(first posted 10/21/2015) This post is a combination of two articles from R&T’s May 1979 issue, featuring “the best ever car out of Detroit”.
Hay, I didn’t say it- they did. R&T thought it was important enough to give it the cover:
Ok, first read the Road Test:
Following the road test was an in-depth analysis of the GM X-Bodies. This was a very interesting read, and I guess it was even more interesting back in 1979, when the outcome of these cars was still unknown:
And now to a personal note: My Dad had one of these Citations, he bought one of the very few examples to arrive to Israel at the time. It was a 1980 model, and he got it second-hand in 1982. Sadly, not the X-11 or even the V6- it was the 4IL lump that was, er, down on power.
Dad passed away little over two years ago, and whilst rummaging through the family’s slides collection, I found this- probably the only photo of the car:
I had a soft spot for this car, because it’s the first one I ever drove- Dad took me to a disused airfield, stuck a pillow on the seat (I was 13 and not the 185 cm I am today), and I drove! Yeah, it was easy-does-it, but still- I did drive.
Predictably, Dad was never impressed with the Citation. After years of driving American made cars, sadly that Car managed to taint them forever- and he never bought another American car ever again. It was duly replaced with a Peugeot 505, Dad loved its extremely comfortable seats…
As I noted in another thread, I believe GM supplied the buff books with X-models tweaked to infinity, and therefore bore little real-world resemblance to what Joe and Joann Average had available to them at their neighborhood GM dealer.
That’s not the first time it had ever happened but I believe it’s the most egregous example.
Certainly GM probably made sure the press cars were put together right as much as possible. This X11 was a special version of the Citation in any case. However, I doubt that it was possible to tweak the Citation enough to transform it completely. As I understand it, the X-bodies were good cars when new, but did not age well. So Road and Track’s perception of the new car was not wrong, but they had not way of knowing how they would age.
Remember that as recently as the early 2000s, even GM executives were being given prepped cars to drive at their preview events. Engineers would take an early model from the assembly line and realign the panels, check for assembly defects, etc.
Bob Lutz was one of the ones that fought against this (of course this is according to him) by bringing GM models (along with competitors cars) from the dealer lots for comparisons by the executives.
Even as delivered the cars were problematic. The missing front/rear brake pressure bias valve was there on day one, meaning that anyone that needed to stop in a hurry could swap ends on their way home from the dealer. Demand for the X-cars evaporated almost overnight, with 50% loss of sales volume each year they were in production. It wasn’t aging cars that turned off buyers that fast.
I don’t buy the ringers story at all. I suspect that the cars tested were as bad as the cars sold, but GM gave the writers enough SWAG to encourage them to take reassurances that the flaws would be fixed as gospel. Car and Driver was still peddling the BS about X-cars being great a year after the cars were in production, by which time there were plenty of first person reports on their faultiness.
The A-bodys that followed the X cars didn’t have the bias valve either. Both my Grandmother and my Mother managed to get two different Celebrities to do 180 degree spin in icy conditions. Grandma had a V6 coupe built in 84 and Mom’s 4 cyl sedan was an 82 model.
My good friend did this with his Citation as well, on icy Interstate 90 on Snoqualmie Pass. I think the car ended up on its roof, and it was totalled so he never drove it again. Fortunately, he walked away from the crash.
CJinSD says so more politely, but my impression is that these C&D articles were paid for…undocumented advertising. Payola, which was illegal in broadcasting but that apparently did not apply to car buff rags.
After reading that article from 1979, you can see how the American public and press would have thought the X-cars were the greatest thing since sliced bread. And for the times, they actually were. They were attractive, roomy, efficient, affordable vehicles that made the competition scramble to their drawing boards. And they sold like hotcakes. Too bad GM didn’t have the quality control and reliability of the Japanese brands – if they did, these cars would have been winners and we all know how that turned out now, don’t we?
I remember reading a statement made by a high-level GM executive in response to the mounting recalls and complaints about X-car quality. The statement was made in either 1981 or 1982.
He said, “I don’t understand the complaints about poor quality. We’ve sold over 800,000 Citations alone. That’s the true testament to the car’s quality.”
I heard that one benefit Detroit suits like him enjoyed was not having to service their company cars. Thus, “If it’s not my problem, it’s not a problem.”
Was there another clueless GM exec quoted as wondering why Californians hated their cars?
The definition of good and bad must be different.
The kind of inane BS in that quote sounds like it could have come from former GM Chairman Roger Smith. Probably did.
Believe it or note, I don’t believe that quote came from Roger Smith.
This cluelessness about vehicle quality, and any problems that customers were having with their vehicles, wasn’t limited to Smith in the 1980s.
If I recall correctly, in John DeLorean’s book he mentioned an incident where someone brought up quality problems with a GM vehicle at a high-level executive meeting. That was considered to be a serious faux pas, as this sort of thing was not to be discussed in the presence of high-level executives.
Arrogance like this made me stop being a GM fan boy back then, was so disappointed in how the X cars turned out.
Attitude was still “if you don’t like our small cars, you should have bought a real [big] car!”
A true testament to the buying public’s gullibility.
I had an 84 Citation II in the same body style as the X-11, called a “Club Coupe” in the brochures. And dropped in and out of the Citation line up over it’s production run. Still a good looking car.
