The GM "X-Body" and the U.S. Automotive "Malaise."
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- Опубликовано: 21 мар 2023
- In 1979 General Motors introduced a radical concept across multiple brands intended to compete with the small imports: an American built, front wheel drive platform for the mainstream, mass-produced market. That attempt to right the ship of American auto manufacturing would almost sink it.
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Script by THG
#history #thehistoryguy #automotive
I worked for a Chevrolet dealership in the early '80s. People would come in and want to see, and then buy a Citation. They couldn't be convinced to look at something else. Some would order one and wait to get what they wanted.
By mid 1981; we had a couple mechanics that had been to special X-body training. Their main focus was recalls on the Citation and it's related versions.
The carburetor problem was caused by GM holding back from fuel injection. Admittedly, it wasn't ready. So, in an effort to increase fuel economy, they designed an electronic carburetor. Just your basic carb. With electronic metering to control the jets at various conditions. It worked . Most of the time. Until it didn't. Which wasn't long. So the desired fuel economy went out the window. You would see them puffing black smoke, and know they were consuming enough gas for a small v-8 😂.
They were a poor execution of a good idea. Malaise indeed.
Around the same time, Cadillac had the V8-6-4 with its cylinder deactivation. The idea was sound, the implementation less so (or maybe it simply wasn't feasible yet).
What GM called fuel injection was basically an electronic carburetor or throttle body FI. Multi-port fuel injection is what most modern cars use.
@@rogerd777 My 87 Escort had just that - one jet over a butterfly valve. Hell you could see (and interrupt) the flow of gas with the air cleaner off.
It worked though.
My 91 Swift 1.0 had something similar, if you took a left too quickly just after starting up the car, you'd actually stall it, like a carburettor.
These and the Vegas were so appealing to the public. Oh, GM.
You mentioned the black smoke coming out the back. My Spanish high school teacher had a Citation that had the appearance of having a diesel motor for as black as the rear bumper and tail light lens was. I always thought it was just burning oil.
We were a GM family...most worked in local factories. But, the build quality dropped SO much we left for Toyota/Honda. WE didn't abandon GM...it abandoned us.
Truth
The Chevy Citation may not be GM's best work, but it changed our family's life even i was a kid.
We were poor, and going from one, barely running gas guzzler to another, because that was all my parents could afford, working 3 jobs between them and trying to raise 2 kids.
They spent so much money trying to keep those cars running with gas and parts.
My mom got a break even the bank she worked at sold out and cashed out the employees' . . . something. Anyway, she got $2k from it in 1982, and they used that on a down payment for a Chevy Citation. They were finally set free. It changed everything and eventually helped them be able to afford to go to school and make s better life for all of us
American dream come true
Should have bought a Toyota.
Love that story! Also, my old Citation was awesome!
My mom got just enough money from my dad in the divorce go buy a brand new citation in cash. I think it was 3200 bucks. We drove from Kentucky to Colorado in the car. She got it when I was 6 and gave it to me when I turned 16. I drove it until i got t boned by a big truck. I never put a dime into it. That 6 cylinder engine had gobs of power too. And enough room in the back to recycle TONS of newspapers and to lose your virginity in on a camping trip.....
I'm told.
Right, we can look back in hindsight and laugh today about all the crappy cars from that era, but we must not forget it was a different era, and many of these vehicles at least served their purpose as cheap transportation for the masses. It wasn't all that different for my family. We only had one car when I was really young in the late 70's and it was a big old gas guzzling Buick. My dad drove that to work and if my mom and I needed to get anywhere my grandfather had to drive us. In 1980 we got a Dodge Omni as a 2nd vehicle. It was a crappy little car, but it got us around and it was good on gas.
I was on the search for my first new car in 1980, and I test drove a Citation with a V-6, and on the test drive, I noted that it was an amazing feat of engineering to develop a 2300lb car that handled like my mom's 4300lb '74 Impala. They both wallered around on the road like a heavy cruiser on high seas.
LOLOLOLOLOL , I had a 1980 Chevette that handled like a 1970 plymouth with bad shocks and a broken coil spring ...for a 4 cylinder it got TERRIBLE gas mileage...my 82 Datsun 200 SX on the other hand was a DREAM and I got over 250k miles before the interior fabric disintegrating ( 80s velour garbage) convinced me to sell it...
They were the reason I quit working on cars. But that is what happens when California designs cars. Or the a past Senior Engineer of FoMoCo puts it. WE spend more dealing with the latest EPA< CARB< and other regulations. We don't much leftover for designing the other problems away.
But if you want to work on a real mess. Try changing the rack and pinion in a 2003 -2007 Envoy. Or even better. Change out the plastic valve cover on a Trax. Why would you do that?
Well it leaks oil out of the oil filler insert. And really smells great and puts a protective coating on the inside of the windshield. (64,000 miles).
But even that is not the epitome of Dumb Shiza. Pretty much anything under the hood of a 2005 F350 diesel.
Even has got to the point now that Curb Sniffers are about the only new semi you can buy. Not exactly the owner operators friend.
Because when it needs the more often needed repair.
It costs more to work on it. About 100% or more cost.
Oh and there is a big difference between driving Baltimore to Toledo in a 94 Crown Victoria and the thing that is 'equivalent' of what is on a 2024. Even if it is a Lincoln.
Fuel mileage is about the same. I would rather take the Crown Victoria.
From the Cadillac Cimarron to the cancelling of Pontiac, from the purchasing and destroying of Saab to the unattainability of the Corvette now to the common driver, there are just so many reasons to dislike GM. I was raised on them as a teenager in the 80's, but today is a different story.
I grew up in a GM family and I was the only wing nut who loved Fords. But like you for the most part today is a different story. I never thought I would drive a Toyota much less own one and love it. But my heart still holds a special place for the line of the Probes
Ford is the same. They have abandoned American drivers
Corvettes are more like supercars now.
Still a Chevy fan but not for anything they currently build. 73 to 87 chevy trucks are still the best looking trucks ever built imo. GM parts bin is still the best as well. Just have to piece things together. I have no idea why chevy insists on putting a great motor in front of a terrible transmission when they have a better one available. Atleast they make it easy to swap stuff around.
I was disappointed that HG never mentioned to One phrase I was waiting for: Planned Obsolescence. It was a hallmark of the Big Three. In it, they treated their customers with contempt, and most people never caught on that they were mere Marks of the car manufacturers. I think this still holds true. When I see a 3 or 4 year old Big Three vehicle on the road with rust around its body, I just shake my head and ask, "Why do people insist on abusing themselves like that!"
My Mom got one of the earliest Citations used for $1000. She drove it for years and it was reliable, comfortable, economical. It was small on the outside, but big on the inside--it seemed to endure lots of hard use without a whimper! At about 250K miles the speedo broke but the whole family used it as a beater for road trips, commuting, any use that came up. It must have had 400K miles when one of the kids wrecked it, the whole family felt the loss. I have only warm memories for that tough little car.
This is the most biased I have seen THG be.
When compared with crap cars made at the same time like the Honda Civic 1200, Honda Civic CVCC, any Honda with a Hondamatic transmission, first three years of Toyota Tercel with a Manual Trans, Datsun F10, Toyota Corona, early Toyota Corolla without the good [2TC] engine, etc. the GM X-body was a very good car.
The GM X-body was not as good as my 86 Ford Escort Pony [high MPG model without options]. However, everyone I knew who had an X-body had a decent ownership experience except for a relative who bought a former lease car that had been abused and which she abused and neglected. My attorney and my aunt had X-body cars and loved them because they just wouldn't break down, not even in Michigan winters or LA traffic in the summer. And by adding 120 lbs of cat litter or sand to the trunk or rear hatch area fixed the rear brake lockup issue..
I also had good luck with a used Citation. I was a professional musician back then and the hatchback was great for my instruments and small sound system. It handled great in the snow, was actually quite reliable and with the 2.8L V6 and manual transmission it got about 30mpg on the open road. I suppose I got lucky and got a good one. I liked the vertically oriented radio and cassette deck!
A lot of my friends and family had citations or phoenix and they were all junk. Yours was an anomaly
I know of four people that owned X bodies, and I've been known to refer to those cars as lousy new cars but excellent used cars.
My point behind that is an X car new usually had quite problems the first year or so - which meant numerous trips to the dealership. Seems quite a few people kept them a year or so and then sent them to the used car market.
Once they were a used car, they were very good transportation. Having had most of the bugs worked out under warranty by the original owner, the only flaws left were design flaws, and the one ofthose that was particularly significant was the braking issue (the rear drum brakes were self-energizing) and once a driver knew about issue of the rear brakes locking up under panic stops - they could drive a little differently and be aware the back end could try to come around. Their poor reputation quickly dropped their prices - making them an even better used car to purchase.
My step mom had one too- drove it every where no issues, it was her first new car and she loved it. She put 150k on it-- I think alot of people who say they were junk never owned one. It was basic FWD trandportation, but they did rust in the snowbelt where they used tons of salt in the winter- My buddy had a used X11 and that little thing was pretty darn fast, fast enough to scare me LOL
The police department I worked for bought two of these for patrol. We hid in shame. We were outrun by self powered wheelchairs.
Lol, I bet the three wheeled mini trucks that the meter maids use could have given them a run for their money 😂
Did they at least have the 2.8 V6?
I had a couple of Citations. They were very reliable, always started and ran well. Plowed through snowy roads like a boss.
Put good tires on it & it would go anywhere - I liked mine too
I purchased a Buick Skylark in 1980, I don't remember it giving me much if any problems thru the 5 years I owned it. Maybe I got one of the few good ones!
