change very soon.
As I mentioned at the top, I thought I’d check my files to see how many of these vehicles I’ve shot and have in my files (some may not be the exact year, but very close). The only ones I haven’t found yet are the Renault Alliance and Encore, Dodge Charger, Plymouth TC3, Renault Fuego, and the very lowly but beautiful Peugeot 604, of which all of 13 were sold, left-overs from its last year in 1984. But I will find one someday…
image: totallystupid.com
Hey that 604 looks to be in Idaho, so it’s not too far away.
Thought it might do something to combine the GMC full size with the C10. Eyes no longer so bueno but didn’t even see it.
Had I just guessed I never would have thought the S10 outsold the C10. Well live, read, and learn. Very interesting list.
The first Mopar product is all the way down at #30, but if you add just the Plymouth Reliant (#30) and Dodge Aries (#37), the original K-cars and basically identical, you get 254,816 which would have put them in the top 10.
I’m sure the same point could be made for many other models, such as the Ford Panther cars (Crown Vic and Grand Marquis). I wonder how different the table would look if all the basically identical models sharing the same platform were lumped together?
How times have changed!
Of course, back then I had no knowledge of what cars sold the best and didn’t care. I had a young family, a dog, my 1981 Reliant and 1976 Dart Lite, so I was happy.
We were busy taking lots of train rides on Amtrak in those days. Our kids were “raised” on passenger trains – in St. Louis, you could do that.
The 1980s – great times for us!
I was just kind of amazed how many vehicles the Mercury Marquis (notice not “Grand” but the Fox based one) outsold. The only Fox Mercury (other than a Capri) that I’ve seen in the flesh was a Zephyr sedan, but that’s been YEARS ago.
The mini truck market sure racked up some decent sales. Especially when you consider that niche is essentially disappeared today.
In my town, one still sees many of the ’85 style (’84 – ’88 I think) Toyota pickups … the 4WD EFI with solid front axle is prized today. Also quite a few first-gen Chrysler minivans and S10’s, Fox Mustangs, Cutlass Cieras, and full-size Chevy trucks, though of course several of those were built over many years with little change so they could be newer. Also, many Vanagons. Cavaliers, Celebrities, K-Cars, Chevettes, even Sentras and 1st-gen FWD Corollas …. not so much.
I had one of those solid axle Toyota 4X4 trucks, with EFI, 22RE and 4 sp auto. It would climb like a billy goat. It also had the most uncomfortable seat and driving position of any vehicle I have ever driven.
I also toasted the engine pulling a trailer up the Coquihalla Highway with it.
Plenty of that generation Toyota trucks still around. I had an ’84 4X4 without EFI. It was a little weak at altitude and I took a lot of ski trips to Mammoth back then. With the solid leaf sprung front axle and manual steering it was an uncomfortable ride. Nonetheless, it would take me anywhere, even places where a buddy’s big block jacked up GMC couldnt go.
I’m surprised that the Cavalier sold a bit more than the Escort. Add up all the J-cars and they were way ahead of Ford in sales on the compacts. The Js cost signifcantly more than the Escort, too, which makes their sales lead even more surprising. But try to find an ’85 version of either now — extremely difficult, at least around where I live.
Here’s one of those ’85s as of 7am this morning anyway. I suspect I won’t be seeing it again which SUCKS (needed some parts!)
Just last night I saw some crazy looking old bag driving The Last Cimarron In California, doing about 3-4 MPH down Ventura Blvd. (Who knows, maybe hers didn’t come with a gas pedal.)
Waxberry yellow, BTW.
I dig that early 90s Brougham you got there, although it too looks like its seen better days. If I squint, it almost looks like a Cadillac dealer showroom.
It was Cadillac day at the scrapyard today… a gray ’91 Fleetwood sedan, an ’85 Cimarron, the ’90 Brougham you see there, another complete white Olds-powered Brougham, and a trashed ’92+ maroon Eldo.
They aren’t open on Saturdays so I was only able to grab some bits off the Cimarron, Fleetwood, & above Brougham. The Brougham was junk due to the extensively cut-up/rigged air-ride suspension. It probably sported Daytons. Just stupid. I’ll throw a few pics of them on Flickr.
As awesome as I find some of my junkyard gems, I’m a little hesitant to dump them on the Cohort.
I BADLY need some parts off of that ’91 Brougham! Do you want to make some money? Where is it? I’m in Atlanta.
Sorry Mr. Thomas: it’s smushed by now. This place isn’t a junkyard per-se so cars typically last between one and three days before being crushed & sent to the mill. However I’ve pestered them long enough that they put up with me running amidst their loaders.
I very much wanted to tear into that Caddy but that pesky job of mine took precedence again!
My parents bought a new civic in 1985 and a cavalier too. The cavalier was a good looking car, but the civic was still on the road long after that body style cavalier had been forgotten.
I’m surprised by the low sales number of the 4runner, it seems I saw them everywhere during that era.
Toyotas had a significant price premium at the time, thanks the the “voluntary” quota system. While Toyota’s raw sales data doesn’t seem that great at the time, the profit per unit was enormous. The dealers ran away with obscene profits. There were plenty around because a Toyota truck didn’t fall to pieces two seconds after the warranty was up.
Here in Canuckistan, it was not unheard of for people to wait three to six months for a 4Runner. Toyotas at the time were for people who had “made it” (at least in the Impoverished Great White North) as the weakness of the Canuckistani Peso at the time made the premium even bigger. Added to this, we have always paid more for cars than our free cousins down south.