And it was quiet and comfortable with plenty of room in it. The right size. Such a good design. On paper.
Don’t know how Road Test came up with their interior measurements as the Citation ads posted earlier on CC show the actual #s.
I collected everything I could about the X bodies and Citation, from brochures to magazines [including this issue] etc and have been a real fan of them. And their notoriety.
Thanks for posting this. Other fans of GM’s Deadly Sins appreciate this, I’m sure.
I worked for Avis when these cars came out. We got some of the first ones available as they must have done a very early fleet order. When the first one came in, it was a red Citation 2 door notchback coupe. I looked at it inside and out and my first thought was that they had taken a 79 Malibu, shrunk it down and cut its part, then threw the parts up in the air and wherever they landed, they got bolted together. The proportions were way off and downright goofy (as have been almost every new car redesign since). I was glad they did not use the Nova name ( though they’d taint that name in the 80’s by slapping it on a pile of garbage Toyota Corolla) at least. If I had to pick which of the X cars was least offensive looking, it would be the Olds Omega. The Citation and Phoenix hatchbacks looked like humpback whales with a roof that was too long for the rest of the body. Again, something that has plagued most cars ever since. The only other car that made me feel as bad about the direction automotive design was headed would come in the form of the 86 Ford Taurus. The X cars ushered in odd proportions, the Taurus ushered in the hideously ugly school of design, which I never would have believed would run this long, or get this bad.
That ‘pile of garbage Toyota Corolla’ was probably the best car ever sold at a GM dealer.
I don’t remember feeling one way or the other about Citation styling when it came out. Oddly, the look had been previewed by the Oldsmobile Cutlass Aeroback, even if that car was missing a functioning hatchback. The reviews of the X-cars were so effusive in their praise that it would have seemed backwards to reject the cars based on design. It turns out that the naysayers were right, which is something that’s about to happen once more as CAFE gets out of reach of the practical once again.
I tend to disagree, that Toyolet as it was correctly referred to by many, was far from the best car GM ever sold… Unless of course you like head gasket failure at 50,000 miles, timing belt failure at 30,000 miles, exhaust system replacement at 10,000 miles, cheap cardboard door panels that buckled after 6 months on the road, and severe structural rust before you made 10 payments. Sorry, I remember all too well just how substandard Toyotas were in the 70’s and 80’s…and with my sister getting recall notice number 15 on her RAV4, I see not much has changed other than the American public’s perception of what quality is.
But it always started, and if one actually maintained them, they were absolutely trouble-free. Even when meticulously maintained, an American car did then and still will now fall apart in one’s hands. Gaskets leaking, camshafts prematurely wearing out, overheating because the Dex-Cool turns int orange marmalade, etc. I remember driving a friend’s 1983 Cavalier…I wanted to light my cigarette, and when the lighter popped out I pulled on it and the whole dash panel came with it! Get over the buy ‘murrucun thing. It’s over.
You got that backward. They slapped a pile of garbage name on a high-quality Toyota Corolla and tainted the Toyota. These ignorant, gullible, buy ‘murrucun people thought they were actually driving Chevrolets!
And conversely, I’m sure all those people who bought Isuzu Hombres, Mazda Navajos, Isuzu I180s, 90’s Mazda pickups, Isuzu Ascenders and such were of the “Don’t buy American”mentality and actually thought they were buying a Japanese vehicle.
It seems odd that the 2.8v6 was tested in Mustang IIs. I suppose it couldn’t fit under the hood of the Monza?
I question how our automotive landscape would have differed had the X-Car been successful, that is, had all its quality gremlins worked out before launch and also its drivability gremlins (people who drove early ones said that because the steering rack was mounted on the cradle, it felt like the car wanted to go two different directions at once, the rear lockup problems).
The A car may have been rendered unnecessary, or become sportier/more luxurious.
The Cimarron probably would have been replaced by a hopefully heavily restyled X.
If GM hadn’t drastically lost so much market share due to the X, Saturn would have been unnecessary, as well as a lot of the captive import programs.
My guess is that Chrysler, the weakest of the Big Three, would have either gone bankrupt or been forced to merge with VW/Ford as Iacocca had considered at the time. The K car was a slightly roomier product than the X but Chrysler got the bugs mostly out of the K car by launch. Otherwise the X was more stylish and in its hatchback versions certainly more versatile.
Ford was struggling badly in ’79-81 ish despite the new Mustang. They didn’t have anything that could compete with the X; the various warmed over Fairmonts were competitive only in durability. I’m thinking Ford may have gone bankrupt/been forced to link forces with VW/Chrysler. Henry Ford II being still alive . . . a Chrysler merger may have been unlikely. Ford may not have survived to produce the Taurus.
VW’s Rabbit and Jetta would have had to have been upgraded significantly or go in a different direction to compete. I’m thinking they would have become sportier/more Germanic, because the X would have outdone them on price and plush.
Honda’s Accord and Civic would have had to grow considerably in size and refinement to compete with the Xs.
Toyota would have had to introduce a Camry size car earlier, or go in a different, direction.
Some of the marginal Japanese players, such as Isuzu, Mitsubishi, and Mazda, would have never gained a foothold or been forced out.
No one would have fallen victim to the Renault Alliance.