My Citation was a no frills, reliable car. There was an AM radio, vinyl bench seats, 6 cylinder engine with a four on the floor manual transmission. The clutch pedal was heavy like a leg press machine. When you set the automatic choke (with the high idle) you could clutch all the way through four gears to about 30 miles an hour without touching the accelerator pedal. It was good in snow and had a surprising amount of room.
You occasionally needed to grease the clutch linkage or the pivot on the clutch fork would become stiff...
Yet if you believe this click bate poorly researched collection of other people’s work this is GM’s worst car ever. This entire video is just a click bate scam with not only nothing original but false conclusions. I just unsubscribed from this nonsense. History guy is trying to just make a buck not accurately represent actual history.
I looked at Citations at my local dealer. I wanted to check out a stick shift so the dealer offered to order one without any commitment by me. The sales guy said no one had expressed interest in a stick before. I was dumbfounded by them ordering it for stock. I never did buy it but stopped back one day and the salesman said they sold it within a few days after it was delivered. I thought a stick would be a natural for that car. Too bad the Citation didn't work out since it had promise.
@@kjisnotyou'd think, right? slow cars and manuals always seemed to be a killer combo to me
I bought a new Citation December 1979. It was a coupe with a trunk, a 2.8 V6 and a manual transmission. We kept it until late 1984 when it became a bit small after our first son was born. The front wheel drive was amazing in the winter, it could go great in the snow. The gas mileage was good and performed well. We never had any problems with the car, really liked it.
My Aunt had a citation and I remember her being able to go in the snow when most vehicles couldn’t . She drove that car for many years
@@doublezmtnman didn’t have citation but had a front wheel drive olds Cierra…1988, had it till 2005 ., 15 years without a payment , back in the days of 36 month car loans
I drove numerous times on I79 north near Erie in over a foot of snow, no issues. On pa turnpike too in heavy heavy snow numerous times
They did go
My mother in law used her Citation as a van, hauling Antiques with it. It even had a trailer hitch, which she used to pull a tiny trailer. The inside was beat to dust from dragging furniture in and out of it. That car had well over 300k miles on it when her mechanic finally told her it was beyond its useful life here in Michigan. Rust had done it in before the drive system gave up. It was an amazing car for what it was, a beater.
As a teenager in high school during the early 90's up until 2000, I drove a 1985 3 door Citation. My dad, who was a GM service manager as well as an ASE certified mechanic, had to replace the engine mount twice before he finally broke down and fabricated his own engine mounting brackets. Otherwise, the car served me well enough during those years.
If yall really had one youd know they hauled ass
"fabricating mounts" is pretty commonplace these days with FWD cars with more HP than stock. They burn out the rubber, and pour in Polyurethane or JB Weld to get rid of the slop from the rubber. Your dad was a visionary.
I had a Buick Skylark (affectionately referred to as the Skydog). I did my own maintenance, so I could see when the brakes were going long before they failed. My biggest problem was with the high energy ignition module. This component burned out with such regularity that at first I carried a spare to install, then I got another distributor so that I could pull the cap, switch distributors and rebuild it when I got home. Rust was a real problem, but that 6 cylinder front wheel drive was an unstoppable tank in Michigan winters. Silver exterior with a red velour interior screamed 80's style!
I'm perplexed to read that you had so much trouble with the ignition module in the Skydog. Normally, the HEI was an extremely reliable system. I owned several GM cars with that distributor and over 100s of thousand miles never had one module failure. I did however, accidently blow one out when installing a tachometer in one car. I had inadvertantly touched a ground wire to a HOT terminal in the fuse panel.
I suspect you must have had an underlying problem in the wiring harness that intermittantly shorted out the module.
The ultimate irony was GM's marketing slogan at the time was "We sweat the details", which wasn't exactly wrong, as I'm sure they spent a lot of time sweating about the details they never bothered to get right. I also found it hilarious that RUclips tagged a GMC truck ad onto this video, which is sorta like tagging a cruise line ad onto a video of "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald".
GM's marketing slogan was altered by some as "We sweat the RECALLS."
I had a girlfriend with a V6 Citation that was an anomaly; fast, reliable and got 30 mpg
- a great car in the late 1980s. I would not buy other than a Honda/Acura or Toyota/Lexus today ( since 1986 ).
GM, Ford & Chrysler screwed the US during the 1980s. ( I DID LOVE my 1978 Firebird though. )
Nobody boycotts GM. It’s because no one has to. Experience a GM vehicle once is all that’s necessary. You know the saying, “fool me once..”
In Truth ; .. GM =
Giant
Mistakes !
Gordon Lightfoot died this morning... :((
In 1982 I went to work in a sales organization that used Citations for their field guys. They had around ten of them. The cars were generally liked and didn’t seem to have the multitude of issues discussed here.
Reminds of me a car that did alright when it was working. The Chevy Vega.
I was young and rented my first car when I arrived at an airport. It was a '76 Vega. I knew about the bad reputation but, the car itself was only a year old. I was surprised at what a nice driving car it was. Too bad Vegas didn't hold up so well.
The 1976 Vegas had all the faults corrected; even the engine. But, the PR damage was done. But, the Vega I drove as a rental was better than I expected.
The chances of getting a bad one were higher than average for comparable models but even so the odds of getting a good one were quite good. Most Citations performed as expected and the owners were happy with them.
I had one of these, a 1980 Pontiac Phoenix hatchback, as my first brand-new company car.For me, it was a decent car through the approximately 66,000 miles I had it. No major issues at all. Yes, it shaked a bit over railroad crossings and such, but I do attribute part of that to the heavy-duty suspension I ordered. And boy could it carry stuff! We moved to a new house in 1981, and the Phoenix was commissioned to take all the 'small stuff' and delicate stuff. We stuffed it full. The fold-down rear seat made it seem like a medium-sized station wagon instead of a hatchback.
I remember two things about this entire family of vehicles. I had lots of friends whose parents had these cars and they seemed to hate them instantly due to failures. Despite growing up when these were new, I have zero recollection of seeing them "new" because the fit and finish were so bad, they looked five years old off the lot. After struggling to own a 1973 Chrysler Town & Country wagon with horrendous reliability, seeing the same poor quality in the next Gen of cars from GM helped cement my parent's decision to unload the Chrysler and get a 1982 Corolla wagon. An American brand has never occupied a garage in my family since. Car buyers have LONG memories when they see auto makers knowingly selling junk to customers.
My 06 Mustang has 229K miles on it, and it still runs great. American cars have come a long way back.
@@majcrash I worked on the last model Mustang here in Europe and it's crap, compared to European of Japanese cars the quality is very poor, GM is even worse, the same for the RAM. From those three Fords seems the best, but I would not spend a cent on a US cars or trucks. I worked on big trucks as well like Mack and so on because my employer likes them, but no compared to European big trucks the same as cars, not good enough.
The same go's for HD, simply crap, the moment you have to work on them it's direct clear the poor quality.
@@Jay_Speed That hasn't been my experience. The car is easy to work on, and the parts are cheap and plentiful. Plus, it's fun to drive. I've never been a fan of Japanese car styling. Perhaps the European versions of these cars are different.
After living through this period of crap from Ford and GM, we very quickly learned to not trust the American car makers and trust the reliability of Honda, Nissan, and Toyota. To this day I still have a hard time trusting GM. Its sad that they are "too big to fail". They needed to fail to get the old management out and get new quality-focused leaders in.
I don't know about people having long memories. Look at how many people keep buying garbage quality cars to this day.
The Citation was great for us as a cheap, reliable, and economical. My parents and grandparents had them well into the 90’s.
I'd take an 85 Chevy Citation over just about any car made in the last 20 years. Reliable, easy to fix, simple, and overall nothing special but got the job done. Clearly they rushed the production, as it was an entirely new platform, but nothing unsettling. Heck, I'd take a Chevy chevette or ford pinto compared to the junky, computer driven garbage they make today.
Why not buy a 1967-1972 Dodge Dart? Those had no smog bullshit on them. ACTUALLY LOOKED GOOD,had the best automatic transmissions and engines ever made.
I remember seeing these new at a little car show. Impressive, the packaging and space efficiency.
@@jasonhaynes2952 agreed, man.
I started my career with a Ford Dealership here in the San Fernando Valley as a 19 year old parts driver Two and a half years later I moved up to the Parts Counter. I am now in my Thirty Nineth year there as a Parts Counterman. Ford experienced many recalls and still does. Needless to say but I have experienced a great deal of Automotive History. Thank you.
I was in auto parts since 1976 retired in 2017 how things have changed and not for the better sold parts towed cars and repair for the first 30 plus years I did not work when you love something it is not work .the last five not good anybody who goes into car repair good luck technology changes to quick you never get familiar with the new cars
Interesting video. I never owned an X body Citation/Omega, etc., however I worked on them in my Grandad's Texaco station and auto repair shop. Growing up, classmates of mine had them and drove them into the ground. They were front wheel monsters out in our Wyoming winters. Only issue I ever saw was their low clearance in our deep snow and rust. Put studded tires on them and they would go anywhere
1984 Citation II was my first car. It didn't run when I bought it for $200, but it gave me a great experience on learning how to work on cars. Two years and 26k miles later, I sold it for $2500!
you ripped the buyer off haha
How many Mexican Rebuilt Starters from V.I. P did you go thru to actually find “ A Good One”?
My first car was an 84 Citation II coupe and it was a great car around '97 Replaced engine and tranny, but it sat for a long time. It took a flood to destroy it. Next Citation was an 85 X-11 until it was hit by a drug idled driver. I have an 85 X-11 project car that might hit the road this year.
My brother had a 80 Citation with a 4 speed and he drove it like he stole it and it ran good for several years. Another car from that era that my Mom had was a 79 Dodge Omni 024 and it never gave us any problems.
So we're back to the 70's again but without the "honesty" of the Carter era.
