I’ve had this one in the can for over a year now and after holding out to try and find a first-year example am finally giving up and giving this one the glory instead. You’d think with over 800,000 sold the first model year, someone would drag a carcass out from behind the barn and junk it but no, perhaps that ship sailed a few decades ago already. But there were still some 400,000 or so Citations sold in this, the second year, so that’s what we have today.
While everyone loves an underdog, by the time this one hit the showroom the car was already considered just a dog. With fleas. Can it really have been over forty years now since these were released? And everyone still remembers that this was GM’s Deadliest Sin. However due to some confluence of events this particular one made it farther than most.
It’s not objectively ugly or anything, the size was right for the times, the shape was modern and fit into the lineup, and while the Beige over Maroon two-tone paint option isn’t today’s cup of tea for anyone, at the time I could see wearing a tan terrycloth sweater-shirt over a pair of rust brown corduroys so even that probably fit in.
The 2.8liter V6 installed transversely was GM’s first attempt at the layout and produced 110hp (down 5 from the introductory year), in this case paired with a 3-speed automatic transmission. This car even features extra bracing for more chassis rigidity, did all of them have this or just the V6? There are Delco parts labels visible here, so either a strict OEM replacement regimen at the local Mr. Goodwrench was observed or it was just a good ‘un from the start.
I’d not really noticed it prior to last week but the older Chevette after its ’79 refresh and this Citation have a lot of styling elements in common, of course the front grille, but even the rear fascia is similar and there is a definite family resemblance from most other angles as well. I do love an offset license plate, it’s a very “American” thing although Alfa do it as well due to their grille shape. There’s no real reason for it here though, it could just as well be centered.
This looks like the “Custom Cloth” interior with the bucket seats in beige and the two spoke wheel familiar to anyone who’s ever been in a 1980’s Chevy. The center console has a bin with a lid and padded top and the newish door lock sliders make an appearance here as well, although it’s too early for power windows and locks to be standard, they’re still an option here along with a rear window defroster and even reclining seats. Of course the highlight here has to be the crotch vent, a brilliant feature that I believe is now sadly extinct in all of automobile-dom.
No clock of course, that’d cost too much to include for someone who paid for the V6 upgrade already. This early car still features the weird vertical radio although the climate controls weren’t nearly as controversial when placed vertically as well.
94207 miles on the odometer and even though it’s forty years old I’m kind of inclined to not place a large wager on that being its second time around the dial. It’s too clean and unfaded to have been parked outside all these years, not dusty enough to have sat in a barn for a long time, and not damaged and pitted about the front to have seen much inclement weather driving so I’m more inclined to think it was regularly driven to church and the grocery store, in that order and once a week. And then back into the garage, a two-car at that but with only one car in it dead center, otherwise there’d be scrapes on one side or the other.
An ashtray in the driver’s seatback and at least the rear windows roll down too for some ventilation when everybody’s puffing away in here. I rode in a backseat of one of these a few times when I caught a ride to junior high school with a neighbor friend, this must have been around 1983, I can’t remember any issues and we made it to school on time.
I do remember how proud they were of the Citation, then again their other car was an orange Hornet Sportabout which my friend was a bit embarrassed about at the time but would be a car I’d love to find now. The Citation replaced a Cutlass Salon as I recall which was a real turd. They had bad luck with cars until they finally replaced the Hornet with their best GM car ever, a new 1985 Chevy Nova!
The five-door hatchback opening was quite large, although that’s one high liftover ledge. Saab did this much better with smaller corner mounted taillights and then a very low opening on the 900. But that wasn’t invented here, so lift over we must!
This one was built in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in honor of my 11th birthday, apparently. They were also built in New York as well as in Mexico. Does anybody have a CarFax account, I’d love to look up these VINs and get a fuller history but the CC editorial budget doesn’t allow for such an extravagance.
I’m glad I finally got this one out of my stash, from what I recall not much was taken off this one in the few months that it sat here. For a forty-year old car it looked to have been kept in pretty good shape overall, there are vehicles in far worse condition both inside and out and only a few years old that end up in these places. Whatever did this one in, at least it took its time doing so.