The failings of the X car were a gift of inestimable value to the folks at Chrysler.
You have good points, but 1983 era gas prices that eased off, saved Ford and Chrysler, and also GM sort of.
When middle age people back then “got used to” the Panther full sized cars, Ford made huge profits from its comeback. GM gave up of the X and kept the Caprice around, too.
Chryslers minivans and 5th Ave RWD car brought in cash, too.
Oh, and we’d all be driving 4 door hatchbacks today instead of . . . .lifted 4 door hatchbacks.
One of the great car-mysteries of my life involves my mother’s car shopping in 1980. Mopar-head that I was, I finally got Mom interested, and she was hot on an Omni/Horizon. She was tired of pouring gasoline through the 74 LeMans, but had owned an unbroken string of GM cars my entire life.
In the interest of fairness, I suggested (not too warmly, I’m sure) that she ought to check out the new Olds Omega. She halfheartedly agreed, and then suggested that I should go drive one. She didn’t even want to come. It did not present to me as a bad car, but it was just (ugh) another Oldsmobile. She never expressed the slightest desire to look at it in person. And that was it. She bought a Horizon that was, all in all, not a bad car. I wonder if her experience with a troublesome first-year 1961 Olds F-85 colored her view.
I have always wondered what a first-year Omega experience may have been.
For additional perspective, here are some snippets from the Popular Mechanics “Owners Report” on the 1980 Chevrolet Citation, which was published in the October 1979 issue:
Among owners, 63.5 percent rated workmanship as either “good” or “excellent.”
One owner said, “Considering that 1980 is the first year for the Citation, and how good it really is, the next few years should be terrific.”
Oops! Too bad the Psychic Hotline wasn’t around in late 1979.
Another owner said, “Everything fits the way it should. Mine is a Thursday-built car and shows good workmanship. Doors, hood and panels are all well-aligned. I’ve found no assembly problems at all.”
In fact, 33.3 percent of owners had no complaints, and 21.7 percent, when asked to suggest changes, said that nothing should be changed. Half had experienced no mechanical problems, which was pretty much par for the course at that time.
The report ended with these quotes:
“It’s a soundly built car. GM obviously put a lot of hours and thought into the Citation.” (One wonders if the “New York housewife” who wrote this on her survey was saying the same thing by, say, late 1981.)
And this:
“I am very pleased with my Citation – its performance, the way it handles, its roominess, its gas mileage. And I’m pleased, too, to own such a fine, American-made automobile.”
Thursday built.
If they added more precise time, maybe it’s better to avoid lunch time car also.
The X car’s face value virtues combined with considerable goodwill from the success of the B,C,A, and E body launches for ’77 through ’79 had just about everybody giddy about the Xs.
Everybody has their X car anecdotes. One of mine is from 1982 or so when I was working as a supermarket carry out boy. Walking to her car, a lady broke into tears telling me about the multiple repeat repairs she was having done on her early FWD Skylark – now out of warranty. Quite the different owner testimonial compared to the early quotes you site.
I worked at a supermarket most of my high school and college years, and that Skylark was responsible for the only tears I ever saw from a customer.
My Uncle Bob maintains to this day that his first-year 3-door Citation hatchback was a great car. His might also have been “Thursday-built”.
How can anyone ever take R&T seriously? This was not its first, or last, fluff piece on a vehicle so obviously flawed. Advertising dollars anyone?.
I give GM credit for thinking out of the box on these, but they were weirdly styled (the four door hatchbacks particularly) and cheaply made, with the worst fit and finish imaginable. The car did have attributes over its predecessors, being more space efficient with better handling and fuel economy, but it’s deficiencies far outweighed them. The word got out quickly and sales tanked rapidly after the first year. By 1985 dealers were giving them away.
I personally know three individuals whose X car experiences resulted in it being the last American car they ever owned. I suspect there were thousands others.
Such owner includes my current roommate, after her family owned a Citation at first. Then, they are still happy with the not-so-reliable 13yo Accord.
“X-Car: GM blows the imports into the weeds!” …. that was the cover of the May 1979 Car and Driver–which was my favorite car magazine by a mile.
In Sept 1977, C&D had hailed the new 78 Ford Fairmont.
In early 1980, our family needed a car. Till then, my father was a GM guy, but he balked at paying full sticker for a Citation (they were hot). Our choices were Chevette (too small and it “looked cheap”), or a Malibu or LeMans (more than he wanted to spend), so he got a Fairmont.
He quickly christened it “the tin can”. It proved to be a good car though, and both he and I were happy when it became my first car (me to get a car, he to get rid of it, lol)
Over the last 40 years, I’ve discerned a pattern: new “domestic” comes out. It’s virtues are exaggerated. Then, in 2-3 years, it’s just fair. Then, if it’s replaced by a better car, the previous edition is derided (in direct proportion to how good it was in the first place, or how bad/good it’s reputation is) and it’s shortcomings are exaggerated.
Great for selling the new car!
The Fairmont was a good car, as C&D wrote it up, but it’s “lightweight construction” made it feel cheap. At least they were not known to be lemons.
The X-car was a great car–on paper–but unfortunately, their reputation was lousy—as evidenced by the meteoric rise and fall in sales.
