Thank You – The CarMax Unicorn Blog Turns Four

August 10, 2017 I blogged “First Five Fabulous Unicorns“, with absolutely no idea what I was doing or where this would go. I used PDF’s for photos until my son Chris told me it made the blog look wonky. I still don’t know what I’m doing or where this will go but I know why I do it, I’m a car nut that loves “driving rich” in a way more expensive car than I can afford to repair. And I really enjoy the folks I’ve met here – some through comments, some by email, and even a few I’ve met over coffee or a beer to talk CarMax unicorns. All good people.

The 2007 Mercedes CL550 above was the very first car in the “first five” unicorns that I wrote about. I think I’ve covered 350-400 cars in the 302 blog posts over the past four years. Some will never be available again – Jaguar S-Types and XJ8’s, Pontiac G8GXP’s, a Chevrolet SSR, the Saturn/Opel Astra, Buick Lucerne Supers, Audi S4 V-8’s and probably more. Would be fun to go back and rue the ones that got away. Thinking V-10’s and the Audi W12. Sigh.

Honestly, I don’t think I ever actually covered this 2006 Chevrolet SSR but it was in my files and I meant to. It might have boosted my readership, although I can’t complain. Visitors have gone from 10,000 my first full year (2018) to 17,000 last year, and views have topped 100,000 since 2017. I’m very grateful for the 159 readers who have signed up to be bothered by email with each new post. I’ve enjoyed the comments, mostly by Hans, Scott, Jerry, and Roger, although all four of you get crushed statistically by CBD oils, Cialis scams, vaping supply web sites, and hair weave stylists who bombard my blog with spam by the hundreds. I may have a fix for that. Other fascinating things WordPress tells me about the blog? I get 50% of viewers from search engines, and the other 50% when I link a post to David Fesz’s “Unique Cars for Sale 2.0” Facebook page. He’s got a good site. Check him out. I also learned I post about 80 times a year. I should do more. In the past month alone I missed a rare BMW M6 V-10 (I thought they were no more!), a Mercedes CL65 V-12, and a Volvo S80 V-8….among others. And the data says while readers have clicked on the CarMax links to cars I provided thousands of times, readers very rarely click on the links to car magazine reviews of the cars I’m blogging about. Could be more productive if I knock those off, I guess.

The numbers also tell me that this 2009 Porsche Cayenne GTS above, covered here in September 2019, had the most viewers of any post I’ve done, bumping the 1 of 248 Grand Marquis I covered in March, 2018. Pleases me, in that the Cayenne more closely represents the unicorn theme than the Marquis.

I one heard an unsourced quote, that “the Germans invented the automobile, the Americans made it into an appliance, and the Italians the car to dance and sing.” I love my German cars and I really appreciate my 1971 Fiat 124 Spider. I get the value of a car as an appliance, and perhaps the Grand Marquis represented that. And lo and behold the modern anniversary gift for year four is….an appliance! Guess I’ll be shopping for an American car this year? Thanks to each and every reader that shares my enthusiasm for affordable high-end, deeply depreciated cars. If I can ever be of help let me know. If I’m off the mark on these cars, please let me know. Now back to the cars!