This commercial from the early summer of 1981 was already touting discounts good through July 18, a little early for incentives for a two year old model. But of course the Citation’s trajectory was a little different than most by this time in the run…
I knew a gentleman here in Gallup who had owned one for years that he kept just for puttering around the city but I haven’t checked to see if he still has it. It was the rarer “notch-back” body style.
He is on disability and works part-time jobs one of his hobbies is flipping cars from auctions but he keeps the Citation and a pickup truck around at all times.
He always bragged how cheaply he could get most of the parts for the Citation.
I bet that with a battery and fresh gas you could drive that one home. I wonder if that one was a charity donation that got no bids at the auction.
As a salt belt Canadian the rust free body is all I can focus on.
I don’t think I’ve seen one that nice since about the mid 80’s.
Probably the only time in modern automotive history that two competing manufacturer’s internal platform lettering (X and K) was widely used in the mainstream press. And the public identified them as such.
“The (neighbor friend) had bad luck with cars until they finally replaced the Hornet with their best GM car ever, a new 1985 Chevy Nova!”
Which was not really a GM car, but on the Toyota AE82 platform…a Corolla.
Good reminder. I had a 1988 of the same, and that’s the only thing which got me into a Chevy showroom then.
We called the mid-80s “Nova” a “Toilet”.
Well, not exactly. TOYota +chevroLET = Toylet.
Looking at the picture of the engine bay, I was a bit confused as to why the chassis support was connected to the air cleaner, but upon closer inspection it looks to have been unbolted from the radiator support.
It is almost a shame these were such lemons. It seemed to have all the right ingredients as you mentioned-good looks, right size, fwd, the right sized engines- but it all combined to make a terrible cake.
One from the end of production (1985) with the V6 probably would be pretty good. The 6 was even fuel injected that year.
So basically a smaller Celebrity? Which turned out to be a decent car for what it was but I think an Accord or Camry would be a better bet in both instances even if not V6 “motorvated” by that date.
Actually, TBI (throttle body injection) or SPI (single point injection). It’s one fuel injector in the carburettor housing: a cheap way to switch to fuel injection without reengineering air filter, intake manifold, and fuel line…
I think the support needed to be removed for access to get the battery out, but that seems like a poor way of doing things.
Looking at that convoluted engine bay, then the interior shots, the only thing I can think of is “half-assed” (even for 1981).
The X-body gets a lot of grief and many consider it the worst Deadly Sin, but I’m not so sure. Poorly engineered and built, it was still quite a bold step forward for GM, that being a domestic, mainstream vehicle, even if it did turn off a lot of GM buyers. It was GM’s first FWD attempt at the future, bad as it might have been, something of a latter-day Corvair. It’s worth noting that the X-derived A-body, while still lackluster, soldiered on quite well for a very long time.
For the top GM Deadly Sin, I’m thinking more along the lines of the recently featured Lumina. That car really seems like one of the turning points at GM, where they ceased being a leader and, instead, a follower. That, in and of itself, wouldn’t have been so bad (Chrysler did quite well from the mid-sixties through the seventies simply copying GM cars), but compared with the car it was supposedly copying (Taurus), the Lumina was such a steaming pile of ‘meh’, it really cemented GM vehicles as no longer worthy of consideration for private civilians but fleet and rental car fodder.
GM’s massive fall from grace came before any of the GM10 models hit the showroom.
Chevrolet’s passenger car business fell by 50 percent from the introduction of this turd until it was flushed away at the same time that other GM brands hit alltime peaks in the mid 80s. Then they fell off a cliff.
GM’s passenger car business already was mortally wounded before 1988.
The Citation was an example of putting the cart before the horse(or maybe that should be the other way around in this case), the hype machine surrounding the FWD X bodies endlessly extolled the virtues of FWD and the revolutionary shift in the way GM would be building cars for the 80s and beyond, and people and competing automakers were most certainly sold on the *idea*. Having that idea not live up to the hype when people actually start buying the product is what cost GM that leadership, especially once competing manufacturers we’re delivering on what GM promised and failed to deliver fully baked.