C/D in the ’80s (and later) was often bashed for import favoritism too. But they were all over the X-cars for the first two years. By 1982 they were complaining about the torque steer and comparing them negatively to the larger RWD A/G bodies. Even in one of the early road tests of a 1980 Phoenix, one of the editors called it “everything you ever wanted in a German car without the stigma of high quality” after complaining of chintziness and empty holes missing their fasteners.
I bought a copy of that issue from ebay. That comment was from Pat Bedard’s counterpoint.
“I’ve discerned a pattern: new “domestic” comes out. It’s virtues are exaggerated. Then, in 2-3 years, it’s just fair. Then, if it’s replaced by a better car, the previous edition is derided (in direct proportion to how good it was in the first place, or how bad/good it’s reputation is) and it’s shortcomings are exaggerated.”
It’s very correct. Reliability of Ford panther is exaggerated in these years too, how Chrysler 300 is, and W-Body Impala.
Over the last 40 years, I’ve discerned a pattern: new “domestic” comes out. It’s virtues are exaggerated. Then, in 2-3 years, it’s just fair. Then, if it’s replaced by a better car, the previous edition is derided (in direct proportion to how good it was in the first place, or how bad/good it’s reputation is) and it’s shortcomings are exaggerated.
This is about right, but they’re merely competitive when they come out, then 2-3 years later, the bugs are worked out and you can safely buy. Then, sadly, 14 years later when it’s replaced, there’s no need to exaggerate the shortcomings. They’re clear. A perfectly assembled ’80 Citation might have been a compelling alternative to an ’80 Accord. A perfectly assembled ’96 Century wasn’t similar in any way to a ’96 Accord.
See also Tempo, Fox variants, K variants, etc.
Truth be told, I never drove a Citation, but seeing and examining those swore me off GM until 2004. Only with the advent of the 2000 Impalas did I start keeping a closer eye on their offerings.
I have to speculate that mom’s 1979 AMC Concord was twice the car of the X-cars, and although our 1981 Reliant was pretty cheap being a stripper model, it gave us good service and our 2004 E-Class was great.
Grrrr .
It coulda been a contender .
-Nate
Your dad got it right.
How could R&T get it so wrong? I could tell after seeing and especially HEARING a few of these on the road, that they were AWFUL cars. Not quite Vega but close enough.
As a side note, I always had the impression the Omega was (slightly) better built and, if my memory does not deceive me, in Israel the Omega was the best seller of the lot, perhaps also because of its conventional 3-box styling which was always favored by the market. They certainly seemed to live longer than the Citations…
I believe that at the time, GM brands were imported to Israel separately rather than by one single importer, and the Citation was simply not imported in bulk* numbers as the Omega.
Or maybe Chevy’s importer at the time could see the future…
*As bulk as it could be in such a small automotive market.
You are correct of course. The same applied to the Buick variation I believe.
Mom had one of the first Citations, a 5 door hatch bought new with the carbureted Iron Duke, automatic, AM radio and cloth bench seats, and nothing else. I remember the rust, the hard plastic dash, and it stalling all the time. The stalling made me think of it as a piece of junk at the time, but it’s entirely possible that the carburetor just needed attention from someone who knew what they were doing. Otherwise, most of our complaints about it revolved around the lack of any comfort or convenience features. As I think about that today, that was neither the fault of the car, nor at all uncommon at the time.
I also think that it could really be considered the Corvair of its day. A configuration that most people weren’t used to that was beset by handling characteristics directly related to that configuration, (greatly) exacerbated by engineering to a price, rather than anything close to state of the art. The main difference is that the rear engine configuration didn’t offer appreciable improvements in space utilization or economy over front engine/RWD, whereas FWD very much did. Thus, rear engine cars (save for the Beetle) were only a niche market, while the efficiencies of FWD could not be ignored, and it went on to receive significant improvements and become the industry standard.
So, the Citation was flawed, but at least in my hindsight on ours, not significantly worse overall than its contemporaries, but rather bad in different ways. Sure, a Malibu sounded better at the time, but it would’ve rusted just as badly, ran just as poorly with the 3.3 V6 that was standard at the time, and been just as poorly equipped. It also would’ve been more expensive, had no more usable space, gotten worse mileage, and had worse traction in the winter.
I’m not so sure that an X-car would have been necessarily cheaper than an A-body.
Car and Driver tested a Chevrolet Malibu Classic against an Oldsmobile Omega ES 2800 in 1980. The Omega was only slightly less expensive – $9,631 versus $9,781. (These were the sticker prices with optional equipment, including a V-8 for the Malibu and the ES 2800 package for the Omega.)
However, throughout 1980, X-cars were flying off the lots, while the intermediates and full-size models were tough to move. If I recall correctly, X-cars were actually going out the door for full sticker, or close to it. It was possible to wrangle some significant discounts on a Malibu (or any other GM intermediate).
And there was no comparison regarding the long-term reliability of an A-body versus any X-car.
You may be right on pricing Geeber, I was born in 1980 so I don’t have any firsthand experience with that. Regarding the comparison to the A-bodies, Mom’s boyfriend in the mid 80s had a loaded 78 Lemans Landau, and his ownership of it and her ownership of the Citation overlapped for a few years. The Lemans was very nice in my young mind (I’d buy one like it if I could find one for the right price, and I can’t say that about the Citation), but it had issues with its 301. They were both glad to get rid of their respective cars by the late 80s.