Case in point: my gf bought her 1985 Toyota 4X4 in 1990 for $9000, for a unit that cost $13,800 new as our Peso was hitting new lows by 1990.
Now they are cheap in comparison.
I remember that. My buddy’s parents bought him a brand new 626 coupe for his 16th birthday, but I think it took at least 9-10 months before he could actually take delivery.
Just think what would’ve happened to the US auto industry without the import tariffs and voluntary import restrictions in place.
It would only have postponed the inevitable; have a look at 15% market GM and 11% Chrysler. Both companies are recipients of enormous amounts of corporate welfare and neither has been much of a success. Imagine the improvement to the economy had those billions gone to science scholarships, for example.
The quotas only served to show that the Japanese could good bigger vehicles, too, as before the quotas they were always considered good economy cars. In addition, any time you make something scarce, you only make it more desirable.
Its fun to go through and see what cars that have sold in similar numbers are still around out there.
For example, I don’t remember the last time I saw a Buick Skyhawk, but I saw a Pontiac Fiero on the road just the other day.
I’ll bet if I go through my local craigslist I’ll find at least 3 Fiero’s for sale and likely 0 Skyhawks..
I don’t think this directly says that a Fiero was more reliable than a Skyhawk…it just shows that some cars are taken better care of over the years and purchased by different demographics that may be kinder to them…
The numbers for the 1985 Chev Trucks are not correct for all C/K pickups. From the Standard Catalog of Light-Duty Trucks, Chevrolet produced (calender year):
430,600 pickups
46,978 Stepvans
171,329 Vans
A total of 1,325,491 Light Trucks.
I am not sure other production numbers are included to get to the 1.3 million, but obviously it does not break down all the numbers for each truck that year. Further, I have a feeling that the 430,600 is just fullsize trucks. Chevy sold over 400K C/K trucks in 1984, and in 1986. In the 1984 and 1986 numbers it actually lists the S10 numbers and the C/K pickup numbers separately. For whatever reason the book does not have much detail for the 1985 numbers.
Ford Trucks for 1985 were listed (model year production) as:
348,565 F-150s,
151,619 F250’s
57,088 F350s
for a total of 557,272 F-series trucks.
All Ford light truck lines produced 1,271,809 Trucks for the 1985 model year.
1985 GMC trucks (calender year) were as follows:
105,651 C/K Trucks
23,850 Suburban
22,085 Vandura/Rally van
57,740 S15
51,582 S15 Jimmy
11,525 Fullsize Jimmy,
34,181 Safari
3,057 Caballero
5,842 P-series.
Total calender year production: 315,513.
Knew there had to be something wonky there. Full size GMCs didn’t even make the list outside of the Suburban, “Jimny” and “Jimny S”.
Somebody has to fight the fight! Ford’s constant claims of “Best-selling vehicle ever since the invention of the wheel and probably before that!!” must have a counterpoint.
Thanks, Matt, for putting together the list. And thanks, Bill, for fact-checking!
Yes but if you add up the Chev and GMC numbers they are still below that of the Ford.
And that’s true of most years. Hey, more power to Ford for selling a crapton of F series trucks every year.
I’m all for Ford’s “best seller” ad campaigns. But, like I said, there’s always a counterpoint! (GM is usually just barely behind once you combine Chevy and GMC…and sometimes ahead).
Actually, typically in the last 30 years Ford has been the number one selling fullsize pickup truck brand, but GM has typically sold the most fullsize pickups (Chev+GMC). 1985 obviously was not one of those years. However, in 1985 GM still sold a large number more light trucks overall than Ford.
Surprised to see Mustang Camaro Lincoln mk 7 and Firebirds in such low places.In 1985 I was driving a 1970 Vauxhall Cresta with 3 on the tree,possibly the nearest English car to a Yank.I loved that car it never let me down and was a great crowd puller when parked up and all for £400!
What’s amazing is the strength of Oldsmobile. It has two vehicles in the top 10 (Cutlass Ciera and Cutlass Supreme). Only Chevrolet and Ford have more in the top 10 (with three each). In the number 12 spot is the Delta 88.
Yet, within three years, Oldsmobile’s sales would be in an ultimately fatal tailspin.
It’s also interesting that, among the big GM personal luxury coupes, the Cadillac Eldorado handily outsold the Buick Riviera and Oldsmobile Toronado, despite the latter two having far superior standard engines. The Eldorado also whipped the Lincoln Mark VII in sales, even though the latter was well-received by the critics and looked more modern than the Eldorado. The Cadillac Seville and Lincoln Continental, however, were very close in sales.
The rear-wheel-drive, M-body Chrysler New Yorker 5th Avenue sold well, beating the Buick Electra and coming close to the Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight. The front-wheel-drive versions of the GM cars were out in 1984 as 1985 models, if I recall correctly, and caused considerable consternation among more conservative buyers.
I’ll bet that Lee Iacocca was quite happy to have that “old fashioned” New Yorker in the line-up, as I’m sure that the tooling had been long paid-for by that point!
I’m surprised that the Honda Civic was only at number 27, as it seemed as though those cars were everywhere at that time.