I bought a 1980 Citation. At first, I really loved the car. The styling and interior was fantastic. After about one year all that
changed. The first major problem was that 2 weeks before the warranty ran out, the motor blew up. The dealership handled
the problem very well. They said a new engine would be installed but then informed me that GM nixed that idea as too costly
and instead the engine would be rebuilt. I was given given a loaner car so I was not inconvenienced in any way. Then the incident
happened that I will always remember, with great clarity, to this day. It was a beautiful clear sunny day, in southern Florida. I was
on a four lane highway, approaching an intersection with another four lane highway. One of those small, intermittent, Florida
showers had just passed through. The light changed to red, I applied the brakes but nothing happened and I went straight through
the intersection, barely missing two cars. Needless to say, I was very shaken. But, a few miles down the road, when I needed to
once again apply the brakes, everything was fine. A couple of weeks later, the same thing happened, under the same circumstances.
I immediately realized the reason. In each case, there had been a quick passing shower. The rain, mixing with the oil on the road,
but not a long enough shower to wash the oil off, caused the road to become slick and I would just slide through the intersection.
After watching this video, I know the real reason was the rear brakes locking up.
This is how I now describe a Chevy Citation. "From the firewall back, very nice. From the firewall forward, junk." I Had a lot of
annoying mechanical problems. Although it was a very nice driving car.
Nice summary of your live with a Citation, strange how they killed a nice car for monney.
@@Jay_Speed I get what your saying but you've got to keep In mind that GM isnt in the business of making cars they are in the business of making money so to scrap a "nice" car for financial reasons is a very easy and simple decision to make.
_EDIT_ : Unfortunately
@@CAVALRY19D Sounds you found the right way to own one. Sometimes it's only little tweaks to keep a car good for years.
@@CAVALRY19D Wow that's cool to read, I've always thought that not _every_ X car could have been junk. 6DAY did u have the Chevy or was it one of the others, so u say it tracked well AND your saying it was good around corners!? Did you have the 2.8L? What you did to override the fan switch was smart, but again it's nice to hear about a positive experience with an X body.✌
You would think that the ass end would have spun around if the rear brakes were locking the wheels. The front tires must have been sliding also.
Maybe it wasn't so much a brake problem as it was a tire traction problem. Glad you didn't get smashed by another vehicle.
The Citation was a beast in the snow! I never feared any snow covered hill.
I used to ram snow drifts with ours, it would go anywhere!
My friend has a Chevy citation and that fwd car would go thru 30 inches of Canadian snow without getting stuck. He drove and cared for this car for many years without any trouble. Very impressive!
I was raised in the car biz, Chevrolet be exact. My parents believed in hard work and making it on your own.
So I never had a new car (or even a cool one used car), just used ones that I could afford.
Anyways, for my graduation (79), I was given a Chevrolet Citation.
Man, was I excited!!
1st Citation.
After a month, I was at a traffic light and noticed my radio antenna wobbling and then disappeared. 😂
Took it back to the shop.... rust. EVERYWHERE!
2nd Citation, had it for again a month??
Took a spray wand to rinse off my car. Paint came off in sheets! Oil on the metal.
3rd Citation X11
This one lasted for 2 years, and then the engine blew up.
At least it wasn't an earlier Pinto.😅
The thing that strikes me is you kept buying them after the first one.
@@kdrapertrucker no..... my dad was a Chevrolet Cadillac dealer. That's why.
The Rube Goldberg designed carberator mention was hilariously accurate. To this day it continues to astound mechanics.
TBF, other carbureted cars of the era were pretty bad too. You should see the rat's nest of hoses in a contemporary Honda. But the Honda, of course, actually worked.
I'll see you both and raise you the Mikuni 2 barrel downdraft carb used on the 2.6 Mitsubishi 4 banger that was put in the Chrysler K cars. We had one in an '84 New Yorker. The dealer techs refused to touch it. And a new one was $1200. That was around 1990 or so. Mikuni should have stuck to making motorcycle carbs.
@@1976Chinman Wow, I remember my Dad's (RIP) K-car with the 2.6 Mitsu engine. On paper, it should have been a great engine but, it was a rough running gutless POS. It was barely quicker than the base 2.2 engine.
I'm sure somebody had to have discovered a way to desmog it to help that engine run like it should have. It was my Dad's car so, I wasn't going to mess with it. He finally traded it after two years. The K-car and 2.6L were good ideas that just didn't pan out.
The thing that I MARVELLED at the time was when Lee Iacocca announced the K-car limousine. A very long and nicely equipped car, for sure! BUT, it had the 2.6L POS engine! That engine was barely adequate for the base K-car but, it would be dangerously underpowered for a limo! I marvel that Lee wasn't laughed and shamed out of the room for that debacle!
AGAIN, a good idea that was so badly executed that it's inexcusable.
@@BlackPill-pu4vi From what I was told "84 was the last year they were carbureted, they went fuel injection in '85. Have a look at the Chrysler Conquest/Mitsubishi Starion . It had the 2.6 w/fuel injection and a turbo. Pretty quick little sports coupe.
@@1976Chinman You are right. I do remember when the Mitsu 2.6 was given F.I. and then a turbo. I don't think those upgrades made it to the embarrassing K-car limousine, though. The K-car limo is significantly bigger and heavier than the Starion.
I s'pose if I ever won the lottery and decided to buy a K-car limo, just for fun, I'd immediately have the stock 2.6 removed and the fuel injected turbo 2.6 installed. Then the car would be safe and enjoyable to drive.
My parents bought a Citation in 1980. It must have been a statistical anomaly because they never had any major issues with it. Kept it for 15 years before giving it to my brother-in-law's niece.
There's always the exception to the rule
Even for a "bad" car the vast majority will never experience a failure. My mom drove a 1981 Citation that never experienced any of these problems. I myself recently had a Ford 5.4L 3 valve Triton engine (widely regarded as the worst engine Ford ever made) that went almost 300K miles with no issues whatsoever. I sold it after 13 years before my luck ran out.
There is a warm spot in some hearts for these X-Body cars 'we didn't know how bad they were....'
Me too...
I have owned 4 Chevy Citations. All four were the 2.5 L, one with the 4 speed stick and the other 3 were 3 speed auto. All 4 were bought used, all 4 were rock solid dependable, each delivering over 200,000 miles (320,000 km) of service. They remain the best cars I have ever owned. If I could get a clean, solid example, I would buy it in a second and use it as my daily driver.
Reminds me of the staggering amount of history I've actually lived through.
I had a 1986 Citation that was one of best vehicles I ever owned. It was incredible in the snow.
There's no such thing as an '86 citation.
1985 was the last year for the Citation. At that time it was called the Citation II. IIRC the Citation and the Buick Skylark were the only 2 X-cars produced in 1985 as all others had ended production. The Buick was only available as a 4-door sedan.
I had 2 different 1981 Citations - 4 door hatchback and a 2 door hatchback. They were both reliable, but the 4 door had a scary habit of the throttle sticking wide open. Thankfully, the engine in that one was pretty tired, so it never got me in trouble. The 2 door was almost 20 years old when I bought it for $300, and it ran beautifully for 4 years.
This is absolutely not a video I would’ve expected you to make but I’m glad you did
😊
Never heard anyone say the name "Chevy Citation" with such venom as THG.
As a teenager learning to drive... in Canada... in winter, I can tell you that I remember to this day the rear wheel lock up phenomenon... I sure learned to drive! R.I.P 1981 Pontiac Phoenix.
My mothers first new car (used but new to her) was a white 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera Brougham sedan. It was a nice looking car, good stereo, comfortable seats, a kick-ass rear window defogger, & amazing headlights (when well adjusted). Many family trips, drop offs at school, & back & forth to my mothers work every day for many years. With my CA DMV learners permit, I learned how to drive in that car (& eventually took my drivers test in my gran's 1990 Toronado OMG so lucky..) but of all those lovely moments, the most memorable of them were the seemingly endless number of times I helped my father work in, on, under, & over that car as first the "Hold the light boy" & later apprentice mechanic. My father, being a Journeyman mechanic attacked every problem that arose with the car mainly for my mother since she loved it.
However as time went on that car grew into a beast that I can only describe as something similar to Stephen King's Christine; except instead of fixing itself it would fall apart. It was as if the car had attained some level of sentience & had a sadistic sense of humor as it would wait until the dead of winter to break down & every time in the pouring rain & icy wind. I can still clearly remember the sound of ratcheting socket wrenches, hammering blows, & expletives worthy of note as my father would be under the car soaking wet & covered with grease.
Despite all the work it took to keep it on the road, the car was a part of our lives; good times & bad & eventually got us to where we were going. Eventually my mother got a new car (an actual new car this time) & it was one of the happiest moments for her & for my father as well, even as he signed the loan agreement.
When I think back I really do miss it sometimes. I bring it up in conversation with my father now & then & his response is usually a short silence followed by "the look". If you were a kid that helped a parent work on the family car, you know what I mean by the look lol.
In my experience, the Citation we had was plagued with problems, BUT: the water pump issue was after the car was out of warranty, and Dad kept getting aftermarket pumps. When he finally got a GM water pump to replace the failing one, that problem went away. The carburetor issue never manifested in our car. The rear wheel brake lockup issue cropped up once or twice and was fixed under the recall. The transmission shifter cables broke and were fixed under warranty. So yes the problems were serious, but they weren't insurmountable. I don't know if I'd call the Citation rushed to production or otherwise not ready for prime time, but while it did indeed have issues, they were solvable.
And that was it. Once those issues were sorted, the car never went wrong again. To the best of my knowledge, it NEVER went wrong again, and after my parents drove it for ten years they gave it to my brother and when he got tired of driving it, he only got rid of it because he was tired of it.