I later owned a 87 Buick Somerset (not sure what the disposition of the brake proportioning was in the N-bodies, but I did swap ends on it and go into a ditch once in the snow my first winter of driving) and a 85 Buick Regal T-type. Both benefitted substantially from fuel injection, were nicely optioned, and had significant rust issues. The Regal was a lot more fun to drive, but both were fairly trouble free.
I went on to own a Corsica that was also trouble free, and 2 K derivatives that were nothing but trouble.
I also recall for a period early X-car buyers were given a discount for buying the V6 instead of the 4, because this was during and just after the second gas shortage and everyone wanted the best available fuel economy. Even normally, the V6 was only a $125 option. Could you imagine the V6 option in a Accord or Camry today costing only $125 even adjusted for inflation? Especially if the 4-cylinder was an Iron Duke?
I think Car and Driver did a retrospective on the Corvair in one of their many issues hyping the early FWD X-car kind of as a “here was GM’s answer to the same questions 20 years ago”.
The X-cars had serious design flaws that no amount of quality control on the assembly line could fix. The lack of a brake proportioning valve was one, and I don’t believe that was ever addressed. The other major fault was mounting the steering gear on the firewall of the body for the first 2 model years, instead of the engine cradle – this magnified the feeling of the cars “crabbing” down the road as the body wanted to go in one direction and the subframe wanting to go in another, with the steering seemingly connected to neither. This fault was corrected for the ’82 model year when the gear was relocated to the cradle, where it should have been in the first place. The A-bodies received this change from the start so didn’t inherit one of the worst problems of the Xs.
Funny how I had an early (’84 Century Limited Coupe) A-body, and I never knew back then that it was a derivative of the infamous X-car. It rode and handled well, was very comfortable, and aside from the awful 3.0 litre V-6 that was rebuilt 3 times in 50k miles, I really liked that car.
A friend in college had an ’81 Buick Skylark Limited sedan that I rode in many times. The seats were very plush and it rode quite well for what it was, a small economical sedan. He raved about that car all the time. Whether or not he had problems is a mystery to me because he was the type of person that would NEVER admit to his car having problems.
I believed the hype and encouraged my parents to buy an ’82 Pontiac Phoenix 5-door (I wasn’t of driving age yet), also helping them order one from the factory. By then the bad news about X-car quality control and recalls was already out, but I figured that two years into production many of the problems had been fixed. The new J and A bodies were out, but neither offered a 4-door hatchback. Several key modifications were made for the ’82 X-cars. The new steering with a relocated rack from the FWD A-bodies which solved the awful torque steer. Fuel injection was added to the 4-cyl engine; car buff mags complained it was cheap throttle-body rather than proper multi-port FI, but it was still leaps and bounds better than a carburetor and proved perfectly reliable, and it added 3 mpg on the highway.
We bought a base model with no exterior upgrades, so it had dog-dish hubcaps and no extra chrome. But inside we ordered the upgraded interior usually relegated to the luxury Phoenix LJ model, nearly all the gizmos, and reclining bucket seats with 6-way power on the driver side (the R&T article complains recliners were only available on the passenger side; the driver-side recliner must have also been added in ’81 or ’82). The full instrumentation in those little swiss cheese holes looked straight out of an airplane cockpit. It would have been a very pleasant car had we only ordered the V6 instead of the Iron Duke which was not only underpowered but very noisy (we had test-driven some X- and A-cars and noticed some were noisier than others but for some reason didn’t realize the quiet ones had the V6).
People who put down the X-car nowadays need to remember what the competition was at the time. Honda’s first-gen 4-door Accord arrived a month before the Citation; it was much better built but you couldn’t get rear doors and a hatchback (or even a fold-down rear seat) in the same car, the back seat was short on legroom, and the trunk seemed half the size of the X-car hatchbacks, all which made it poorly suited as a family car. And while their 5-speed stick was great, automatic drivers were still stuck with the awful Hondamatic 2-speed. Toyota had the RWD Corona – well made but also not roomy enough. Datsun had the “510” – yes it needs quotes so everyone knows I don’t mean the real 510. Mazda had the rear-drive 626 which was actually quite good if you didn’t mind the bad-weather traction limitations of RWD; the sedan was very roomy and had 60/40 folding rear seats, rare for its era even in wagons and hatchbacks, much less sedans. Sporty drive and good outward visibility too. Ford and Chrysler didn’t really have any direct competitors. Perhaps what seemed like the strongest X-car competitor in 1979-80 was the VW Dasher, a similarly-sized roomy FWD 3- or 5-door hatchback (or wagon), though it didn’t have the luxury options or V6 choice the X did, and it wasn’t a paragon of reliability either.
Although the X-car’s rapid sales decline after a great start is usually attributed to its poor rep getting out, there were many other factors which probably played an even bigger role. GM was throwing their marketing weight behind the J cars (early ’82 launch) and A-body (late ’82 launch). X-car advertising from ’83 onwards was practically nonexistant (adverts for ’84 Phoenixes and Omegas was about as common as for ’69 Corvairs). And competition that didn’t yet exist in 1980 quickly mounted: the K-car (1981, with new variants each year thereafter), the much-improved 2nd-gen Accord (1982), Nissan Stanza (also ’82), Camry (’83 and aimed squarely at the Citation), the redesigned and excellent FWD Mazda 626 (’83, now with a new 5-door added), and several others.
