These cars from the 80s are still driving around the most

We start with the number ten, and that is the sympathetic primal Mini, which was already thirty years old in 1989 but was still new in the showroom. That is a great achievement, especially when you consider that since 1980 he had to tolerate his de facto successor, the Austin Metro. Of the 2,131 units that were still driving on the reference date in summer 2021, 7.4 percent were imported, so the vast majority were delivered with an original Dutch registration.

Lots of import 911s

A lot of 911s surely? Indeed, with 2,152 copies (place 9) there are still a lot of eighties 911 Porsches driving around. As a new car, it was certainly an exotic car in the Netherlands, because no less than 91 percent came here later. The highest share of imports of the cars in this top ten. Eighth in the top ten is for the Ford Escort, which you saw on almost every street corner in the 1980s. Ford introduced the Mk3 in 1980 and it was followed by the Mk4 halfway through that decade. 1984 was especially a record year in terms of escort sales. No fewer than 30,459 units found an owner that year. Only the Opel Kadett did better that year in the Netherlands, reaching 30,712 copies in 1984. The Escort never came as close as in that year to Opel’s bestseller, but it will also have to do with a generational change at the biggest crowd favorite in those years. The Kadett E succeeded the D. Incidentally, we find the then extremely popular Opel in 6th place, with 4,634 newly delivered cars in the 1980s. One thing is certain, if this list were about the best-selling car in the Netherlands in the eighties, the Opel Kadett would be number one. Every year that model was the most popular in the country, in some years the number 2 and number 3, often the VW Golf and the Ford Escort, did not add up to the staggering number of Kadetts sold. That was several times above 50,000 per year.

Baby-Benz W201 not the biggest

The baby-Benz W201, or the Mercedes-Benz 190, was a bull’s eye in 1982. Many of the type 190 Mercedes sold in the 1980s are still on the road, although a significant part of them comes from abroad. A whopping 72.6 percent. Yet the most accessible Mercedes-Benz at the time is not the most common eighties Benz in the Netherlands. Even of the S-class you will encounter more copies from that decade. With 4,637 pieces, he even narrowly trumps the Opel Kadett, even if it is only three copies. A severe winter continues and it could be different, although we expect further growth in those years, given the enthusiast status of the top model from Benz in those years than of the Opel Kadett. Yet the S-class also has to tolerate another Mercedes-Benz in this top ten. The predecessor of the E-class, the 200/300 series, is in fact in the top three. No fewer than 7,708 from the period January 1, 1980-December 31, 1989 can still be found.

Ugly duck

A Porsche, no less than three Mercedes, but also a nice position for a BMW. Of the 3 series, 6,735 still exist with a first registration in the 1980s. Just over half of all BMW 3-series still on the road that were delivered between January 1, 1980 and December 31, 1989, also had a Dutch registration from the start. The lion’s share of course concerns Dreiers of the E30 generation, which came in 1983 and then replaced the E21. The Bimmer is in fourth place, because in addition to the Mercedes W123/W124, he also has to tolerate the Ugly Duck and the Volkswagen Golf. The Citroen 2CV was one of the cheapest cars you could buy new in the eighties and after forty years it appears that you could enjoy it for a long time. There are even 8,644 with an active license plate and 78 percent of these were once delivered to a Dutch buyer via a Dutch Citroën dealer.

At number one we find the Volkswagen Golf, which with almost 14,000 copies by far the largest survivor is from the period 1980-1989. It was above all the decade of the Golf II, the second generation presented in 1983. More than half of the 1980s Golfs still on the road have come on our roads via imports.

Source: CarTalk International