I purchased a new 1980 Citation. After all, it was innovative, roomy, and Motor Trend named it Car of the Year. It was -- by far -- the worst car I've ever owned and I've own two cars that I purchased for $500 each. It may have been the worst car ever made. In the (slightly less than) 4 years I owned it, in addition to a myriad of fit and finish issues and various less critical repairs, the car was recalled 4 times for rear brake lockup (I got in an accident because of this); recalled once to remove the self-adjusting clutch mechanism for a manual mechanism (I had to replace the clutch -- which GM refused to cover because a clutch is a "wear item" -- at 11,000 miles because of this defect); the starter's mounting flanges broke, shearing the bolts off as it fell out of the car; and the EGR system rusted out. Most of this was at my expense because, as was common, the car only had a 12 month/12,000 mile warranty. When I complained to my regular mechanic, he told me I should be glad I didn't have the V6. They went through camshafts at around 30,000 miles. From that day until this, I've never considered buying a GM product (they owe me my money back) and I've never purchased a Motor Trend magazine or trusted anything they've published.
Yeah
....agree! Those industry magazines are just paid sale promotion propaganda platforms. Ever wonder why none of them will ever really directly SAY this car stinks or this model or trim sucks. No all these magazines are supported by the manufacturers....even consumer reports have caved in...even with the internet ghost reviewers muddy the waters of what is good or what stinks...the world has been sold out to big money. People make a career out of lying..not just politicians but most anyone in the automotive industry that supports the sale of cars or trucks. Dealers, Salesmen, service, and journalist all lie if they keep their job....only after the car has sold millions does the truth rise to the top this model is garbage by then millions of owners are strapped with a car with little to no resale value or paying for a junker to keep their credit...its an evil system and they want to keep it that way...
12 year/12,000 mile warranty? I don't think so.
If you stop by the posh , well-lit , motor trend offices , you'll find they are all still wearing masks
I had an '81 Chevrolet Citation. I bought it used in 1986. It had the V-6 with a 4 speed transmission. It was a two dollar with a hatch back. One of the best cars that I ever owned. The only regret was I wished it had a 5 speed. That 2.8L was one of the best engines that Chevy ever made.
@@maxwellcrazycat9204guessing it’s a typo. I read it as 1 yr.
My first girlfriend bought an old 1985 Chevy Citation. It was her first car. There wasn't much memorable about the car but I'll never forget the girl. I still preferred my dads old hand me down 1968 Ford pickup. She used to make fun of that old truck until I told her I bet this old truck will still be running long after hers quit. I was right, it's still going strong.
I drove a 67 ford PU in the mid 70s. I threw it away when the hood attaching points rusted away. This was after I had a rebuilt engine put in it at about 70 K miles.
@@kkarllwt Should of kept it, fool
I like Ford and Chevy trucks from the mid 80s. My family had a diesel K5 Blazer that was awesome, and I worked for a small company who used an F-150 and an F-250 as work trucks. We beat those trucks, but a little maintenance and regular oil changes and those things would never die, they could take anything. When it comes time to get another truck I might just look to see if I can find a decent mid-80s Ford or Chevy.
@@jerrypeukert5732 The truck I should have kept was the 56 f100 I gave to a farmer to use as a farm truck. The cab mount points were gone. I drove it 74/76. . Or the 1967 toyota corona I drove , then sold in 1986.
"I was a lonely teenage bronckin' buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the music died" Is the girl still going strong ? She must have been kind of pretty if you didn't dump her because of the pick up truck....I was only allowed the use of my father's pick up truck so it was kind of a test if the girl would go out with me in a pick up. ..
Excellent episode sir. I owned a 1983 X 11. Among other things I remember I had to remove the fuse for the windshield wipers or they would wipe every time I hit a bump!
I bought my grandfather's '84 Citation II as my first car in high school. It was great! It had a ton of room. I could throw my mountain bike in the hatchback and still have room for gear. It was very comfortable and got me from place to place. But, the 4 banger was totally gutless at elevation in Colorado. I put a lot of miles on it until the transmission went out after I drove on road trip to Utah in the summer of '93. It actually was a great first car. The one I had must be an oddity. Because it required low maintenance and stayed together for it's almost 10 year life. Go figure.
The first new car my dad bought was a 1982 Oldsmobile Omega. He owned and maintained that car for 39 years. I think it went through 4 clutches and a number of transmissions. My siblings and I all came home from the hospital as newborns in the back seat of that car. Eventually, the rust got to be too much and my dad sold it to the mechanic who had been working on it. In spite of all its apparent problems, we remember it fondly. Thank you for this video!
You occasionally needed to grease the clutch linkage or the pivot on the clutch fork would become stiff...
This is the most biased I have seen THG be.
When compared with crap cars like the Honda Civic 1200, Honda Civic CVCC, any Honda with a Hondamatic transmission, first three years of Toyota Tercel with a Manual Trans, Datsun F10, Toyota Corona, early Toyota Corolla without the good [2TC] engine, etc. the GM X-body was a very good car.
The GM X-body was not as good as my 86 Ford Escort Pony [high MPG model without options]. However, everyone I knew who had an X-body had a decent ownership experience except for a relative who bought a former lease car that had been abused and which she abused and neglected. My attorney and my aunt had X-body cars and loved them because they just wouldn't break down, not even in Michigan winters or LA traffic in the summer. And by adding 120 lbs of cat litter or sand to the trunk or rear hatch area fixed the rear brake lockup issue...
Mom had one of those, she got suckered out of selling her old Toyota Corona (yes, they sold them here in America in the late ‘70s) and Dad got suckered out of his old Tercel SR5 Hatch for an Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme (the sales drone claimed both Oldsmobiles were ‘safer’ than their Toyotas)
large lies
The Oldsmobile Omega was not a terrible car. My grandmother had a one of the later models. From what I can remember, it was comfortable and rode very well. And once she brought her Grand Am in the early 90's, my grandfather used it to pull his boat.
39 years out of an Omega? As a daily driver???
I had a Phenix, the 4cyl iron duke was a tough motor. When I parked it the body was rusted out but the engine still running with 340k rounds. Can't complain.
That FABLED Iron Duke was a hell of a motor. Too bad those idiots used them in almost NOTHIN. I was really into Chevys and had. 72 Vega yet I still never even saw one of those. The Vega GT was like a smaller Camaro, had 67 and 69 prior and was a great car EXCEPT THE JUNK ENGINE. I knew a guy in my army unit that had a Cosworth Vega . It wasn’t all that much nicer than my GT really. I think the Pontiac version was the only one with the Duke, also never much seen🤨. Those idiots had a real decent car with the higher end Vegas but they shot themselves in the foot with an engine having cylinders lined like a FRYING PAN🤬. All it would have taken was SLEEVED CYLINDERS like a tractor.
Then what did they do, instead of fix the engine issue they invented The Chevette🤮. What was a more reliable abortion on wheels you’d never catch me anywhere near. I never went near another American car again for decades and still drive a Toyota.
The iron duke is used in the U.S .mail trucks and they still haven’t replaced them. Noisy and crude but we’re dependable. I had an 83 citation no problems and always got me to where I had to go.
"Iron Duke" indeed. My first was in a GMC S-15 and that little beast REFUSED to die or even burn oil no matter how much I abused it. At 340K I gave it to a daughter's boyfriend on the condition he give it back after college. When the time came, he refused.
@@drizler Congratulations on your post. I don't think you got anything right in it. The Iron Duke/tech IV was put into pretty well everything compact to midsize that GM made. They used it for decades. And sold them to AMC also.
The Chevette was totally unrelated to the Vega. It was a European design Americanized for the North American market. GM needed a smaller car then the Vega, not a competitor for it.
@@erikk1820 Not to mention that the Vegas were notorious for rusting out prematurely.
My Dad bought an early 1980 Citation, it was actually a really good car for rural Iowa roads!
It's front-wheel drive would take it places only 4×4's would go... I got it after Dad was done with it, it would bust thru huge snow drifts until it was so packed with snow that it would short out the ignition!
The rubber boots on the CV joints were it's downfall, but the neoprene replacements held up well... it hat nearly 200K miles when I finally sold it!
On my desk at this moment I have the brochure for the Chevrolet Citation I test-drove shortly after the introduction hype---"The most thoroughly tested new car in Chevy history" and one that I really looked forward to from the World's Biggest Car Company, its vast resources, expertise, and technical know-how.
This, after having owned a '63 Buick and a '76 Chev. Malibu---our only GM vehicles owned by that time. After leaving my test-drive, I asked myself this question: "Is this what the world's largest car company can produce?" Needless to say---a thorough disappointment, with the result that I never again considered to ever own anything from G.M.
The Citations body shell was an engineering masterpiece. More passenger room, cargo room, mpg and smaller exterior dimensions than thr nova it replaced. Unfortunately everyting else was released half baked. The Toyota Camry came out for my 82 and was almost a citation clone. It was the Citation done right...forever.
The A-bodies evolved from the X-body and much improved.
Half baked, indeed. But, however much better than a 'full bake' Pinto! Now, that was a 'hot' rod!