The A bodies are fairly irrelevant, many of the X body problems were fixed, sure, and they served as being the only larger front drivers in the game for a few years, but what was remarkable about them otherwise? Each time more compelling product from another manufacturer hit the market customers would them in the dust, only GM faithful were left clinging on to A bodies by the late 80s and 90s, and it’s pretty telling that their buyers avoided newer entries like the W bodies. Almost as if they knew to avoid all new GMs until the bugs were worked out…
There is for sure a deadly sin or two I’m on the fence about but the Citation is not one of them. Those cars eroded GMs leadership role like no other, for many of the previous deadly sins like the early Corvair or Vega they weren’t the brands bread and butter like the Citation was poised to be.
“but that seems like a poor way of doing things.”
In a shop, it’s about twenty seconds with an air impact, so no big deal. It’s a little more hassle with hand tools, but much easier than the Dodge Stratus which required removing the front wheel
Yeah but for the DIYer with a Haynes manual you have to factor in the 20 minutes of head scratching…
Step 1) disconnect negative battery terminal
Step 2) remove wheel to access battery
by the way, the battery was still located there on the 2007-2014 Dodge Avenger & Chrysler Sebring/200. Which puts paid to the “common knowledge” that they’re based on Mitsubishi platforms.
A friend of my mother’s (and her friend’s husband) had two Citations simultaneously at one point. One was an automatic and the other a manual, one with a V6 and the other with the Iron Duke. One of the Citations had had a ’76 or ’77 Olds Cutlass traded for it.
I only remember this as my sister and I spent a few days with them once. It was accompanied by a rather long trip to their house in the St. Louis area where we accompanied them and their two boys – so, six of us in a Citation. It was a full house.
These two never kept their cars very long so perhaps they avoided some issues. One of the two Citations went away for a Celebrity wagon, which they kept a relatively long time.
My uncle had two of these as company cars in the early/mid ’80s. IIRC his opinion was they were not bad cars if someone else ate the depreciation.
It looks better than some of the stuff I have dragged home to fix up and drive.
What’s with the OIL/CHOKE warning light?
I think those are two lights.
But, yeah, the choke warning light?
It was essentially the first check engine light for emissions purposes. Why it was also the oil pressure warning is a good question. I’m thinking it was because it was added for 81 and they had no place for it to go.
It wasn’t just the choke either in order to pass the stricter 1981 emissions that started measuring sooner they used an EFE (Early Fuel Evaporation) System. In this case it was a heater grid integrated into the carburetor insulating gasket. Oh the irony of sticking a heater in a item designed to insulate from heat. Using the heater allows a leaner choke setting and for it to come off quicker.
However to prevent the choke from opening too soon it’s power was controlled by the alternator charging. The meant the choke heater only got power while the engine was actually running.
So yeah a patch on a patch on a patch, GM engineering at its finest.
Found an owners manual online:
‘Oil/Choke Indicator Light’
‘Occasionally. this light may flicker momentarily while the engine is running. Should this occur, CHECK ENGINE OIL LEVEL as outlined in Section 5, “Checking Oil Level.” If the light comes on continuously, pull over to a safe place and STOP THE ENGINE until the source of trouble can be located and
corrected.The source of trouble could be any of the following:
•Loss of engine oil pressure (check engine oil level).
•Blown choke heater fuse.
•Loss of electric choke heater voltage.’
“What’s with the OIL/CHOKE warning light?”
“I think those are two lights.”
No, just one.
“It was essentially the first check engine light for emissions purposes.”
No. The Check Engine light was the emissions light. Started in 1980 1/2 on some GM vehicles. All ’81s should have one.
The choke was controlled by an oil pressure switch. If the engine didn’t have oil pressure, the choke didn’t get power for it’s electric heater element that warmed the bi-metallic coil that controlled the automatic choke.
If the engine stalled, the choke didn’t heat. Any time there was no oil pressure, the choke wasn’t getting warmed, so it was closed or closing.
If there was an oil system failure–lack of oil, for example, ’cause the owner hadn’t checked the oil in five or ten thousand miles–there would be no oil pressure and therefore the choke was likely to be closing or closed.
Id love to hear the development story of the Citation. Was it a chevy designed platform or a corporate car with chevy badges like the vega? Given all the badge engineered versions of it id guess the latter but still you never know, the v6 was a chevy engine for example but then the iron duke was a pontiac motor. The intermingling of the gm divisions and who designed what in gm theough the 70s to the 90s id love to know.