“Although the X-car’s rapid sales decline after a great start is usually attributed to its poor rep getting out, there were many other factors which probably played an even bigger role. GM was throwing their marketing weight behind the J cars (early ’82 launch) and A-body (late ’82 launch). X-car advertising from ’83 onwards was practically nonexistant (adverts for ’84 Phoenixes and Omegas was about as common as for ’69 Corvairs). And competition that didn’t yet exist in 1980 quickly mounted: the K-car (1981, with new variants each year thereafter), the much-improved 2nd-gen Accord (1982), Nissan Stanza (also ’82), Camry (’83 and aimed squarely at the Citation), the redesigned and excellent FWD Mazda 626 (’83, now with a new 5-door added), and several others.”
Very valid point. Still, the X cars had their virtues and if they had been blessed with good reputations, sales would likely have stayed stronger and have blunted the impact of cars such as the K’s, the Accord and the Camry. Chrysler had an ick factor among buyers that was blunted by the X debacle. There was also a lot of buy American sentiment that was killed off with people feeling desperate to buy a fuel efficient AND reliable car.
If GM had played a smooth hand, the Celebrity might be in its 7th generation and the Camry and Accord still selling as also rans. The 8th generation Citation might be touted as what the Corolla and Civic should aspire to be.
Japanese cars still rusted away quickly in the early 80’s, but they started and ran, so buyers got a new one and so on.
But also, domestic ‘gas hogs’ i.e. RWD cars and trucks gave good service, and led to the truck boom.
The J’s actually launched in late 1981. My girlfriend got her woeful, pitiful Cavalier on August 31, 1981. Ugh.
I believe the X-cars first went on sale in April 1979. While the print deadline for the October 1979 issue of Popular Mechanics was probably late August or early September 1979. Plus add another month for 1980 Citation Ownership Survey results to arrive by snail mail. This survey would have assessed 4 months of ownership or less. Other than initial quality, workmanship, or defects, a survey like this can’t be used to determine long term reliability or quality. Most new cars, even in 1980, are going to shine in a 4 month or less survey. The survey wouldn’t foretell the bad ratings the X cars would earn, given it was conducted after only a few months of ownership, in the middle of summer. It would strongly help boost sales, if anything.
There was a lot of media hype for the X cars at the time. And many journalists and consumers were probably hoping the X cars were a big part of the domestic push back to the huge growth in Japanese car popularity. There was plenty of naval gazing going on in the US auto industry. And many questioned the ability of the domestic industry to compete. It may have affected journalist’s and consumer’s objectivity about these cars. As many observers, not just GM, were cheering for the success of the Xs. Compounding the disappointment later.
Also, we should not forget that GM cars benefitted at that time from a widely-held belief that they were the best available in the US. The B body had just come out 2 years before and had proved to be excellent. At that time, this was the car that I feared would put Chrysler out of business, expecting that the K car would have trouble measuring up. Funny how that turned out in real life.
I brought up the Popular Mechanics survey results to show that the initial hype wasn’t just limited to magazine reviewers. There was a lot of excitement when the X-cars debuted. People did initially like them. But, as shown by the sales results, the bloom wore off that rose very quickly.
In those days, home computers were still in the future. The internet was still limited to military and government uses. Most of us hadn’t yet heard of JD Powers surveys. The only outlet measuring vehicle reliability was Consumer Reports, and the results of its annual reliability surveys weren’t as widely publicized then as they are today.
In that context, the speed with which the X-cars fell from grace – and down the sales charts – is even more amazing.
While the GM Bailout was progressing I was torn…on the one hand I wanted GM to survive not only for the economic health of the country and for thousands of employees but also because of its iconic stance in American automotive industry. On the other hand I wanted to punish GM for it’s horrible mistakes they pushed onto the consumer over many decades…including the X Cars.
Of course I’m gratified that GM -and most other automakers are now producing more reliable vehicles…but it still bothers me that they only changed for the better after their “evil ways” were uncovered…and seeing that Cadillac reliability (according to CR) has dropped dramatically it makes me wonder if all the “evil” has really been purged.
The managers who made the ‘horribe mistakes’ in the 70s/80s were long retired in 2008. Roger Smith never owned up to anything.
But, I was glad Rick Wagoner was shown the door, he was a finger pointer, “not us” etc.
If the GM X-car isn’t the Number One Deadly Sin, it should be very near it. I doubt there was any GM product that soured more consumers on future GM purchases than the X-car. Even the Vega, which could be arguably be considered worse, was far cheaper and viewed as a ‘disposable’ second car, so the feelings weren’t quite as intense when they quickly came apart. But the X-car was targeted to mainstream market, and sold in big GM mainstream numbers. GM might have made some terrific short-term profits with the X-car, but it cost them in the biggest, most unimaginable ways in the long-term.
The first car I drove in my driver ed class was a 1980 Buick Skylark, the second car I drove was our Volvo 164. I immediately know the X-car was crap. The 77 Honda Accord simply rammed the lesson home. It also showed me how crap the J-car was when I drove a new one in 84. Sorry but I have no like for these, much less love.