I’m also surprised that the Chevrolet Cavalier was the best-selling passenger car (and number 2 among all vehicles), as the consensus at that time was that the J-cars were a sales disappointment for GM. But, if you add the badge-engineered Cadillac Cimarron, Buick Skyhawk, Oldsmobile Firenza and Pontiac J-2000 into the sales mix, I’m guessing that GM at least broke even with that platform.
I’d agree that GM broke even with the J-cars. Hell, they were still selling the same car in 1995…2005….
Total cash cow.
GM had probably recouped the development costs of the platform by 1986, as it sold almost a half-million Cavaliers alone in 1985.
By 1990 GM was flogging Cavaliers at really low prices, I recall seeing them advertised at CP5995 at a time a Corolla four door was going to cost you at least double that. Sure, the cars were throw-aways but everybody knew it so they sold loads of them. Southern Ontario was awash with the things up until the end in 2005 when they slowly and steadily faded away.
In 2005, a four door, five speed Ectotech Cav sold for CP8995. Cheap but the car was so awful I would have never driven one.
While an ’84 rather than ’85, my Dad’s Sunbird was the worst car he ever bought…he bought it new, maintained it at the same dealer he bought it from, per the schedule, and it went though 2 engines in 80k miles. It started out badly; with less than 1000 miles on it the timing belt went on the first engine. It had numerous other issues (power steering leaks, cracked plastics on the headlight switch).
No one in my family bought any ’85’s however…I bought an ’86 GTi after.
I do remember renting an ’85 Peugeot 505 through Hertz…we picked it up in Newark and drove to relatives (Newark had pretty inexpensive flights back then).
My parents bought a 1985.5 Ford Escort new, I remember it needing a muffler at some point, and one day it spit a spark plug out of the engine on the way to school. My dad had it fixed by the end of the day and picked us up in it (it was well out of warranty, it was around 1990 if I remember). It was still running strong when it was totaled in 1992.
I noticed the same thing. Three Olds cars in the top 12. Of all the many things GM management screwed up in their decades of decline, probably the most egregious was how they pissed away 100 years of Oldsmobile customary loyalty and brand equity.
Granted, even if its market share hadn’t shrunk so much, GM didn’t need all the brands in its portfolio (and arguably still doesn’t need the four it still has in North America). But from Merry Oldsmobile to Rocket 88 to a Cutlass in every suburban driveway, Oldsmobile was a trusted name for people who wanted comfort, quality and power without being showy. And that’s still what I look for in a car.
Interesting side note – Chrysler Corp’s market share in 1962 was 10.3% for calendar year 1962 and 11.2% for 2012. No such luck at GM. In fairness, Jeep in 1962 would have been broken out separately, but it could not have been significant.
Just imagine what if Chrysler hadn’t bought AMC in 1987 to get Jeep from Renault?
Eldo sales skyrocketed in 85 as people knew they were soon to be replaced with smaller blandmobiles the following year. Not sure what the impact of that was on the Toto and Riv tho.
My memory is that the J-cars had a similar problem out the gate as the K-cars: they were sent to dealers with too many options, and a high sticker. Also, the first two years with the 1.8 motor was quickly panned for being really lethargic.
The original goal was to sell Cavaliers mano-a-mano with Hondas and Toyotas, as a high-quality small car, but that hope popped very quickly with their dismal reception. GM’s solution: aggressive pricing/incentives to move the metal. It rather set the pattern for most small GM cars for years to come: selling on price to keep volume up, despite little or no profit margin. In a way, that’s what pretty much killed GM.
There are no two ways about it what killed GM was selling vehicles at or below what they cost to make. After they jump started the US economy after it ground to a halt on 9/11 they found their profit margins in a downward spiral. Pull forward some demand and set monthly sales records with the rebates and 0% interest financing then watch sales stop when the promotion ends. Up the ante to pull forward some more demand and repeat until the net profit margin is negative.
In GM’s defense, it had bigger problems with CAFE than anyone else, and made a lot of money on big cars. After the initial realization that the Cavalier platform would not sell profitably, its role became that of CAFE average-builder. Shovel as many out the door as possible. The more Js got moved, the more Cadillacs, Park Avenues and 88s the General could sell without worrying about the gas guzzler tax.
The first J-cars were a classic case of GM’s left hand not knowing what the right was trying to achieve.
As Paul noted, the original plan was to introduce a “premium” small, front-wheel-drive car that took GM’s fight directly to the Honda Accord. The Accord was noted for its extensive list of standard equipment, high level of standard trim and superb fit-and-finish. There were no “stripped” Accords.
Meanwhile, small American cars had earned a reptutation as basic “strippers” that advertised a low sticker price but then required thousands in options to make them livable.
The J-cars were to feature a high level of standard equipment, along with better fit-and-finish. So far, so good.
The problem was that GM found that it could not offer that level of equipment on the J-car and match the Accord’s price. So GM priced the car to reflect the level of equipment, and customers visiting the showroom to see the new J-cars discovered that a Cavalier could cost as much as a nicely equipped Caprice. Needless to say, most GM loyalists at that time were not going to pay Caprice prices for a car the size of a Cavalier, no matter how good it was.
That’s a very interesting observation about the high pricing when the J’s came out initially because it answers a question that’s bugged me for years.
As you have probably guessed, I’ve been crawling over & stripping ’70’s – 80’s GM cars for probably twenty years now thanks to constant ties to recycling yards, auctions, etc.