The Citation was part of the GM FWD X body program to replace the RWD Nova and similar cars for all brands exc Cadillac GM still had brand specific engineering teams, so systems were delegated to the various divisions and GM owned component suppliers and shared by all brands.
The Iron Duke was ADVERTISED as a “Pontiac” engine. In fact, it was a different-bore-and-stroke variation of the 153 “Chevy II” four popper that was itself a four-cylinder version of Chevy’s 230-cube six-popper.
GM of Brazil was selling “Iron Dukes” YEARS before “Pontiac” invented the thing. Brazil got ’em starting about ’74, I think. We didn’t get those turds until…’77, maybe?
There were over 200 different versions of the Iron Duke over it’s production run. Every one of them was junk; and by the end it was like Grandpa’s Axe–four different handles, two different blades, but it’s still the same ol’ axe.
GM of Brazil was selling “Iron Dukes” YEARS before “Pontiac” invented the thing.
it’s not quite as simple as that. the Brazilian 151 was a Chevy 153, with the bore and stroke changed to reduce vibration.
Pontiac did use that same bore and stroke, and there’s other commonality with the Chevy 153/151, but it’s not quite the same engine. By the time the iron Duke was used in the X Bodies, it had a cross-flow cylinder head, among other things.
The Iron Duke was an evolution of the Chevy 153/151 four; not the same engine, but hardly a clean sheet new design either.
I made the mi$take of buying a ’80 Citation X-11. The shifter was as bad or worse than the 4 spd in the ’85 Dodge Turbo Lancer I replaced it with. Overall the X-11 started going down after maybe 18 months of ownership.
The car’s driveability got quite “challenging”, so that even with the stick it took effort to keep it running. Finally after pouring ?$$$ into it, the Lancer replaced it. Sadly while it took longer, it also became a mobile PO$ to drive.
Now why would I switch to Honda (cars) after years of bullet proof Honda motorcycles???? DFO
Can’t believe how solid it looks after all these years! Great for a cars & coffee, assuming we will ever have public gatherings again…
Neighbor next door worked for GM, always had the latest company car. Whole family was kind of a PITA, so the neighborhood was happy when they moved.
Anyway, he had one of these when new, and I noticed, as a little kid, that when he braked, the red and amber lights came on. I knew that was wrong and told him, but he refused to believe me, GM can do no wrong, etc.
I later found out that he ended up at a plant that was for executives that weren’t on the fast track. In other words, put these guys somewhere until they retire.
I felt a lot better after learning that.
Even here in low-rust-land I haven’t seen one of these in ages.
The very first time I saw one, in 1980, it was screeching through a stoplight because the brakes didn’t work. Instant information.
These were very impressive when first introduced in the spring of 1979, and if the execution left much to be desired, they at least showed mainstream America the possibilities inherent within a space-efficient, two-box FWD design.
My brother’s in-laws, who had been GM loyalists since the early 1950s, traded a troublesome, problem-plagued 1981 Citation four-door for one of the first Camry 5-doors to appear in the U.S. in 1985 or so, and, based on the highly satisfactory ownership experience, continued to buy a new Camry from each generation right up through 2015, when his mother-in-law bought her last car. This deadly sin cost GM the sales of at least seven new cars over a thirty year period.
Gosh, how I wish GM had gotten their Ducks in a row instead of making deadly sins decade after decade!
My parents started using their 87 Saab 900 Hatchback for dump runs when it became a beater and I shudder at the thought of having to lift items up to get them out.
I don’t think I’ve seen a Phoenix or Citation since moving to Oregon seven years ago.
I concur about the crotch vent. My buddy has a ’90 Mazda B2200 with that vent and since it doesn’t have a/c, it’s a god send on a hot Alabama summer day, especially if you are wearing shorts.
Both my ‘93 Land Cruiser and my ‘97 T100 had crotch vents. As for the Citation, this one looks in great shape. And for those that bemoan the boring colors of today’s cars, this color scheme was very common back then, and not just for cars. Because “earth tones”. I’m pretty sure the last Citation I saw driving was notchback in Ecuador a few years ago, though I think I’ve seen a few Phoenixes and Omega’s here in the US since then.