To begin, the author was not overly harsh regarding the X cars I have never been a GM fan, except for the styling of a handful of cars, one that comes to mind are the 65 full-size Pontiacs, the 2+2, Bonneville and Grand Prix, all very beautiful inside and out. Other than that I was left cold for most GM cars. If I let it, GM has really always bothered me. They never fooled me and probably other Gearheads. If one took more than a passing glance of any of the 5 GM brands from the 50s and 60s, it was glaringly obvious, they were all the same basic car. Yes each brand altered the front and rear styling and maybe some slight variations to the side panels. I couldn't have been the only Gearhead in America that could see the brand similarly in styling. GM was in the right place at the right time to become the world's largest auto manufacturer. But for the most part, GM bought smaller manufacturers and folded them into the GM corporation. They really didn't design or invent too many of the cars they sold. No one would argue that they were the biggest auto maker. Owning 5 of the world's car brands on the road gave them an opportunity to grow to the size they once were. There wasn't the competition in the 50s and 60s, really it was just Ford and Chrysler they had to compete with. It would have been unnatural for them not to be so big. However, just because they were big, it didn't make them better. As a major worldwide auto maker with deep enough pockets to build the best cars, GM is a very big disappointment. They should have been the one to follow, instead of being the biggest and most profitable. They should be ashamed of themselves for the way they built cars. Now in recent years, they find themselves with shirnking market share resulting in a smaller force in the industry. It would appear there have been no lessons learned, or desire to be the biggest and best of breed. It could be said they are an embarriment to the US corporate image. I believe they should take it upon themselves to represent the US in the best way possible. After all, in 2009 they declared Bankruptcy, and what did they do, they relied on the US to bail them out. Yes, they paid back the loan, they even did so earlier than expected, but I think they owe more to the US than the loan amount. I probably shouldn't say this, just like IBM, they both had women as CEOs and they both lost revenue and reputation. Get it together GM, fix the problem, IBM did. They both have the same situation. They both were world leaders in their fields they both got there because there was little to no competition. They can both survive, but with a new normal. They have to reinvent themselves or go home. As a retired IBMer, I'm in the position to tell you, IBM has reinvented it's self many times in the past to remain in the ever changing game. I can't tell you how many times IBM told us "this is the year of change" and change they did. In my opinion, companies that have been around as long as IBM and GM has, and still be an industry leader, says a lot for the company's health. Turning big ships around is no easy task. But if successful it makes them stronger.
@@williammaceri8244 😊
@@williammaceri8244 "If one took more than a passing glance of any of the 5 GM brands from the 50s and 60s, it was glaringly obvious, they were all the same basic car"
On the surface, yes. A consequence of the Sloan Ladder method and using Fisher to produce every body at once. Underneath though they were very different. You had oddities like the Buick Super 8, which had the odd slide shifting manual transmission. Or the Pontiac Tempest, which was one of the first front engine rear wheel drive road cars to use a transaxle (a feat shared only by expensive Italian cars like Lancias, Alfa Romeos, and Ferraris, in 1961). Or the Oldsmobile Jetfire, which paired an early turbocharger setup placed before the carburetor with a V8. GM engineers were constantly trying to one-up eachother and claim the next new innovation because they were all starting from the same basic templates. Which contributed to the culture and "not made here" mindset that nearly killed them in the 1970s when they spent entire divisions' budgets on developing the H-bodies instead of just yoinking an Opel or two from Europe and restyling it, calcifying the company and making badge engineering under Roger Smith and Robert Stempel law in the '80s and '90s.
You wanna talk "all the same basic car" go look at the A-bodies, E-bodies, N-bodies, and the J-bodies of the 1980s. Looking from the side at any 1982 A-body a normal person would never be able to tell what car's what. They all had the same Iron Duke and THM 125 as well, so there wasn't any mechanical difference either. You were essentially paying for how much velour and fake wood you wanted on the dashboard and nothing else.
It's tempting to say Lance finally found a bit of history that "does NOT deserve to be remembered" but (as he infers toward the end of the video) "deserving to be remembered" does not always have to be for positive reasons. 🤣😂😅
Actually this is the most biased I have seen THG be.
When compared with crap cars like the Honda Civic 1200, Honda Civic CVCC, any Honda with a Hondamatic transmission, first three years of Toyota Tercel with a Manual Trans, Datsun F10, Toyota Corona, early Toyota Corolla without the good [2TC] engine, etc. the GM X-body was a very good car.
The GM X-body was not as good as my 86 Ford Escort Pony [high MPG model without options]. However, everyone I knew who had an X-body had a decent ownership experience except for a relative who bought a former lease car that had been abused and which she abused and neglected. My attorney and my aunt had X-body cars and loved them because they just wouldn't break down, not even in Michigan winters or LA traffic in the summer. And by adding 120 lbs of cat litter or sand to the trunk or rear hatch area fixed the rear brake lockup issue...
I was driving my '81 Citation in December 1983 when I was T boned at about 45 MPH by a '70s Impala and an elderly driver who disregarded a stop sign. He hit my driver's side, dead amidships, and I had some bruises on my leg but was otherwise OK. My Citation was totaled but the steel supports in the door probably saved me from more serious injuries. For that alone I'll remember it fondly.
Fantastic Car, I had a 1980 Pontiac Phoenix. I would still be driving it today if it wasn't for rust. Had a beautiful interior with a cool looking instrument cluster that looked like an aircraft, handled great, was great in snow and even had good carrying capacity if you loaded up the trunk........It outlasted most cars of that era and still ran great and looked great from the outside but after about 15 years and 250,000+ miles the under body was definitely rusting..........I pulled the carpet, added some sheet metal to the floor pans drove it that way for a couple more years and then sold it to a lady that just wanted it for short trips around town...........Who knows maybe she used it for the next decade or so.
The X-Bodies got a bad rap looking back, but my experience with the 1982 Citation I bought in 1990 was positive. It was a bare bones, 4 speed manual, no options car I got very inexpensively. Never had an issue with it, drove great in the snow, got good gas mileage, zero issues. Finally traded it in in 1996 on a Dodge Stratus...which was another subject entirely!
I would love THG to take on more automotive history like this. The last of the X-cars were finally coming off the road when I was starting to drive and most people just prefer to forget them. I'd be interested to see a video about the 73-83 decade for cars as well as the subsequent 84-94 era that saw so much advancement in automotive technology and design.
GM got most of the bugs out of the X's. And then discontinued them.
This was more social history than automobile history. The X-body was originally the Chevy II, later Nova, that gained Pontiac, Buick, and Olds clones in the 70s. GM's rear-drive "senior" compacts were A-bodies, going back to the early 60s, (Chevelle/Malibu, F-85/Cutlass, Tempest, Special/Skylark). The X-bodies were smaller. The T-bodies were even smaller (Chevette, Pontiac T-1000). GM had a confusing practice of changing their platform designations and moving model names. The Pontiac Tempest and Olds Cutlass were originally X-bodies, but then moved up later to become A-bodies.
-- One big problem for GM (and American car-makers generally) was that they viewed small cars as unwanted step-children that cannibalized the sales of their larger, more profitable cars, and they didn't do their homework in engineering good small cars. The original X-bodies weren't bad cars, but spartan and clunky. Even the A-bodies (Chevelle, Cutlass, Tempest, and Skylark) started out pretty plain in the early 60s, but when the public bought a lot of them both as family cars and muscle cars, GM put more effort into them, but they also kept up-sizing them. Hence the need for newer small cars, which led to the Vega and the Chevette, both of which demonstrated how un-serious GM was about engineering small cars.
@@grizzlygrizzle In order to make proper subcompact cars GM had to staff a factory with many female UAW workers because their hands are smaller...
@@davidhollenshead4892 That theory goes back to the Dudley Moore movie "Crazy People, in which a despondent adman checks into a loony bin, and turns the inmates into an ad agency. A campaign they devised for Sony argued that the Japanese made better electronics because their hands are smaller, and in the video portion they showed a lot of Japanese women working on electronic components. (Their Jaguar campaign pushed Jags as the car for men who like to get blowjobs from beautiful women, or something very close to that.) If you haven't seen the movie, it's an oldie but a goodie.
-- (I apologize for the caffeinated, COMPLETELY off-topic free-association that follows.)
-- And if you want to binge on mental-hospital movies, "Dream Team" with Michael Keaton is also very funny. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" with a young Jack Nicholson is a classic. (I used to work in mental health, so I watched lots of movies about mental illness.)
-- There are at least four movies about hit-men with mid-life-crises. "Matador" with Pierce Brosnan, "Panic" with William H. Macy and Donald Sutherland, and "Gun Shy" with Liam Neeson and "Grosse Point Blank" with John Cusack and Dan Ackroyd.
-- For memory problems, "Total Recall" with Arnold Schwartznegger, "Clean Slate" with Dana Carvey, and "Memento" with Guy Pearce come to mind.
-- And by the way, Nurse Ratchet from "Cuckoo's Nest" is not an implausibly exaggerated character, from what I observed working in mental hospitals. Psych nurses like that (and some mental-health workers) are rare, but not rare enough.
I had to live through this tragic era as a kid. Recovery has been tough.
I did too.
It sucked- the loss in Vietnam, the Carter years, loss of control of the Panama Canal, failed hostage rescue attempt, inflation, demise of the great rock bands, Disco, riots of NYC....
The US automotive industry inflicted it's own harm. The cars were horrible, creating a huge window of opportunity for the Japanese to drive right through.
Hey History Guy, I wrote the Advance Auto blog you referred to -- thanks for the shout-out!!
I never heard anything good about the Chevy Citation. My mom owned one of the first Skylarks. She loved it. It was the first front wheel drive car I'd ever seen. I drove it once in the snow and could instantly see what she liked about it. When my dad wanted to trade it in to upgrade, she told him no way. She drove it for years. I owned 2 Olds Omegas. One manual transmission, the other automatic, and neither gave me any problems.
My Mother also had a Skylark (followed by a Pontiac Sunbird, smaller and a generation newer) ; both Iron Duke cars were excellent.
I remember these fondly. I pretended to be MacGyver every time I worked on these cars. Bailing wire and crazy glue kept many of these together.
I loved our Citation, my family got a used one in the early 90s, it ran great for us for years, after many repairs my dad finally sold it in the 2000s and it was still running strong.