The early J-cars were so much more interesting than the later cars… and most of them were better equipped. I have always had a much better chance of finding interesting options on an ’82 model than say an ’87 or newer model.
I wish I could have kept it…but several years ago I scored a loaded out ’84 or ’85 Cavalier sedan at an impound auction. It was a light blue over dark blue factory 2-tone with a very nice up-level velour interior. it had power windows, locks, trunk, and even a power seat if I’m remembering right. It had a gauge package with oil, volts, temp, and tach, a three-spoke sport steering wheel, tilt, cruise, delay wipers, rear defogger and a very cool F41 emblem on the right side of the dash.
There was a vast chasm between the equipment & interior appointments on that car versus a maxed out ’94 Cavalier RS sedan (the last year before the bubble car restyle). GM improved their drivetrains from ’82 to ’94 but in my opinion, everything else went down the toilet.
The Chevette also seemed to take this path. I’ve seen a few ’76-’80 models with uplevel wheelcovers, tach gauge clusters, tilt steering, auxiliary light group (glove box, courtesy, etc), roof racks, 2-tone paint, etc.but it seemed that just about every ’81 or newer Chevette was a total stripper. I forgot what year certain options were dropped but I know the tach cluster was no longer offered in (I think ’82) and by ’85, you couldn’t even order a freakin’ clock in one (although the cutout and block-off plate remained).
I don’t even know what my point was..so… uhh… “thanks” I guess 🙂
Yes, that was very much the reality, and a very huge problem for GM. They wanted (and needed) to compete against the (then pricy) Accord and such, but the J cars just weren’t in that league (ever hear a Cavalier/Cimarron 1.8?). But that’s how they sent them out the first few years, very well equipped, and they did quite poorly; well below expectations. The only solution was to reposition them as a cheap car. GM never did make a profitable small car to successfully compete against the Japanese, and that very much had a big hand in their demise. I’m working up a whole post on the subject.
While not making money on the small cars didn’t help GM I don’t think it had a big hand in their demise, as there were other bread and butter cars.
My friend’s Dad was an executive for Ford and he told me back in the early 90’s that there was about 10 times the profit in an Explorer than there was in an Escort, and the Taurus was good for 4 or 5 times as much. The Taurus and Explorer, at that time, also sold a lot better too.
On the other hand having an entry level car that makes customers want to come back and buy that more profitable vehicle later, rather than make them defect to another brand, is an important thing.
It was a pretty well known fact that Ford was making up to $10k profit on Expeditions, and that they couldn’t make any consistent profit on Escorts. The same applied to GM.
The problem: when SUVs sales tanked.
GM lost a solid profitable toe hold on the small-compact car market in the eighties, which no mass manufacturer can afford, at least not for long.
What would you say was the single biggest reason GM went under?
I had totally forgotten about how the lowly Cavalier had dominated the sales charts at one time. Growing up in the shadow of Lordstown, naturally you saw gazillions of them. I tended to discount their ubiquity just due to local conditions.
But, by 1985, we were just getting all of the cars that we demanded after the 1979 oil price shock. Of course, fuel was cheap by then and the transplants really didn’t have the production capacity to ramp up their sales to what the domestics had. So, if you wanted an inexpensive car and you weren’t too worried about fuel economy…
Actually, I rather like that Type-10 coupe at the top of the post. That was the MCE version and it still looks pretty clean today. I think I’d pop for a V6 Z24 hatch instead, or the Oldsmobile Firenza V6 hatch…
What I actually did was to purchase one of the 16,829 Mercury Capris built that year. Ours was a RS 5.0L. I knew they were rare back in the day, I had no idea how rare. Even the Olds Firenza outsold it by a magnitude of almost 4:1, OTOH, the Firenza came in four models.
I liked the Fireza, but I would have ordered an LX sedan with the styled, body-colored “super stock” wheels or the chrome super stock wheels. The wheels recalled the Cutlasses of the late 1960s and 1970s.
The J-car sedans were actually pretty sharp, and the Buick and Oldsmobile versions, optioned properly, did have an upscale look. The problems started with the Cimarron, which was simply a bridge too far for that platform.
I agree, the sedans were a bit more cohesive in the looks department, and really weren’t such horrible cars for the time.
Sis’ ’84 J2000/Sunbird sedan lasted far longer than the brand new ’94 Olds Achieva that replaced it for her. It got passed down to my twin sister, who drove it till 1999, and it had 160,000 miles on it then. Big sis’ Olds barely lasted 140,000 before Dad and I said enough with fixing the damned thing every weekend. It was 10 years old when it went away.
I humbly disagree. The problem was the cars were crap. Utter junk, when they were introduced they were so under-powered and poorly screwed together that even the buff books had a hard time fawning over them.
I had a 1985 Frienza rental in Ontario from a drive to Ottawa to Toronto. I believe it was an SOHC 2 litre with TBI. It was not a bad car but my Jetta was heads and above better and my gf’s base 323 even better than both.
Five years was the end of the line for a J car. There are practically none left on the roads here, which are awash with 25 year old Japanese stuff.
A good friend of mine had a 1984 Buick Skylark sedan. He saved his nickels and dimes since high school, and after he was done with his undergraduate stuff, he went and bought himself a loaded Skylark. I should note that he came from a “Buick” family, ever since his family emigrated here from Austria, they almost always had Buicks.