I almost fell for the R&T and CD hype about these cars but was deeply committed to my Showroom Stock racing hobby with a Ford Fiesta. A few years later, when the HO (130 hp, I think) version of the X11 was launched it was very appealing. And then I drove one. 4 speed, scary torque steer, awful brakes. Much less than the sum of its parts. Interestingly, 15 years later, several financially comfortable Silicon Valley families we knew when our kids were in pre-school drove older high mileage X bodies, typically Skylarks or Omegas, and seemed quite happy with them.
I’ll never forget the C&D write-up on their 4-speed-equipped X-11. It kept popping out of fourth on the highway when they let off the gas, to which the GM rep emphatically stated the much-repeated line of it being a ‘pre-production problem that would be fixed on production cars’. Well, I, too, test-drove a 4-speed X-11 at a local dealer not long after reading the glowing review and it did the exact same popping out of fourth on deceleration. Needless to say, I passed.
“Oh just get the automatic, then” is what sales would say. “It’s what you really want”
When I was a kid my dad had a Citation 2-door hatchback in the same blue as the one in the photo of Yohai’s dad. It was a very early example, so early he’s always referred to it as a 1979 1/2. By the end of the 1st year, he was on his 3rd transmission (all automatics) – one ground itself to metal shavings and the other suddenly seized in the middle of the highway (fortunately in a town at low speed). He’s been a big proponent of warranties ever since. He liked it after that, he says, but I think it’s notable that his next car was a Toyota. (Also notable is the fact that at various times he has also owned a Vega and a Saturn – a practical GM Deadly Sin magnet!)
When these cars were new I really really disliked them. I thought they were proof of the decline of America.
I still like the styling of the Citation 2 door hatch–someone dig out the Car & Driver issue a few years later when the X-11 was relaunched with the HO 2.8 with cowl induction hood. One of the writers called it “the Z28 for the 80’s” I think the writers were blown away with how revolutionary these cars were, and reading that tech report it is amazing what GM did, and what they didn’t do. (no 4 whl discs, no modern 4 cyl engine, no 5 speed manual)
This is just me, but I think some X car owners switched to Ford or Chrysler. The Panthers and Fox car sold well in ’83, but some GM loyalists went back to big B bodies, believing the ‘small cars are crap’ line.
But, with ’82 Accords available with more room, buyers jumped and went forward…
When people today wonder why anyone bought a Tempo/Topaz or Chrysler K-car, they forget that buyers were often comparing them to their old X-car, not a Honda Accord to Toyota Camry.
My uncle was one of those.. at the time, the early 80s, my uncle had bought a Chevrolet Citation.. he (and my whole fathers side of the family) had always bought GM cars.. he had a 77 Nova before the Citation.. I was around the age of 7-10 when I recall his ownership of the Citation, and I do remember him saying the car had some issues.. in 1986, he bought his first Ford, a 1986 Tempo… he’s never owned a GM since, but then my father started working for Ford in 1977, so I’m sure a plan discount was an incentive, though my aunt was still driving GM into the 2000s.. in the 80s my aunt was driving a Malibu wagon, I’ll never forget those fixed back seat windows!
I would say these are GM’s #1 deadly sin. In that right afterwards, market share declined. After Corvair and Vega, GM still held near 50%, but the 80’s was the begining of slide to the current 17%.
And sure, the FWD A body was better, but it had “old folks” appeal, and didn’t attract enough needed younger [Boomer] buyers.
I have ridden in, but never driven an X-car. I have, however driven, and owned Buick and Olds versions of the A-body, and really liked both of them. Comfy highway cars, relatively roomy, both were v6 powered, with 3 speed automatics. The car that was relarkably ugly, but mechcanically stout, with amazingly comfortable seats and superb interior materials, was, of all things, a Dodge Dynasty. I would take a Dynasty over any a-body, just for the seats. Mine was a 3.3L, with 4 speed auto. The trans shot craps at 160k miles, but the rebuild was relatively cheap and it was going strong when I totaled it at 180k. Not a Chrysler fan, but that Dodge was tremendous.
I drove a Citation once, I forget what year, and all I remember about it is waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh when I pressed the gas, and the front end bobbing up and down all the time. It was my boss’s company car. Pitiful.
My father, God rest his soul, bought his first GM car in 1963 (a white Chevy Bel-air) and was a GM guy the rest of his life. He kept every car he owned for around ten years, except for the x-car Skylark he bought in 1981. He had owned a ’71 Skylark with a 350 V8 (the car I learned to drive on) and loved it, as did I. So, he bought the 1981 version without hesitation. . .
To make a long story short, he flipped ends in the ’81 on a rainy highway, as did so many others, not too long after he’d bought it. It got sold fairly quickly after that. He’d kept the ’71, and drove it a few more years, until he splurged (in his mind) and bought a LeSabre, which he drove till the day he died.
There are people who say the buff books never gave American cars a fair shake, which is supposed to explain why Japanese brands dominate the retail market for cars.
