WhichCar's biggest stories of 2019

Welcome to 2020!

It’s shaping up to be an interesting year, but before we see what this new decade has to offer let’s take a look back and see what really resonated with WhichCar’s audience last year.

Our core is, of course, the review, comparison and advice stories that new car buyers rely on to inform and educate themselves. However every so often a story pops up that gets traction from an even broader audience.

2020 has already started with a bang with our huge scoop on Ford’s plans to drop a V8 in the Ranger Raptor, not to mention Carlos Ghosn’s dramatic escape from the Japanese justice system. But what were last year’s biggest attention-getters?

The impending arrival of the C8 Corvette was definitely at the front of many readers’ minds throughout 2019, with our first post-reveal coverage of the mid-engined Vette being one of our most popular yarns. Our analysis of the new Corvette’s expected pricetag performed well too, indicating there’s plenty of interest in GM’s top-tier sports car Down Under – and maybe more than a few people opening their wallets in anticipation.

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Another mid-engined American went gangbusters online, but it was something we definitely couldn’t predict. An American engineer decided to 3D-print himself a Lamborghini Aventador replica in his garage, and the ensuing interest in his tale caused a huge traffic spike for WhichCar.com.au. That man’s enterprising spirit clearly struck a chord with our audience.

As did that of another person who attempted to hack his way to a life free of financial consequence by trying to trick speed cameras with his number plate… but ended up achieving quite the opposite. His plan was pretty ingenious, but undone by a fatal – and quite hilarious – flaw.

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But the interest generated by our exclusive unearthing of Ford’s upcoming 2021 Ranger ute was by far our biggest news story of 2019. Utes are big business in this country, and with the Ranger being one of the most popular in the segment that yarn was destined to do well.

Meaty scoops are kinda our thing, and Wheels’ exposé of the Toyota Yaris GR sans camouflagewent around the world in a big way. Everyone loves a hot hatch, but that affection is clearly turned up to 11 in the hard-core Yaris’ case.

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We also gave the public a sneaky peek at Cadillac’s attractive CT5 sedan as it touched down on Aussie soil – and the public went ga-ga. It’s likely only here to take advantage of GM’s local powertrain engineering and calibration talent, but with Holden confirming that the Commodore is exiting its lineup (another big-hitting story of 2019), we can’t help but wonder if the Caddy might be stepping into its place.

The public’s curiosity about electric vehicles was another major traffic driver, and our story about how Lexus is busy working on solid-state battery tech attracted many an eyeball to WhichCar. After all, with a potential range of 1000km or more and no weight penalty, it could be cure for that terrible affliction: range anxiety.

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Anxiety of a different sort likely drove many readers to another one of our far-reaching stories of 2019, with our advice piece on which cars depreciate the most being hugely popular. Many of our advice stories are in fact quiet achievers, bringing in steady volumes of traffic over long periods of time – another great example being our educational piece on kids and car seats, which was another highly-popular yarn of 2019.

The same goes for our range review content, which steadily accrue traffic over time as readers research their next new car purchase. For 2019, our best-performing reviews were for, in no particular order, the Mazda CX-5, Toyota Landcruiser and Honda CR-V.

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There’s more, but the list is immense - the above are merely the highest of the high. 2019 was a great year for us, and proof that producing outstanding – and relevant – content is a winning strategy. We’ve already got some wins on the board for 2020, but who knows what else the year will bring?

We’ll recap again in 12 months!