It was really sharp, and it had all of the toys on it too. Sunroof, the “big” motor, automatic, the top line AM/FM cassette (!) deck, it was a sweet car. He kept that thing for 10 or so years, until it was finally too costly to keep it legal for Pennsylvania inspection. I think he paid as much for that car as I did for the previously mentioned 5.0L Mercury Capri I bought a year later (~$13K USD, IIRC).
I ran across a Skylark T-Type when I lived in Atlanta during the early 90’s. This was a used car, but still looked nice. It was the two door coupe model with the Buick specific aluminum wheels and the turbo 1.8 motor. I waited too long to pounce and it was gone. Ah well. Sharp cars as the coupe models were, the Olds and the Buicks were the best lookers…
A riddle: what exactly is a Type 10, and how is it better or worse than a Type 9 or 11???? And how come there has never been another, other than the early 80s Cav?
Answer me that one! 🙂
Brock Yates, in his 1983 book, The Decline and Fall of the American Automobile Industry, claimed that the Type 10 name was inspired by the Bo Derek movie, 10, which premiered in 1979 and was a big hit.
Remember young women sporting hair with corn-row braids, and wearing sheer, one-piece yellow bathing suits? They were inspired by that movie. I’m dating myself here, as I can remember when the movie originally premiered.
Really? If Brock had his facts straight, then that stands as one of the dumbest reasons for a car name ever.
But the movie was HUGE. Prior to it, nobody ever referred to a gorgeous woman as a 10. Nowadays, we still do. And it wasn’t a direct rip-off, more like just a subliminal play on the concept.
Then, as today, the caveat with that list is that it doesn’t break-out commercial/fleet sales.
IOW, taking out the rental cars might tell a very different tale.
I don’t believe that the practice of using fleet sales to mask low retail demand for a vehicle had quite taken hold in 1985.
Honda, Toyota and Nissan didn’t have a large amount of North American production capacity up and running, and the Japanese were still operating under the voluntary import restraint agreements negotiated by the Reagan Administration in 1981.
During this era, if you wanted a Honda Civic or Accord, you were lucky if the dealer only charged you the sticker price, and didn’t make you also purchase the $500 wax job and $300 floor mats. The Ford or Chevy dealer, on the other hand, was more than happy to offer a discount on that Escort or Cavalier. That probably convinced quite a few people to stick with a domestic vehicle.
Not only that, there wasn’t a huge HondaYota car dealer network outside of the major metro areas, meanwhile, any town that had a stoplight had a Chevrolet franchise in it.
Very true, Carmine, one of the main reasons GM still does relatively well on the prairies is their dealer network. Even a town as small as Melfort Saskatchewan has a GM store. Same can be said for J cars, which were still popular on the prairies in 1981.
During the mid-80’s, customers from the Washington DC area would come to Johnstown,PA to buy their Corollas because the dealer only added a $400 “market adjustment” to the sticker. Down in the DC area it was $1200 and up.
It was certainly an earlier era. First, virtually every Chevy handily outsold its Ford counterpart. Second, the Caravan and Voyager came in 44th and 47th place. Third, multiple Oldsmobiles high up in the listings. Fourth – Caprice and Crown Vic were up in the top 20. Finally, the Dodge pickup came in at no. 50. None of these things would be true for much longer. A very interesting window into the past.
I would have taken the firenza in hatch forum.over the cavilier any day. two tone silver maroon and 2.8 five speed, with the bordello red velour interior. Im kinda biased as a friend had this car and it was the only j-car i really liked and would have owned.
I just saw that a to this post made http://www.fark.com today.
Congratulations!
Goodie. Maybe that explains why the site is so slow to load (at least for me).
Wow, I’ve been perusing FARK for years but I missed this.
Hell, FARK is how I originally discovered TTAC, which lead me here.
where is the AMC Eagle? By 85 it should have been pretty low on the list but I know they were still making it then.
I can’t find it on the list either, but almost 17,000 were produced in 1985. I’d assume most of them were sold in the US market, or at least to US dealers.
I didn’t even know Peugeot even still offered the 604 in 1985? Were they left over 1982’s that never sold?
I thought they stopped making those in like 1980? I dont even recall seeing them in a Peugeot brochure I had from the auto show when I was a kid, all it had was the 505’s.
The last 604s were built in 1985. My Standard Catalog of Imported Cars says that 1984 was the last year for imports. If that’s correct, these would be left-over ’84s.
All the 604’s we got in the GWN had the euro-lights. The seals beams make the car look really strange.
I may have lived next door to one of those last 604s in early 1985. A neighbor who was from Nigeria loved Pugs. After his 82 or 83 604 had been stolen for the second time (by the same thief) he wanted to be rid of the car and bought another. It was certainly the last new 604 I can remember seeing.
I saw an ’83 or ’84 604 Diesel on Craigslist about 2 years ago in almost perfect shape for $1,700. Then I read a forum that their specific tires would cost $800 total to replace when the time came. If you could find them.
That ended that….
I don’t think that all of them were equipped with the TRX wheels and I’m betting like most of the cars that had TRX wheels from the factory they were replaced somewhere along the way because someone found it cheaper to put crappy aftermarket wheels and bargain basement tires rather than the Michelins.
As best I remember, the last couple of years (83-84) were all TRX shod. But any 505 or 504 wheel would fit. That issue should be the least of your (potential) issues 🙂
The one in the picture above is an ’82, and it doesn’t have the TRXs.