Wondering if the hatch didn’t go down to the bumper because GM determined it would allow too much torsional wobbling and rattling. I am not too familiar with Saabs, did they have a better handle on chassis inflexibility with big hatches than GM did?
Its easier to design and cheaper to manifacture the way gm did it. A bigger heavier hatch woulda required much stronger gas struts. Plus u woulda hit your head on the lip when it was open.
I just thought of the Opel Ascona / Vauxhall Cavalier, the Euro J-Car. Launched in August 1981 it has a very similar 5-door shape with basically the same hatch design. I doubt it’s just coincidence.
I wonder how many Toyotas, Hondas and Mazdas these X cars “sold”?
7th picture, of the instrument panel: [OIL / CHOKE]. Lolwhut? Is it just me, or is that incredibly, remarkably stupid? Why would there be a choke telltale? Surely this car has an automatic one, so why on Earth (or Pluto, for the matter of that) would the driver need to be redlighted about the choke being closed? And suppose there’s a lack of oil pressure on cold startup. With the combination telltale, how’s the driver to know about it until however many minutes and miles later after the choke opens (or the engine fails, whichever happens first)?
Yee.
See above.
I do see it; I think my point still stands. :•)
The choke system, like the oil pressure only turns on the light if there is a problem. So bulb check key on, and once oil pressure and charging is occurring the light will go out and not come back on, if everything is operating at least somewhat properly.
Looks like the one I took my driver’s test in back in 1981. The driving school had just switched from a Dodge Omni that had better visibility looking back. Was an okay car to drive. The X cars and 1982 GM A-Bodies were the same cars underneath. The 1982 Citation and other X cars received a lot of the structural improvements of the 1982 A-Bodies. The Citation was a troublesome car and the early ones had a lot of teething pains. I remember how well the 1980 model year cars sold. I think they came out in April 1979 around the time of our second energy crisis started with the regime change form the Shah in Iran. You figure that thye must have gotten the basic chassis bugs out eventually as the A-bodies were made till 1996 with the Old Ciera and Buick Century.
If you keep working on it, one thing at a time, you’ll eventually fix all the problems with pretty much anything.
I still consider the Vega the bigger Deadly Sin – these had their problems, but there was never that race between the engine and the body as to which would be the first one to put the car in the junkyard.
But it was sure interesting to watch Chrysler launch the K cars a short time later much more successfully.
I had an 85 Plymouth reliant k and a college friend had the citation. Kinda amazing both were still road worthy in 2002. Anyway the plymouth was a tank while the citation was rusting apart. Ahh college cars.
Used to see this one around several years ago, but haven’t seen it in a while.
Wow — looks like that one has Massachusetts tags too. Not quite where I’d expect any of the remaining Citations to reside.
The last one I saw — also several years ago — was likewise two-tone. As is Jim’s junkyard find. Seems like the two-tone cars have a much higher long-term survival rate!
When Consumer Reports tested one of these, one memorable comment went something like “GM says their new computer controlled carburetor is designed to adjust for any normal driving conditions. However, our test car apparently encountered many abnormal driving conditions”.
Well, they were better than the Vega!
Happy Motoring, Mark
You didn’t save the car? Think of it your own Taurus adventure except with a Citation. A Phoenix rising from the ashes, or maybe not but we would all be rooting for you and subsequent posts of agony.
Ed didn’t trust the Taurus to go 3400 miles across the country to his house. I wouldn’t trust this one to go 34 miles across the county line to mine. 🙂
You’d be rooting to READ the subsequent posts of agony, you mean.
I’m surprised at how good a shape it’s in. Guessing it was well cared for and only recently junked.
Deadly sin aside, the “styling” of this car is totally non-existent. The cheesy front grill and the generic tail lights, for example. The bean counters must have been totally in control. I’d love to know what Bill Mitchell thought of these.
From a design standpoint I do like these. If you want a bigger hatchback that can seat 5 today you can buy a tesla model s but not much else.
Audi A7 and A5 Sportback and the Kia Stinger also qualify.