I was just a kid and worked at a used car dealership. These cars were nightmares ! The citation was a great name! Everyone who bought one should have got a citation for buying one . That was the motto where we worked and the dodge Omni was even worse. They had the most unreliable carburetors anyone could imagine. Bucking spitting black soot out the exhaust. Gm had the 4,6,8 engines in their Cadillacs that were total garbage. Infact they put a stop leak additive in the ht 4100 engines due to numerous internal engine issues. 350v8 engines were the best engines out there . The big v8 customers may have paid through the nose for gas but they got a reliable vehicle. The trucks and vans with the v8 engines were tried and true. My mother had a Malibu with a 350v8 a Monte Carlo with a 350 and we had no car problems. Then we had a dodge Aries k car and it was surprisingly a good runner. There were so many problems with them but we lucked out . Then the 90s came and we got by with a ford escort and finally the smaller gas sipping cars were a bit more reliable. We had a Ford pick up and a Jeep grand Cherokee with the 4.0 six cylinder engine that was a beats and beyond dependable. We put 180k miles on our Jeep with no issues . Everyone in my family had one . My sister our parents, our friends the Jeep grand Cherokee of the mid 90s started and suv craze that still thrives today.
Despite this being a period of automotive "malaise," my family had 1976 and 1979 Chevrolet Monte Carlos, and they were both good cars. The latter was a great car; it looked good, had a very smooth ride, and didn't have the blind spots that modern cars have. We drove it for 25 years and finally sold it only because it was starting to require repairs, and parts were getting hard to find.
I learned to drive on our '73 Monte Carlo. I loved that car. The body eventually rusted out, but the 350 4bbl in it was bulletproof and needed nothing but basic maintenance the entire dozen or so years we had it.
Thanks! I enjoyed it even though I lived it lol
I never owned a x car but family members and friends did.
You note the problems here. Rear brake lock and rust were huge: carburetors were not only complex but they were designed not to be adjusted like carbs prior. Strangely, I had a friend that loved his Citation and drove it for a decade!
Remember how big of a problem automotive rust was in general back then? Used to get Ziebart!
I owned a 80 Citation and it was and still is one of my favourite cars Ive owned. It was bought used and GM basically rebuilt it for me on recalls. The brakes , 4 speed transmission and clutch, power steering pump and ram were all repaired free. Rust was not a problem. To me it looked like an European touring sedan. 4 door with classic red and black factory paint. It was very quick off the line (thanks to the 4 speed) and it surprised more than 1 red light racer wanna be. Mileage was incredible on the highway at 45 mpg. To this day I cannot explain why the mileage was that good, I’m sure the 4speed helped and I never was a speeder. The only thing I didn’t like was driving it on ice or black ice, it was scary as the front end just wanted to push. It was fine in snow. The recession hit hard by 85, I lost my job and had to sadly sell it. I still think it’s a sharp looking car. Im not saying run out and restore one, just sharing my experience.
There were a couple jailbreaks for the first year carburetor.
I got more than 100,000 miles out of a Citation.
I have nothing but fond memories of my Phoenix SJ. It occasionally needed work - like cars did back in the day- but it was fast, great in the snow, and was fairly stylish. Loved it.
My 81 Pheonix 4 speed 4 cylinder was almost bullet proof. The clutch was the only part I replaced in 6 years of driving. It got over 30 mpg and nothig inside my car rattled, broke or cracked. The factory front speakers were a pain to replace and an odd size and the radio had verry little room behind it but the car was a joy for me. Best $400. I ever spent on a car.
I used an '81 Citation with a 4-cylinder for a lengthy commute in 2004, and I was surprised at how not-horrible it was. It was fairly comfortable, handled decently, and did well in the snow. There was a long grade leading out of town though, and pulling that every day at full throttle (45 mph) was just asking too much of it and the engine finally blew.
My wife and I had a Chevrolet Citation she inherited from her grandmother. We put over 100k miles on it.
In my opinion it's the best car we had ever had. The worst problem we had was when the catalytic converter failed. A wrench and loosened bolts held until we got home and a proper shop replaced it.(noisy as hell)
haha yeah, these cars were extremely loud when they had exhaust issues. You could hear these things from miles away coming.
I bought a 1981 white citation new. I put alloy rims on it and a rear spoiler. I LOVED that car. It was a tank in the snow. I carried truck fenders and a moped in the back at various times. I hardly had any trouble with it. Great memories.
When they first came out I remember seeing Citations broken down that were so new they still had temporary plates.
My wife had one in college. Decent enough car (I'm a Ford guy for the most part) and she really liked it. The part that really chaffed me: In the snow, on the hills of Duluth, that dang car would climb like a goat. Very impressive. After college the steering rack went south and she was traded in.
"She" meaning the car?
I must have had one of the hand built Citations. It was a wonderful car. Got great gas mileage - it had a 2bbl TBI instead of a carb. I hotrodded it, with wider tires and stiffer springs. I had no problems with rust - though I did take really good care of the car - washing it after driving it on salty roads, and always putting a good wax job on it too. It was a 4dr hatch back, 2.8 V6 automatic, Dark Green metallic with a simple gold pin stripe down the side, lots of chrome trim, chrome/polished bumpers, light green fabric interior and a roof rack. It developed one mechanical problem in my ownership. The right side half shaft inner bearing went out. The dealer replaced it at no charge. I drove that car from 1979 to 1987 and put almost 80,000 miles on it. I sold it to a little old lady down the street and she drove it another 6 years before trading it in for a new car.
Actually this is the most biased I have seen THG be.
When compared with crap cars like the Honda Civic 1200, Honda Civic CVCC, any Honda with a Hondamatic transmission, first three years of Toyota Tercel with a Manual Trans, Datsun F10, Toyota Corona, early Toyota Corolla without the good [2TC] engine, etc. the GM X-body was a very good car.
The GM X-body was not as good as my 86 Ford Escort Pony [high MPG model without options]. However, everyone I knew who had an X-body had a decent ownership experience except for a relative who bought a former lease car that had been abused and which she abused and neglected. My attorney and my aunt had X-body cars and loved them because they just wouldn't break down, not even in Michigan winters or LA traffic in the summer. And by adding 120 lbs of cat litter or sand to the trunk or rear hatch area fixed the rear brake lockup issue...
I enjoy these shows very much, Thank you. I drove a 1980 Citation for 6 years , not by choice but out of financial necessity. I received it from an elderly lady who could not drive any longer. It was a challenge but I kept it going. I even passed it on to another family member and it was around another 8 years with us. It was blue and we called it "Blue Lemon" The V-6 in it was a great motor overall and made it 150000K miles down the road and more.
I don't know that it means much but the shop where I work has been contacted about restoring the first citation that rolled off the oklahoma city assembly line. I can hardly wait!
I worked at a Chevy/Olds dealer in the mid 1980's in northern NJ. Everyone there regarded these cars as pieces of crap - yet they were great in the snow compared to most of the other 2wd cars of the time. Still not enough to make up for all of their problems.
Second hand X-bodies were cheap and usually ran, if not well. It took several to get me through college. :) Great presentation. Thanks again!
My son had a nice pickup years ago and did not want to drive it in the salt, so three years in a row, he picked up an old junk Citation to drive through the winter months, and despite the rattling junk they were, none of the three failed to get him through the winter. Come spring, he would always seem to get his money back, proving there is a fool born every minute.
The first car that was "mine", was a 1980 Citation with the 2.8L engine. I replaced the stereo with a sideways Craig, as I remember it. It was made for these cars, and had a sideways faceplate. White over red. Had no issues with it. Traded it in on my first Camaro!
I guess I got lucky. I had TWO Citations: a 1983 was my first car ($800), and when the engine went on that one I got an ‘82. I loved them both.
I had 3 of these back in the day. Loved every one of them.. I'm looking for a nice X-11 to add to the collection.
Well, I guess the one I bought in 81 happened to be built on a good day. When looking I narrowed it down to a Rx7, small Beemer or the X-11 and after road test it was no choice. X-11 version manual transmission was a blast to drive. Grab the parking brake at speed, rotate 90 degrees. down shift drop the clutch and change direction in an instant. I was in a race car every weekend and drove the X-11 as a daily toy.
When I took drivers ed in junior high it was in a Chevy Citation. Later, a few years after my first car (a ‘76 Honda Civic) died, I found myself behind the wheel of my very own ‘82 Citation. While it did have all the room a teenaged kid could ask for to haul his friends around, that car left a LOT to be desired.
Forty years on my aunt STILL gets fired up when you mention her brief stint as a Chevy Citation owner.
HEY! I *liked* the Chevy Vega, a small very nimble car. The all-aluminum engine block without iron sleeves was a problem, particularly when CM had a 4-cylinder engine with excellent longevity, power, and weight. My neighbor drove one past 150,000 miles pulling horses around to the tracks each weekend. I also got a Citation as a loaner for a few months: A perfectly adequate car. In 1987, I drove into my Pontiac+Subaru dealership in our '66 Pontiac Tempest; 21 years old and a gas hog, but it was OUR gas hog🥰. I looked around the showroom for a small SIMPLE car. The Pontiac available was a base of wires and hoses in the engine compartment. I opened the hood of a Subaru GL, saw the floor under the engine clearly, and bought it on the spot after a quick drive "around the block". 187,000 miles later, It rusted out from underneath us, the engine still in EXCELLENT shape.
They built those in the GM plant in Okla City. I recall taking a tour of the plant in the mid 80's. I was amazed how quickly they could throw them together.
I love your voice, delivery, tone, enthusiasm, the information, the amount of brevity, and detail. Just please straighten them glasses on your face.
I had a 1982 Citation 2.5 4 speed. It was a good car with great gas mileage. Only bad part was the front floors rusted away.
