I haven’t seen a Citation moving under its own power in forever, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to document this one in the very act. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good look at the front grill, so I’m not sure if this is an ’80-81 (egg crate) or ’82-85 (horizontal bars). The lack of an engine badge on the hatch may be a clue that it’s an earlier car possibly with a carbureted Iron Duke shuddering away under the hood. It’s a remarkably rust-free car to have Illinois plates.
My mom drove a Citation for several years, and I remember two things about it: the vertically-mounted AM/FM radio, and the fact that it stayed in the shop a lot. It finally developed something too acute for her limited budget, and was replaced with a used second-gen Taurus. No more GMs for her!
This is an ’85. Note the “aero” mirror from the Celeb, and the orange turn signals, for international flair!
Groovy! Thanks for the ID on the MY.
’85s had the amber signals too? I thought ’80 was the only year for them.
Regarding amber turn signals: I ordered a new, 1980 Citation in November 1979.
I was on a budget and I carefully selected only the options I needed, avoiding my wants. I remember that the amber signals were an EXTRA COST option of a few dollars. This fact was clearly listed in the salesman’s order book.
I decided I didn’t need amber signals. In retrospect, considering the “international flair” factor, perhaps I should have reconsidered. A Citation needed all of the class it could muster!
and you comment not on the nifty two-toned Chevy pickup just ahead? Here in Texas it seems we are more likely to see a 1950’s era Chevy truck on the road than any FWD GM product from the 1980’s.
Well, the 1950’s era trucks were likely to have been put together better, and with better materials, than the GM FWD’s.
Rodded pickups aren’t really my cup of tea… (c:
And honestly, modified trucks from the 1950s are pretty commonplace.
Looks like my mom’s V6 ’80 Citation that we bought in ’79. Early adopters were we. Took my driving test in it. Hmmm, we had the car for almost six years, what is my laundry list of problems we had with it….Replaced a water pump about three years into ownership, and that’s it.
Up to that point I don’t recall my father holding onto a car that long – he usually bought new every three years.
That’s it.
Sounds like we had the only well built X-car around. Had friends with Pontiac and Buick versions and their experience for their terms of ownership were like ours: fairly trouble free.
Perhaps I grew up in an X-car twilight zone. I’ve always been sweet on the X11 version and would take one if I found it.
I used a X-body 1980 Buick Skylark Limited as a daily driver from 2008-2010. It passed 200.000 miles and was troublefree. 2,8 V6 engine started in minus 35 degrees celsius, when the new Audies, Volvos and Mercedeses did mot start after work. The Skylark still serve as a daily driver to someone I know of. It had a little rust, but else it was fine.
I have to say it had nice seats, was very quiet and reliable. But after reading on CC it looks like I’d the only one 🙂
My parents bought an ’80 in 79 as well. Had to replace the rack and pinion in it, other than that no real mechanical problems, although the early lock up of the rear wheels under braking was legit. First car I ever totaled due to that.
I haven’t seen a Citation in a long time. They were good looking cars as Chevys of the 80s go, but for some reason, were the worst built cars Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Pontiac made. They gave General Motors a bad name, from which they’ve yet to recover.
Looks like the ’83-’85 “Citation II” – the aero mirrors . . . . improved, but a dead duck as the ’80-’81 reputation did it in . . . much like the Vega by the time 1976 rolled around . .
It seems unforgivable that a big car company would build cars as piss-poor as that. When I was growing up, I was told never to cut corners when doing any kind of work, particularly when it comes to the safety of those who use the products we made. Sadly, it seems that car companies like General Motors had forgotten that when they built the cars.
Yikes.
Loved the brakes in these things.
My sister had an 83 skylark. It actually held up well for the 6-7 years she had it, but she was very gentle on it. Bput those brakes…I almost totaled it once when the rears unexpectedly locked up on me and I couldn’t stop the slide.
I saw a 2-door just yesterday, pulling onto US 22 Westbound in Weirton, WV. It actually looked like a time capsule, I did a double take. Because someone who goes to my church on the Northside of Pittsburgh owns a 4-door…early year model, too.
As I’ve stated elsewhere…the X-bodies were FANTASTIC cars…if you were Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Ford…A family friend had a new ’85 Skylark that died within the first year…and has driven Honda exclusively ever since.
I live in Carnegie and see a couple Citations every once in a while.
can’t imagine there are many of these left…could be used as the photo example for “rare does not necessarily mean desirable. “
In the contest for the absolute worst car GM ever built, I think I’d go with the X-car over the Vega. Yeah, the Vega might have been worse overall, but the Citation was more of a mainstream vehicle and a lot more awful in the long run since it got much wider exposure. It’s hard to imagine how many consumers switched to a Japanese marque after being forever soured on GM products after owning either of those two turds.