There’s a grey-blue 604 in my Altadena neighborhood that I see on Saturdays–and I call it out every time. I’ll keep my camera ready!
Wait, shouldn’t the Taurus be on here? I believe it came out in late 1985, right? I’m sure Ford had a couple of early adopters at the very least.
This undoubtedly is MY 1985, but i can’t vouch for its accuracy.
I don’t believe that the Taurus went on sale until after Christmas 1985. If I recall correctly, Ford fixed some last-minute glitches, which pushed back the introduction date until late December. It’s entirely possible that none were sold during 1985.
You’re correct. According to my Standard Catalog of Ford, the Taurus was introduced on December 26, 1985.
Is this list for Calendar year sales or MY production? My Camaro totals are slightly lower…say around 25,000 cars lower than the 206K figure above.
Usually, these stats are compiled by MY, but as I said above, I can’t vouch for its accuracy. Matt actually got the raw numbers from a Spanish Autoblog site: http://es.autoblog.com/2013/01/27/dossier-asi-era-el-mercado-estadounidense-en-1985/
1986 was the first MY for the Aerostar, but it is on this list down near the bottom, shown with 7467 produced.
Assuming the list is MY, it’s possible that the ’86 Aerostar went on sale a little early, before the rest of the Ford line/rest of the auto industry had begun the 1986 MY, and the 7467 may represent ’86 MY Aerostars sold while it was still MY ’85.
The Plymouth Reliant was Chrysler Corp’s best selling car!
Wow 206,000 Camaros that year. 300ZX was just a few units shy of what Jetta sold. It was a very different mix back then, before crossovers and SUVs killed the sporty car market.
I checked others sales statistic and charts on Besellingcars In Canada for 1985, it was the Hyundai Pony and the year before it was the Plymouth Reliant. The Cavalier still menaged to be on the top 10 in Canada until 1995.
It’s interesting to think how bad the Cutlass Ciera and Celebrity must have been in original form.
I’m pretty sure there’s still 500K (at least) A bodies registered and on the road still in the US, but they’re all 1989 and above A bodies. I normally only see a pre-88 FWD A body if it’s a loaded 3.8L Ciera or Century or it belongs to a formerly living person that didn’t drive it for a while and it’s a part of an Estate Sale.
The whole list makes for an interesting “What’s still on the road 30 years later” question. Around these parts, the more expensive on this list for a lot of reasons have seen a longer life, which would explain why there’s seems to be just as many Shrunken C bodies still on the road alongside a number of expensive Benzes on the list.
A couple of months ago, I saw a mint condition, pre-1989-refresh Ciera driving down 15th St. in downtown Washington, D.C., during rush hour. I didn’t have time to grab my cameraphone, and it was too dark anyway to take a decent picture. But it made me wonder: I have no idea what motivates someone to preserve and/or restore a car like that.
I always found them to be dowdy-looking cars (I was much more fond of their RWD predecessors), but as a new-looking car in an unexpected setting like that, it looked surprisingly sharp.
Interesting, because around here (Harrisburg, Pa.), I regularly see pre-1989 Cieras and Centurys in daily use, along with a few mid-1980s Celebritys. Most of these cars are NOT lovingly preserved.
The A-body that has disappeared virtually disappeared is the Pontiac A6000 of any year.
I’m guessing that they were more popular here when new. Japanese cars were already pretty popular in California by the 1980s, and even Ford was making serious inroads into GM’s market share in California by this time.
You are so right about the 6000. I loved those things… as durable as the other A-bodies but so much more Funkytown. I was picking them up at the auctions for $50-$100 ten years ago in Birmingham — ending up with seven or eight of them — every one of them ran…including the totaled ’91 that showed just shy of 300K on the odometer. That one was smashed so hard it may have killed the driver (any passenger would not have survived.
I would love to find one now, especially one of the earlier ones — those are real weird.
There was a clean 1985 6000 SE or LE on ebay about 3 or 4 months ago.
A COUPE, no less. It had wires, a 4 banger, windows, locks, cruise. Pretty clean for like 60K on the clock, I considered it as a driver, but it was in Cali, way on the other side of the country.
Here’s the youtube vid for it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np_1sy0rWRk
It has the great funky Pontiac “gauges in a little window” that Pontiac loved in the 80’s
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 6000 coupe. Plenty of STEs and Safari wagons, but no coupes. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen any 6000, though. Too bad, always kinda liked them.
I did used to see a Celebrity coupe quite often about 5-6 years ago. Little old lady driven, and pretty beat. It had a goofy vinyl top and either factory-looking “Custom” or “Classic” badging that I’d never seen before.
The only up close experience I had with a 6000 coupe directly was an older woman that came to trade her 1985 6000 coupe in for a new one…….in 1998.
She was stunned to discover that not only was the 6000 coupe gone, but that there was no 6000 AT ALL!
I tried to get her into a Grand Am, but she wouldn’t hear of it, no bench seat or column shift, we still had the base SE Grand Prix and Bonneville available with a bench, but she wouldn’t even look at those since they were sedans.
Now she was almost getting nasty, and she complained that THIS was why GM was loosing sales, because they didn’t offer cars people wanted, I told her if she would bother to buy one more than every 13 years, maybe they would still make it, and told her to maybe try a Chevrolet dealer to see if the Monte Carlo had a bench(I think the base model did at the time)and I bid her good day.