If there was one car magazine that actually didn’t automatically heap praise on every new car from Detroit, it was Road & Track. Motor Trend awarded their Car of the Year award to precisely one import prior to 2003, although they did have a B-prize for an import of the year in 1970 and then from 1976 to 1999. Car and Driver usually cheered for the home team, claiming Pontiac built better GTOs than Ferrari did in the ’60s, and that Pontiac’s value proposition more than made up for any subjective superiority of 5-series BMWs in the ’70s.
Yet here we have the introduction of a GM platform that briefly made people forget the sales records of the first Ford Mustangs, and Road & Track presents it in a way that makes it sound like it is better at being an economy sedan than anything else out there while also running circles around the best sports and GT cars on the market. You’d think a car like that would be more fondly remembered.
Be careful when using the word “ever,” as in “best car ever…”
I didn’t read the published article in 2015, and I’m glad I took time with it today. When the cars debuted, they sure did look like the right vehicle at the right time!
As an original owner of a 1985 Citation X11, I’m excited to see these posts about Citations and X cars in general. My service experience was a new oil pump after 30K miles and a transmission rebuild at 70K miles due to no second gear. It has 160K miles on it and its very interesting to drive today. My 2019 Cruze is faster and handles better. But, in 1985, at only 2500 lbs., and 130 hp., the X11 was quick. I didn’t realize how small the X bodies were until it was parked next to the Cruze.
IMO, the only good American front wheel drive car was the 2nd generation Probe GT with the V6 and 5 speed manual trans.
But that car had a lot of Mazda in it.
It was well built, good performance, handling, brakes, reliability and style.
It was not cheap though.
Possibly the Dodge Neon SRT4. That cheap car was not really well built but lots of fun after the engine was rebuilt with upgrades.
I was quite the little patriot when these cars came out, 10-11 years old at the time. I remember my best friend’s dad proudly buying one of these cars, cannot remember exactly which model but I’m thinking it was probably a Citation, since the guy was quite the skin-flint. It was brown. I remember thinking how tidy and tight the car looked. It was brown. The very next time I visited my friend, the car was gone and it its place was a Toyota. My friend said “Dad said the car was a piece of crap.” I was stunned and mad the guy “gave his money to the Japanese” even when I found out the car was an absolute disaster from the git-go.
Hands down, the worst new car I ever had. Didn’t own another GM vehicle for 20 years because of it. The Saturn that broke that two decades of anti-GM boycott was good, but didn’t exceed my expectations. The dealer experience is what kept me returning. After Saturn ended, I’m back boycotting GM.
The idea that these reviews could present this flaming lemon in this manner wrecked their reputations as well. An awful, awful car.
I remember these well when they came out, there was such publicity….but turned out to be premature, forced by the times (2nd gas shortage that decade). Seems like the magazines were full of them around May of 1979, and they seemed like the future. I was living up North, so the FWD appealed to me; even though my Father had a ’76 Subaru DL with FWD at that time, FWD wasn’t too common, though of course the VW Dasher/Golf, Saab, Fiat 128, Honda Civic/Accord and Datsun F10 had it at the time, it wasn’t common at the time; I was making due with a lightweight RWD Datsun until it slid out on black ice on I89 and bit the guardrail (40 years ago) and I fixed it up just to sell it. Thought it would have been a better choice at the time, I wasn’t much interested in buying a Nova nor the equivalent (I drove them during my stint at Hertz) thought they were nice enough but not the future…..the X cars were obviously rushed out, and it wasn’t really the FWD components that were the issue. If GM had slowed down a bit and got them right, we might have these as common as the B cars were in the late 70’s.
I checked one of these out, an ’81 Pontiac Phoenix. All these years later I’m not exactly sure what kept me from buying one of these (my Uncle bit on an Olds Omega a year earlier) but I think it was financial; I was newly out of school and more than a bit awkward with what I could afford, but I started looking at new cars when I really should still have been looking at used ones (I learned that lesson, having owned only 1 new car, my current car, which I’ve kept 21 years thus far). Also looked at the new K car and probably others I’ve forgotten, but it probably worked out for the best since it kept me from buying new one of these not ready for primetime models. I wasn’t exactly practical, though it did work out, I bought a ’78 Scirocco, which I’m glad I did since I got my sports car out of my system when I was young and more of a scrambler; kind of a mid-life crisis thing that I got out of my system in my 20’s. Being a VW it wasn’t inexpensive but it was pretty durable but not trouble free. Living in an apartment I didn’t get to do much work on it; I bought another set of rims for snow tires which I somehow stored in my efficiency apartment.
Really, the Honda Accord had started things, but once the Camry came out, this type of car really took off. The only difference is that mid-sized hatchbacks ended up becoming an endangered species as by the end of the 80’s the sedans were all that were left. GM probably saw this like a huge missed opportunity, and disappointing so many people led to them leaving in droves. My youngest sister got a hand-me-down ’84 Sunbird which was a terribly undurable car that disappointed her so badly that she was never to own another American car for the rest of her short life. But in their haste GM kept making the same mistake throughout the 80’s including with Cadillac, which made even loyal people question their almost automatic purchase prior to this period. I don’t really think it was the workmanship (which was probably really about the same as before, not too good) but the premature release and obvious lack of testing. The drive for fuel economy really put a clock on their release that didn’t fit, and even with their great resources they weren’t able to overcome the clock.