There is one I see occasionally (in Whiting, Indiana. anyone familiar with this area?) It is dark blue and looks to be in good shape. It really stands out because its probably the only one I’ve seen in 25 years. I have seen it at the local stores and on the road, so it appears to be a daily driver. It’s not a car I would have noticed back on the day, with wire hubcaps and all. Very boring looking. But I wonder how it happens to be here in Rust-Country looking like its only a few years old.
Hi Me!
This Citation is still doing it’s daily-driver-duty and I see it parked at a gas station on my drive to work. Sometimes I fill up there so I can check it out, and soak-up it’s wonderful plain style.
Discounts already in 1981? Don’t forget we were in a recession in ’81 tough to sell cars then AND interest rates were obscenely high then too.
We had an 1981 bc my dad refused to buy a 1st year car. Nimble compared to the 1972 Impala it replaced, better on fuel, and the FWD was a revelation in the snow. This car became 2nd fiddle at home when the Impala died and we needed something big to pull our pop up camper. Hello GMC Astro van. Shudder. A body on frame van that made me carsick all the time, and I rarely get carsick.
Astro/Safari had were unitized with a bolt-on front subframe.
Yes…I was looking for cars in 1981, and considered these (as well as the new K car)…my Uncle had bought an ’80 Olds Omega, and I remember looking at the Pontiac version at a dealer. What I ended up with was going used and buying a ’78 VW Scirocco Champagne edition…I’ve owned nothing but VWs since.
Yes, the interest rates for loans was crazy back then. My Mother worked for Goss Dodge in South Burlington, Vt. back then, so I knew about the high rates. Fortunately my manager at the time was also the president of the credit union
and not only did I snag a 16% loan (on a used car, new cars finance at lower rates usually) but even though I was a new member, he got me financed for $500 more than I think I was eligible for due to short tenure (I’d only started this as my first professional job out of college the year before). My friend at work wasn’t as lucky, his ’80 Chevrolet Monza was financed at 21% that year.
The good news for me was that because of recent gas shortage scares, small cars were selling well, and even though I was a buyer of a small car, I was also the seller of one, my ’74 Datsun 710. It went through 5 Vermont winters and was pretty rusty by then, and when I sold it myself, the test drive went terrible (some trim fell off the car). The bumpers were particularly rusted, but the guy still bought the car.
I was thinking about insurance the year before this I moved to Massachusetts from Vermont and was attempting to “move” my auto insurance from my parents to myself, with the same company. Massachusetts had no-fault insurance, and apparently weren’t anxious to sign up applicants for auto insurance…the guy that I bought it from insulted me (well, not personal, but due to my young age) and I still was stuck having to buy a policy from him, because he represented the same company my parent’s insurance had, so they made an exception and wrote me a policy on my own…so my parents no longer were responsible for an under age 25 driver.
Sorry for the diversion…wish the X cars were better conceived…they were attractive, and as one person mentioned, mid-sized hatchbacks are pretty rare, so I was sad when these did so poorly. One of my friends “married” one of these in 1986, that was the last time I think I saw one up close. Not sure what became of my Uncle’s 1980 Omega but he mustn’t have kept it too long, his favorite car, an ’84 Audi 4000 was its replacement. I did have a co-worker who had a Buick x car that he had for awhile, apparently his was the 6 cylinder, not sure if that made a difference vs the 4?
Ask and you shall receive
Lived the highlife for the first 12 years
And kept on going for a little longer
Wow, thank you very much, that was great! It sure didn’t see many miles the last decade, interesting about the two junk titles. The last one seems right, I saw it a bit after that, last spring.
Thanks, Sixfourthree! I’m seeing a “salvage/ junk/ rebuilt/ fire/ flood/ hail/ lemon” titles there at the bottom of the first picture that you posted. Whoa. This car had nine lives; that, and especially considering the doomed status that the Citation brand had as a whole, I’m kind of sad to see this meet its fate here. Looks like the emissions police made it difficult to register and then it would have needed an overhaul of the engine, I guess.
I’m guessing that the first owner (first 12 years) was an elderly person and it was a church/ Sundays car. The interesting thing is that even after being sold a few times, everyone who owned it managed to keep it in this very decent condition, despite it not being a classic car or desirable in any way past basic transportation. It’s almost like a soldier in a war that somehow manages to walk past every landmine, stray bullet and bombs to survive where everyone else has perished.