I has a same scenario with an old man that pulled into the lot with an 84 Estate Wagon looking for a replacement about 3 years after the Roadmaster had been sent packing.
One of my impound auction scores was a white ’85 6000 coupe with a padded white Landau Top and very sharp red velour interior. It had the 2.8 MultiPort engine which (of course!) still ran, column shift automatic, and pretty much every gadget one could order other than a sunroof.
It’s coolest feature was its digital instrument cluster — it was identical to the STE cluster minus the one section having the graphic display-thingy.
Unfortunately it had been rear-ended and both rear quarters had buckled over the wheelwells making it not much more than a good parts donor….unfortunately “life happened” and I had to get rid of it. ut f it It of course still ran (like every other 6000).
It was a real cool car when it was new though and I’ve never seen one even similarly equipped since.
Oops.. had a little finger-fart in that last post…DARN.
I bought my Toyota MR2 new in 1985 when I was stationed in Japan ($10,500 US from the NEX Auto Exchange) – it has right-hand drive (which can be a problem at a drive-thru but it’s nice parking on a street and being able to get out on the sidewalk side). I later learned that there was a slight model change and I actually had a 1984-and-a-half since the car was introduced mid-year (but labelled as a 1985 – I think my was produced in April). The only difference I found was a change in length of the dipstick – I had to replace it after a mechanic lost it and the one for the 1985 model was too long, so I had to order a 1984.5 model dipstick. I love the car. I’ve had it ever since: 282k miles. It’s great in the city, a good grocery getter, a good commuter, and two trunks so it’s good for trips. The summer I retired from the Navy in 1995, I drove it from San Diego to Kodiak, Kodiak to St John’s Newfoundland (and then to St. Pierre, Miquelons, France – so I could say I drove to France!), then down to Key West, and back to San Diego. It’s been along Route 66 several times now. Sadly, as I get older it gets harder to get out of it with any dignity. My husband recently suggested we consider getting rid of it. I pointed out that whereas I have only had him for 17 years, . . . . So far, the best anti-theft device I’ve found is a right-hand drive car with a stick.
How did you drive to St Pierre? Balloon tires?
Probably took the car ferry over.
http://www.st-pierre-et-miquelon.com/english/comment.php#ferry
Thanks, Sam.
The split US/Japan production numbers on the Honda Accord are misleading. The combined production is roughly 256,000, placing it at 8th on this list.
Same goes for the Nissan Truck (261k combined) and Sentra (205k) combined. The Sentra was supposedly the best-selling import in ’84 (according to period Nissan ads), although I wonder if that’s a technicality based on 60% of Accords already being built in the U.S. Regardless, it repeated the feat of #1 (or 2) import car for ’85, which is remarkable given what a complete afterthought that nameplate has been for 20+ years.
I was also intrigued that the XJ Wagoneer was outsold by the SJ Wagoneer, 14k to 17k. The Cherokee sold 88k. I knew the Cherokee was more popular right out of the gate, but I never realized it was this lopsided. The base, non-woody XJ Wagoneer really must be as rare as hen’s teeth.
Three Oldsmobiles in the top 15. 1985 was Olds’ last million-unit year, and over 500k wore the Cutlass badge. Even the controversial new FWD Ninety Eight sold 118k units. It’s amazing how hard and fast this brand fell.
I could easily spend hours pouring over the nuances of these numbers. The pre-SUV American car market was a dramatically different place…
It blows me away that the Volvo DL series (240 anywhere else) – which was essentially a 1969 design – almost outsold the new for 1984 BMW 3 series.
This list brakes out the 240-series into separate DL, GL and GLT models for some reason; “24x” badging disappeared on U.S. cars in 1980 and reappeared for ’86. Volvo sold a total of 69k 240s in ’85, nearly outselling the entire BMW lineup that year.
Cougar XR7 was a an option package on the aero body in 1985, not the full model like it was in 74-82 or 93-97, so it wasn’t anywhere near 130k. In fact the total number of 85s from this source indicates 117k for 1985, including GS, LS and XR7
http://www.coolcats.net/fox/1985.html
In the summer of 1983, one of the (many) warranty visits for my 1982 Camaro Sport Coupe (four-speed, 2.8L V-6), the dealer where I was living at the time (in this case, it was RK Chevrolet in Virginia Beach, VA), also sold Peugeots. They had a silver with amaretto leather interiored 604 at the time. Although it looked blocky and clumsy with the U.S. spec bumpers and sealed beam headlights, it still had some aura of stately elegance to it. Long after I traded said POS Norwood-built Camaro for a much more reliable Dodge D-150 slant six truck, I’d drive by RK in Va. Beach. As of May, 1985 I remember it (the 604) languishing at the far end of their used car lot. This time with big stickers proclaiming “reduced” $$$$SAVE. I encountered the same thing during the last days of Good Chevrolet on Park Street in Alameda, California, July of 2008. Dealer had two pretty nice Monte Carlos. Both ’06 models, both brand new. Leftover, unsold, mid 30’s in the MSRP, dealer was wanting to push them out the door for $12K off their MSRP. Wheels did turn . . . .
Billy R…
I fell into the same trap when purchasing my Bonneville. It was a 2 year old leftover in the late summer of 2007. Happened to stop for the night at a hotel across the street from a Pontiac dealership on our way to Bowling Green for a tour. Woke up the next morning, got 15K off the MSRP and traded in my 2000 Trans Am in on the “new” 2005 Bonneville…
Sometimes you can find some killer deals that way, I would have been tempted by the Monte Carlos too.