I worked at a Buick/Pontiac/GMC dealership during that time. The first 30 or so Skylarks/Phoenix came off the transport trucks with many parts tossed inside or in the trunk for us to finish assembly. The 5 speed versions always had linkage binding problems and had to be towed back to the shop. Many of the back windows had leaks. All of us mechanics knew that this was a lemon of epic proportions right from the get go. Another GM great idea with poor execution. Remember the Vega? Thanks for the memory of this debacle. (and not the last either!!) 🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋
Wasn't it a Yugo that blew off the Macinac Bridge, killing the woman driver, way back when? My sister had a Vega and once the steering wheel came off in her hands while she was driving. Weren't the 80's great?
ruclips.net/video/pN1uWf2_t_g/видео.html
I remember that story.
I believe she was never found.
One of the first vehicles I remember as a kid was my dad's Citation. Thinking about it from today's standards, it really was a problem. He had to repaint the entire car, the headliner fell down and we had to keep it up with about a hundred push pins, and the plastic on the dash degraded so much you could take your fingernail and leave marks! I also got blamed for breaking the passenger seat belt, which, when you think about it now, was probably another flawed design and just broke on it's own!
Oh god, I forgot about that plastic. If plastic had an analogue to rust, that would have been it.
Nice try. We know you broke that seat belt (jk)
dont forget the push pins for the headliner would fall out , and then you sat or stepped on them
Can we just stop for a moment and consider that a seat belt - the safety item in the car responsible for keeping occupants within the car during an impact with extreme sudden loads - could even be broken by a child? An adult shouldn’t be able to break a seat belt. Seat belts need to survive a crash. They shouldn’t ever break!
On a related note, I was blamed for breaking the transmission in my dad’s Dodge Dakota. It was a $5k repair. The truck only had 70k miles on it. I hadn’t even done anything but drive normal. My parents made me pay them back (I was 19 and in school, making $5/hr at a part time job) over the next 2 years. The internet would inform my parents that those transmissions were notoriously faulty, but they wouldn’t find that out for another 15 years. That incident actually put a strain on my relationship with my parents for a few years!
Yes, GM seat-belts receptacles DID break on their own! Had a '92 Cavalier that did just that. And those GM headliners were sh*t! My mom had an '80 Malibu Wagon with the push-pin headliner and she wouldn't get it replaced because it "cost too much". She gave it to me in '93 and the first thing I did was take it to a shop and got a new headliner and a double-jute lining for $150. She asked me why I spent the money and I said "because I'm tired of looking like a hillbilly!"
Fun trivia, GM took the entire drivetrain and front suspension of the Citation and put it in the back of the Fiero, they even still have steering knuckles and tie rods. The front end of the Fiero is reused straight out of the Chevette. Gm loves to recycle, the original S10 pickup was built on the suspension of a Malibu.
My wife and I once owned a 1981 Citation. When we first bought it it was a pretty decent car. About six months later problems started to emerge. The most annoying problem was that while driving the car would suddenly, without warning, shut off and the battery would be totally dead preventing the car from being restarted. Fortunately, it had a manual transmission and could be push started sometimes. Other times, it would have to be jumped to get it going again. After it was once again running everything would be great for anywhere to a few days or a month or so and then would mysteriously shut down once again while driving, repeating the process once again. I had several different shops and dealerships look at this car and not one of them could identify the problem. They tested the entire electrical system including the alternator, starter, battery etc. All parts tested satisfactorily and the problem was never solved. I finally gave up on that car and traded it in. On the last day of ownership it died while I was pulling it into the dealership to pick up my new car. I put the clutch in and let it roll into a parking spot, got out, walked in and traded keys and paperwork and left that dealership with a smile. I drove past there everyday and that car sat in that spot for over a week and then one day it was gone. I never saw it around town or anything and it was never put on their lot for sale. I have no idea what they did with it but I kind of felt bad for any future owners of that car. It had left my wife stranded a few times while I was deployed and one time something terrible happened to her because of it. I initially loved the car but grew to hate it with a passion and couldn't wait to be rid of it. The replacement? A one year old 1985 Cutlass Ciera. I drove that car and rolled the odometer over three times. I replaced the engine and kept driving it. My daughter drove it for almost three years as her first car and my son started his drivers training with it. I finally sold it last year to a guy that buys old cars and fixes them up for resale.
Car Nerd Note: The Skylark (also known as Somerset) at 19:07 is not an X platform, it's the later N platform. A later and much improved design!
N body was essentially the second generation X car, even though they never called it that.
@@MarinCipollina Actually, the N-Car was a heavily modified J-Body platform (i.e. Cavalier). The Second-Gen X-Platform actually morphed into the A-Body (Celebrity, 6000, Ciera, Century). The key indicator is the width of the vehicles. Platforms (as a minimum) share the same firewall.
@@ejd1984 You're probably correct, but the dimensions of the N body were very similar to the X body
I had a 1990 Pontiac Sunbird and I had some problems with the brakes. They would clutch up, but only if the car was cold. I took it to Pep Boys for another problem and mentioned the brakes as an afterthought. As it turned out, one of the mechanics at Pep Boys recognized the problem with the brakes and fixed it. I was then told that the same brake system was used on the Chevy Citation.
So did all the 82-up A-bodies, J-bodies (your Sunbird) and 85-up N-bodies. The real problem was just a matter of fine tuning the proportioning valve, which GM overlooked when they developed the Citation.
Maybe I got lucky, but my first car was a 1980 Chevy Citation 4 door 4-cylinder 4 speed manual transmission base model that served me very well. It was a hand me down that my mom, sister and brother all drove before I got it. It was 10 years old and had 150,000 miles on it when it was offered to me as a first car. It needed a clutch, carburetor rebuild, and a few oil leaks fixed but it was easy enough for me, as a kid, to work on it in my parents' driveway. I proceeded to drive that citation for the next three year and put another 75,000 miles on it until I bought another GM FWD platform, the 1993 Saturn SC2. The Citation was by no means a perfect car, but for a teenager who loved to tinker it was an absolute joy. Maybe the hate is a bit deserved, but it will not come from me.
One of my brothers and I both bought 1980 Citations, partly on their safety promises. Three months after purchase, my brother and family got T-Boned in an intersection, the driver hitting them at 38 mph. They all walked away without injury.
It was roomy and easy to take care of ... but somewhat like the Vega, rust was its biggest enemy ...
The first jobs I had fixing cars were in the early 80s and call em junk if you want (this includes the "K" cars of Chrysler and the Ford ATX cars) but they all put A LOT of food on my table when my children were little. If they had been great cars, it might have been a bit leaner period in my life.
Someone who currently has a Dodge Aries K wagon in the driveway They are definitely junk.
Everything on that car is subpar even for 1984 terms. I bought the wagon because I thought I hadn't seen one in 20 years and how it would be fun to have an oddball car that everybody forgot about that saved Chrysler.
After bringing it back up to roadworthy status I am still puzzled how mopar managed to stay afloat selling those cars especially when you could have bought a Fairmont with a 2.3, or an accord wagon, or a Nissan 510 wagon. And it isn't like any of those cars were a high water mark for any of those companies as they were all kind of junk too although the Ford 2.3 the Nissan z20 and the little accord 4 banger were not bad engines under the emissions junk.
The '80s were a such a dark time for automotive stuff especially in the United States where it was the perfect storm of lightweight plastics, terrible emissions and tiny displacement engines.
We are now 40ish years removed from that period and it's still hard to believe that just 10 years before it 13 second cars were pretty common along with styling that was distinct for each manufacturer.
The K cars saved Chrysler. I'm not going to say there was an official bailout but not only did the Army buy the Abrams tank, they bought a butt load of K cars.
We have an '89 Plymouth Reliant K LE that was a daily driver for my mom and then me. My oldest son drives it now as his commuter car.
It has 250,000 miles on it and has had 2x timing belts and some minor repairs with timely maintenance and it still looks and drives well.
Earning it the Reliable Katie household name. At this point if she ever stops I will see her rebuilt for my granddaughter. Katie has earned it by now. LoL
K cars were simple and cheap and my dad had one and it was a pretty solid car. My uncle with the Citation never bought GM again ....
The K car. Went from 0 to 60...eventually
Daddy had a Ford Falcon for a long time for work as a carpenter. He got a nice Pinto, you laugh. He got a nice Chevette, you laugh. I bought the Pinto from dad. It ran for another 12 years. My brother gor the Chevette. My brother died 2022. The Chevette stopped running a few weeks later. Okay both had parts that are on rebuilt vehicles now. Sometimes the vehicles are not all exactly the same.
You so a nice job on your History Guy channel. Thanks 😊
I had a 1980 Buick Skylark, with the 4 cylinder engine (made by Pontiac). The 4 cylinder versions were much better than the V6 models. But all of them emboidied the phrase, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." The cars looked great on paper, and should have been exceptional. Some of the issues I noted, many of which I corrected myself, being an avid do it myself type of guy: The transmission cooler was located in the HOT side of the radiator, which meant it was a transmission warmer, if not boiler. The fluid would quickly turn brown, in 5,000 miles. I found an AC evaporator from a trashed window unit AC and cleaned it out, mounted it in front of the AC condernsor on the car, no more problems with brown transmission fluid. The fan behind the radiator was operated by a switch on the "high" side of the compressor via a relay. In tropical Miami, the contacts in the relay quickly burned out. I mounted an ignition condenser on the power side of the relay to absorb the constant on/off of the relay, so the relay I had to install wouldn't burn out in six months. I will say that the AC was classic GM, you could hang meat inside of it on the hottest of days. I put a new set of drive belts on the engine, about 4 total, and it took me six hours, the belts were THAT difficult to access. The upper powertrain mount, from the cylinder head to the front crossmember blew out it's rubber bushings within a year. I kept putting in new ones until GM issued an improved mount with a shock absorber built into it. The front struts went bad around 60,000 miles so the car lurched a lot. The hinge pins in the front doors would "pop" under both braking and acceleration, unless I kept them well lubricated, something difficult to do in a climate where it rains constantly. The springs under the drivers seat, at the back, stretched out and I found myself sitting on the frame of the seat until I stuffed a large foam pillow under the entire seat. But what was the final straw was a friend who was a mechanic showed me one orf the transmissions torn down. Instead of conventional rubber with a spring inside shaft seals, GM put in a large teflon ring that rode between a notch on the last gear and a notch in the transmission case. He said the rings would fail suddenlty, without any warning. At that point, I got another car, not wanting to deal with a transmission rebuild.