I’ve never really cared about Citations in general, but as they become extremely rare, something about the survivors give me hope that as some sort of artifact, that they will still exist in some form. That’s why I love these junkyard photos, Jim. The junkyard is the last hope that any car has before it is going back to its raw material form…..it’s one last glimpse before it becomes the vehicle version of worm food and going back to the soil from where we came.
Wouldn’t let me edit: I think that we’re all “basic transportation” to some extent….we’re here and then we’re gone. It’s why junkyard cars have always spoke to me in some way–they all have a history and they’re all valid in some way.
I saw an earlier model Citation (judging by the side mirrors) in Spokane, WA a couple years ago, while this image was shot in October 2013 I did see the same exact car 5 years later
https://www.google.com/maps/@47.6984156,-117.3955584,3a,15y,207.57h,85.44t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sy16sCyNGpHRradX18CnhVA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
I bought a brand new 1981 V-6 Camaro. It was such a big turd and always breaking down, when it lit itself on fire in the middle of a snow storm while driving home, I left it at the dealership and sued GM. Had it 9 months, maybe drove it 5 when it wasn’t in the shop.
I ended up picking any car I wanted to settle, I picked a 1980 Citation X-11. The good news is it was far superior to the Camaro. The better news is once I started to drive it, I was then working at a Chevy dealer ship selling cars. So, all my parts were heavily discounted.
What two cars did I end up taking home in the winter on my dealer plate? A Renault LeCar and Subaru AWD DL , both manual transmission and both sports cars compared to the Citation and Camaro. Even better, they didn’t break down , didn’t snap parts on a power shift, and had brakes that actually stopped the car straight.
The cars I would avoid selling people if possible, Citation, Camaro, S-10 Blazer.
A car I never regretted selling people, a Chevette with the Isuzu 1.8L diesel. Ugly, slow, small, but, hard to kill. Even when the customer fills the tank with gas and drives it until it shuts off.
Not to be undone by past engineering, Chevy then decided to invent the Passlock security system to bring that Camaro CCC computer control and Citation (with life time brake replacement) experience back to their customers.
I wonder if a baby LS (4.8) could fit in there?
I always liked the styling of the Citation and I suspected many others found it attractive, helping drive 800,000 sales that debut model year.
Now just imagine how different the automotive landscape might be today if these X-bodies weren’t utter crap from showroom floor to scrapyard.
I have a citation x 11 red! Got it in 1985 it’s a 1981 model! It runs it’s reliable! It’s a second car now! But for 35 years it was the primary! I had it overhauled in 2007! And freshened in 2017! Could use repaint! But it has been a good friend! And still can out maneuver sports cars like Porsche and Honda!
Nice, photo please?
The Chevy Citation II dual engine test mule is a story you may want to read about. GM was testing a 200 HP engine and was using a mule for on the road testing and thought that testing 2 engines at the same time in the same car would be better. One engine was up front and the second engine was in the trunk driving the rear wheels.
An automotive journalist took the Citation test mule for a test drive and decided to do a stop light drag race with a Porsche driver.
mul-ti-pass.
I would take one of these even now….with a body looking like that! I still have the shop manual.😆
My family had an EARLY production ‘80 four- door hatchback with v6 automatic. Dad orders before they were in the showroom ( he worked for GM). For us it was a very reliable car. Only early problem was the thermal switch to turn on the radiator cooling fan needed replacement under warranty. It also needed a water pump at two years old which was too soon for that, but beyond that? Just normal wear items.
I had one read brake locking adventure on a winter night on an ice covered road. I’d have to put at least as much blame on my neophyte winter driving skills as on the reportedly touchy brakes.
My college car! ’81, 6 cylinder, mine was a 2 door. 2 tone grey
I liked my 1980 x11. Had to get American and it had head room I needed. One front wheel bearing replaced in 2 years.
X cars (and K cars for that matter) had a horrible time with power steering racks early on.
They leaked early and often, or ‘froze’ and were hard to turn. That in itself was an expensive sin.