If you ever pass through Arcata, I’ve seen a red Peugeot 604 tooling through town. Nearly chased it down to get a front shot, but I was already too late with my camera.
http://autofrei.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/p7029450-copy.jpg
Raphael, Funny you mention that, since we do get there every so often. My wife grew up there, and we used to vacation there every summer. I’ll keep an eye out. Were you there recently?
I wish I’d been back – I took this back in the summer of ’11 and have only been back in CA for the LA Auto Show since then.
Periodically I am paralyzed with nostalgia for streetparked west coast classic cars, but my Bug helps, at least.
Just curious about how many models aren’t on the list.
The only Porsche I can find is the 944. Where are the 911s and 928s? I don’t think the Suzuki Samurai is on the list. Same for the Geo Metro, Geo Prism and Geo Tracker.
I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of some other make or model that might be missing but haven’t come up with anything. It’d be a lot easier to check if the list were an html table instead of images.
Ditto the Jag XJ6 I think – the XJS is there, but I can’t see the XJ6 for the life of me!
The Geo brand did not exist until the 1989 model year. The predecessors of the three original Geo passenger car models (Metro, Spectrum and Prism) — the Chevrolet Sprint, Chevrolet Spectrum, and Chevrolet Nova, introduced as 1985 models — are all on the list.
According to Wikipedia, the Samauri went on sale in the U.S. as a 1986 model.
Here’s what I noticed was missing. Some of these cars are 1986 models but they did go on sale in 1985. Why they are not included but other 1986 vehicles, the Aerostar for example, are included is beyond me:
Chevy 4WD pickups
Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser
Pontiac Grand Safari
GMC fullsize pickups
Ford Taurus
Mercury Sable
Merkur XR4ti
Renault Sportwagon
Dodge Colt
Plymouth Colt
Plymouth/Dodge/Chrysler Conquest
Mitsubishi Tredia, Conquest, Starion, Cordia, Space Wagon, Galant, Mighty Max Jeep Pickup
All fullsize vans (Chevy, GMC, Ford, and Dodge)
VW Quantum
Dodge Ram 50
Porsche 924, 928, 911
Nissan Pathfinder
Chevy El Camino
GMC Caballero
Isuzu I-Mark, P’up
Suzuki Samurai
Subaru XT
Audi Coupe/Quattro
Plymouth Caravelle
Dodge Daytona
AMC Eagle
Jeep CJ
You’ll have to fight me for the 604 Paul!!
I’m surprised to see the smaller Ford LTD ranking so high on the list, I don’t remember seeing all that many Ford LTD’s growing up, I’m surprised to see the Toyota Camry not being a huge seller back then.
And here we are 9 years later.
I wonder how many of those Cavaliers are left from the original 422,927 surely less than in 2013
I am also surprised the Dodge Caravan/Plymouth Voyager didn’t sell as many vans as I thought considering they were everywhere, I thought they would sell at least 450,000 units combined.
Over 420,000 Cavaliers sold in a single year and yet I never, ever, ever see one today. Truly disposable appliances.
Funny, I literally saw one at lunch today and it was an ’80s version, red, I think a Z24. Thought about snapping a pic and then figured, eh, and skipped it. Came home and saw this…
I’ve looked at the bestsellingcars site on and off over the years; it shows some interesting trends about which are true global cars and which markets have unique customer preferences. China and the US certainly skew numbers due to their size, with the latter consistently putting the Ford F-Series, Chevy Silverado and Ram pickups in the top 5 or 6. And though it’s no longer news, I continue to get a surprised feeling when I see the high ranking of Tesla Model 3 in so many countries or regions. #1 in Switzerland … and London. That’s a position for an American-brand passenger car not seen since the Model T. Another placing that sounds odd, until one considers the size of VW and the popularity of CUV’s, is that the VW Tiguan is a worldwide top ten seller. Finally, the most recent global listing mentions the Chevy Monza, which I discovered is a Chinese-made Buick that’s now (2022) imported into Mexico, where it’s badged as the Chevy Cavalier. Not so different from 1985, eh?
I actually saw this Encore recently, the first one I had seen in years.
Lets see the 1990 sales, after all those crapalier owners got burned.
I looked it up. It was still the fifth-best-selling passenger car in 1990.
My first car in 1989 was a 1974 Bedford CF van, dark blue with a white roof, 161 Holden red motor with tri matic, a sliding drivers side door and white Sunraysia/Peko Star wheels. This was followed in 1991 with number 7 on the list a 1985 Toyota Hilux SR5 Xtracab 4×2, three speed auto with overdrive and air con, it was dark blue with the thick white body stripe and a sunroof. That cost $7500 with 80,000kms on the clock. I sold it in 1996 before travelling to North America where I bought a 1975 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale with the 455 mill. A very rusty example in Grey with a burgundy interior, cruise control and the six way adjustable front bench seat. One of friends was travelling with me and he ribbed me the back seat had less room than the back seats of his Datsun 120Y and he was probably right.
Notice back then there were still many American bands of vehicles. Set aside whether they were good, reliable and profitable or not. The production of those vehicles represented the well paid union wage jobs. Wonder how many those auto sector jobs are still available for US big three auto makers.