Shoppers like the ’69 Mustang, but suddenly ignore vintage Broncos

Perhaps they were not quite tectonic shifts, but there were significant changes in what those shopping on the ClassicCars.com Marketplace were looking for in August. 

Among searches by specific year, make and model, the 1969 Ford Mustang moved into first place for the first time since we started reporting on these searches back in January 2019.

The ’69 Mustang usually was among the top-5 on the most-searched list, but had never been higher than third place — until August, when it galloped past the 1967 Mustang and 1967 Chevrolet Impala to take over first place.

But the Mustang’s ascension to first place on the year-make-model list seems almost insignificant compared with the plummet in interest suffered by vintage Ford Broncos in August. 

After steadily climbing up the list and reaching fifth place among searches by any-year of a vehicle model, the Bronco dropped out of the top-1o in August, when it fell to 16th in such searches, trailing even the International Harvester Scout, which ranked 15th among such searches during the month.

“Is it possible that we have all OD-ed on Broncos? With the upcoming 2021 models in the works, and a highly active Ford P.R. department, we all have been inundated with the ‘other’ pony,” suggested Tom Stahler, managing editor of the ClassicCars.com Journal. 

“That said, the 1969 Mustang has great styling, classic lines and represents a Baby Boomer’s High School dream car.”

Topping the all-years search list in August, as usual, were Chevrolet, Mustang, Ford and Volkswagen bus/van. DeLorean ascended into Bronco’s former fifth-place position, edging ahead of the Chevrolet C-10 pickup truck. 

But while the Bronco got bucked out of the top-10, the Buick Grand Nationals flexed its turbocharged V6 and moved up to seventh place, an impressive climb from outside the top-20 just a month earlier.

“For Gen-Xers like me, the Grand National was a high school dream car,” Stahler noted. “We have seen nice examples rising in value and traded more frequently. It does not surprise me that the ’80s muscle car with its beautiful graphics package and decent horsepower has risen.”