I had one poor, unfortunate law school roomie who drove to Indiana from Connecticut. His family sent him in one of two cars at various times – a broughamed-out 82-ish Pontiac Phoenix and a dull silver 79 LTD II with an under-dash FM converter for the AM radio. I never figured out which one I liked better.
Wow, I have not seen one of these in years!! Looks like the quarter panel is rusting out though. During the last months of the prior decade there was this family near me in Central New York that brought up a recently deceased relative’s Citation from Dixie, but it died right around 2010. The engine sounded horrible for months, like marbles in a blender and the rear end was sagging worse than a dilapidated roof. I used to semi occasionally see a Pontiac Phoenix in Freeville back during the winter of 2010-2011, but that is the last of the Citoenix twins I have seen outside of photographs. I did see a 1980-1985 Buick Skylark today and that is my most recent X-body sighting.
One of my buddies in high school (mid-90s) drove a bright red ’80 Omega, so I spent a lot of time cruising around in the passenger seat of that thing. I can’t remember what happened to it, but he drove a couple of Skyhawks later on in school. It seemed to be an all right car for a high school kid.
I took driving lessons in one of these. When parallel parking, when I turned the wheel all the left the car stalled.
The one new car I bought was a 84 Citation with the Iron Duke and a four speed. . It did have the optional amber turn signals. It did need the seals changed in the steering rack and the clutch fork broke. Other than that it was the best car I even owned . I put 225 K on it in 9 years. I sold it to a guy that put another 75 K on it then gave it to a nephew . Our kids saw it sitting for months on a side street and when I asked the guy I sold it to he said it died but he did not know why. I did baby it though. I put air shocks on the back because I used to pull a 12 foot boat trailer filled up with camping gear like hundred pounds of fire wood into the mountains two or three times each summer. Oh yeah , a bike rack on the bumper with two mountain bikes . The problem with the back brakes locking is from the front brakes not being correct. Wrong pads? Hung up calipers? I towed my brother in law’s Nissan extended cab pickup 15 miles one day after work with it. The clutch gave out after 40 k miles on the Nissan and he tried to make it to our house and did not make it. Then it took us 12 hours to change the clutch. A 3 or 4 hour job on a GM vehicle. Three years after I sold it I bought an ’85 from a guy at work. it was low miles, 169k. I drove it six years but only put 45 k on it since I lived alot closer to work. I wish I had one even now. We also had an 80 Skylkark. It also had the steering “morning sickness and had a rack replaced for $50 by the local Buick dealer. It was covered under some sort of “secret recall” .
My recollection was the 4-cylinder, manual transmission models had a modicum of reliability by early 80’s standards, and the most common issues were with the automatic transaxles. I don’t remember what year Citation my brother owned other than it was the 2.8 V6 with the automatic. He told me the guy who had just fixed his shelled transmission told him V-6/automatic X bodies made him a great deal of money.
I agree with rudiger that Citations and Vegas inspired many a driver to jump ship to the Asian brands, never to return.
The TH125 autos are still some of the most reliable auto boxes out there. The ones with electronic lock-up torque converters were more problematic.
The early 4 speed manuals (1979-1980) had weak synchros.
The car that made me temporarily jump to Honda was the L-body Beretta. Total piece of garbage.
Seems like it wasn’t just the early 4-speeds that had issues. When the tweaked, cleaner 1981 Citation X-11 (sport model) arrived, Car and Driver had a very positive review of it. In the review, they mentioned that the transmission had an annoying tendency to pop out of 4th gear for no reason but the GM rep assured them it was a pre-production ‘glitch’ that would be fixed on production cars.
Based on that review, I took a new one out for a test drive. The popping out of 4th gear was apparently not a pre-production issue and was quite present. Needless to say, I didn’t buy one.
It could be a 1984. Those mirrors were used on 1984’s as well for the “Citation II” refresh. The 1985’s had a revised dash as well that used a horizontal radio.
The 1984 and 1985 would have a Citation II badge on the front fenders.
I’ll never understand how GM managed to botch the launch of these cars. They had five years of development time! It’s a shame, as they were attractive little cars, and were surprisingly roomy inside.
Of course I’m a bit partial to these, as my first car was an X body Skylark, a 1985 model that my parents bought new- their first brand new car. In it’s defense, though the 2.5 engine was lousy, in more ways than one, the body was surprisingly solid! It was hit in the rear twice and survived just fine. The doors always had a satisfying feel to them when closing. When I found the car in a junk yard several years after we sold it, the doors still opened and closed like they did the day we brought it home from the dealership.
I still miss that little car…