Chrysler came out with the K cars in 1981 and the difference was night and day. Chrysler ALWAYS had much better engineering, particularly after their own problems with the Volare' and Aspen. So the K cars ran with virtually no problems, and that platform spawned a multitude of vehicles which gave miles and decades of great service.
I had another GM car, based on the mistakes (fixed by then) that GM learned from the X platform. It was a Buick Park Avenue, and it was excellent. Now that I live in the EV world, I've had a Chevy Spark EV, a 2017 Bolt EV, and my current 2022 Bolt EUV which is the first car I purchased "brand new" in 40 years. It's great and represents the best of GM. I think that GM learned from it's mistakes, not just the X car but the horrible years under Roger Smith, which ultimately led the company into bankruptcy. WHY you ask? Roger Smith was an accountant, not a "Car guy" and he so cheapened GM cars (starting with the X platform) that the company lost it's faith with consumers. Mary Barra by contrast has the automobile industry in her blood, an engineer, whose parents worked on the assembly line, and herself worked on the assembly line on summer breaks. She KNOWS cars, and the new GM cars reflect that knowing. Now, the trick is, getting the public to acknowledge that GM has returned to it's former glory. When GM did it right, no one did it better. It's why Rolls Royce and Bentley used GM transmissions and power steering pumps for decades. It's why the most favored vehicle in the Middle East oil countries, where it regularly gets to 140F are the dual AC SUVs like the Tahoe and Suburban. At 140F, you can hang meat inside, it gets that cold, even a black one, sitting idling in the sun. No one, not even Mercedes, makes an AC that powerful.
Thanks for the stroll down memory lane.
OK this is great. My parents got divorced when I was a little kid. As part of their divorce settlement they had to sell the 2 cars that they had at the time. My dad was driving a BMW 2002 and my mom was driving a VW camper Van. They went to the Chevy dealer because a friend of ours owned it and they each bought a brand new 1980 Chevy citation. Mom's was a 2 door 6 cylinder automatic. And my dad's was a 4 door stick. I ended up driving my mom's when I turned 16, It lasted forever while my dad had to take his back and get another one and then that 1 fell apart another year later
. So my dad got 2 years out of his my mom got nearly 20 out of hers. By the time I got ahold of it that car was starting to fall apart but I loved it. There was a girl in my high school that had one exactly like it and we used to park them next to each other all the time. She was a year ahead of me in high school and the way we met is she tried to get into my car while I was sitting in it. Which was The exact same thing happened to me when I was a little kid when my mom left me in the car and went into the bank and it got robbed.
When the guy came out To get into his car he got in ours by accident and tried to drive away but his key didn't work in ours and he couldn't understand why.
Meanwhile I'm sitting next to him literally in the passenger seat Speechless I had no idea who this guy was Of course and he had just robbed the bank.
So my mom comes running out and mistakes the car with no one in it as hers. Same thing. Both of them trying to figure out why their keys won't work in the ignition. The bank robber so preoccupied with trying to get out of their he didn't notice there was a kid in the passenger seat. My mom so freaked out about the bank robbery, she didn't notice her kid wasn't in the car....
Meanwhile I'm in the passenger window looking at my mom in the driver's side window in the car next to me.
She sees me, gets out of the wrong car pulls me out of the wrong car and is trying to put me in the wrong car as the cops show up and put all three of us in the back of their cars.....
What a thing to have happened. It's one of those things that you can't really tell people because no one will particularly believe you and yet there it is, rattling around only to be mentioned, in your case, at family dinners. 从 m
Great story!!
Keystone comes to mind! LOL
Your mom left you in the car? Nowadays, she’d get arrested.
@spankynater4242 that's for dogs and babies.... I was 8 or 9 years old. At that age, when I was a kid, things were different. I took care of myself most of the day. My mom left for work at 6am and didn't get back home till after school at 7pm. I got myself up. Made my breakfast. Made my lunch. Got myself to school (a VERY long walk uphill both ways, literally), at lunch we were bussed to a different facility, walked home from there (uphill seriously), got home and didn't do my homework, made dinner for my mom, me and my little brother. He went to daycare back then. My major chore was doing all our laundry. And vacuuming.
During the summer, I went to the community pool all day 9:00am to 6:00pm.
I bought a new ‘81 Citation. The X-bodies took their lumps and the style was polarizing, but the FWD was great in snow, the V6 was smooth and powerful for the early ‘80s, the hatch was convenient, and there was plenty of interior space. I did have to replace a CV joint when I failed to detect a torn boot and it ruined the joint. Aside from that, no issues with reliability, rust, fit/finish, what have you. I must have just gotten a good one.
Did you possibly live in the south? Common road salt used in the winter destroyed far too many GM cars of this era. 'Southern cars' as we call them in the north never seemed to fall victim to the tin worm disease.
Mine musta been "a good one" too! BTW - pacific nw car with no rust.
@@kfrerix9777 The quality issues of the 1970's seem to always end up being finger pointing at the line workers and their bad attitudes. As a Ford ad stated years later, 'Quality is designed in from the beginning', but it wasn't so in the 1970-80's. The US auto makers spec'ed steel that they knew wasn't up to the needs of their designs, but met the cost targets of the accountants. Design decisions, like the missing drain holes in Vegas were recognized right away, but the cost to correct the stamping process was deemed too expense to correct so it continued to be a defect to the end of the design run. Vegas had a body rot issue in the fire wall area because simple rain water couldn't properly drain away from a well near the wind shield. Stuff like this was common through out the US car industry, the leadership thought they owned the US market so tightly that they didn't need to fix the mistake in their product, the US buyer would just buy another one of their defective cars to replace it in a few years. The Germans, and especially the Japanese proved them wrong, and it lead to the destruction of the US auto industry as it existed in the 1960's. Yes there was poor labor attitudes, but who wants to keep making garbage and trying to justify it to their friends?
@@cdjhyoung no, in Ohio. They use lots of salt in the winter, and I was taught young to wash often including the undercarriage in the winter.
@@cdjhyoung in my quality management training, I learned quality has three elements, design quality, conformance quality and performance quality. As an owner, I am the biggest influence on performance quality. If I drive and maintain it poorly, it doesn’t matter how well the car was designed and built.
My dad had two as company car’s for his job with the railroad. Both were solidly reliable, although the second was so bare it was crazy. Single stage paint, beige, no window tent, am only radio. The railroad had more than 30 of the exact same car for employees and you weren’t allowed to customize it. He said you would break your key off before you found your car.
He ended up buying the beige one when the lease ended. Got a FM radio add on for the Delco AM unit. Then eventually paid $100 for Macco to paint it “Porsche Red”. Turned out to be more of a Tomato red/orange that looked terrible, so it became my older sister’s high school car. Lots of memories though.
The only real issue he had was that the rear end was really light and the car easily hydroplaned the back wheels in the rain. Spun it a few times, but never hit anyone.
I had one and it ran great
Front wheel drive helped tremendously in the snow. I ran the heck out of it.
I took my driver's test in a 1979 El Camino Conquistador.
The shiny 1985 Chevy Citation 2 (2.8 liter v6 fuel injected engine) shown at 8:10 through 8:54 in this video was literally mine, picture was taken just after my dad and I had completed repainting it (red with gold pearl, and also a slight fade to black at the bottom edge)
Was my car from 1993 through 2005
I had a ‘81 Chevy Citation which was given to me as a company car. It was a 4 cylinder automatic. I really liked that car. Put a lot of miles on it, with a daily commute of 100 miles. Ran well, not bad on gas, easy to park in the city, and really good in the snow. I bought out the lease and kept it for several years after the lease was up. Few problems, aside from the time it fell off the lift when I had new tires put on. The damage was fixed, so no lasting harm. Finally traded it in with well over 125,000 miles.
Loved the video. I worked for 10 years at FCA, post 2008 buyout/recession, and with GM now, they are gaining market share and a number of people I worked with had jumped ship around 2020 when they started improving their EV line/GHG plan(and pay apparently). They still have had their share of recalls, as the ignition switch lawsuit was a #1 discussion when I was taking DFSS/Lean engineering training in 2014 CY. Keep up the great work! 😁 PS most people don't know this, but according to the Obama memoir in 2020, Chrysler almost got axed during the buyout discussions 🤐 I work in the transportation/truck industry now, which is a whole other ballgame you could touch on someday!
I love automotive history! Thanks THG!!
How about doing a story on Chrysler's K-body cars? It's a the car that supposedly drove Chrysler out of the grave in the early 1980s.
Yes, the K-cars should get equal time. The first couple years of those weren't any less crappy than the X-bodies.
@@tommylord Yes, but Chrysler debugged them for the most part and they became the platform for Chrysler cars for over a decade. They actually became a quite desirable high-mileage fleet cars as they were quite durable. Properly taken care of, you could get 400K miles out of a K-car.
My father had 2 over the years,they were reliable enough but trouble with starting in cold weather became an issue as they aged.
@@cahg3871 That could often be corrected by replacing the carburetor gasket.