(first posted 1/7/2013) Well, probably not the last one, but this really is a rare bird. I’ve shot several Citations in Eugene, but no notchback sedans (“Club Coupe”), and certainly none in X11 trim. So I can’t let this find by mistergreen posted at the Cohort just sit there without being duly cited.
The Club Coupe was the wallflower in the 1980 Citation lineup. Of the 800,000+ Citations sold in its extended 1980 MY (best selling car that year), only a very small percentage were Club Coupes. I don’t have the exact breakout, but it was undoubtedly well below 20%. They were a fairly unusual sight even when new. Hatchbacks were hot, and the Citation’s roomy body and FWD made the most of that. It really didn’t make a lot of sense to buy a notchback coupe, even if it was a couple of hundred bucks cheaper.
One has to wonder why Chevy thought it was going to sell. Undoubtedly, it was a couple of old-fart Sales Execs at the Chevy Division that were freaked out about the idea of across-the-board hatchbacks. “Must have a notchback!” Like the Vega notchback coupe, which sold so well…Not.
It’s trying so hard to look like an updated Chevy II, isn’t it? The more formal X-Body coupes that Buick and Olds sold, especially the Skylark, sold quite well, although the real action was always with the four-doors with these cars (as well as their A-Body successors). Oddly, the Club Coupe was dropped for 1981 and 1982, and then revived for 1983 and 1984, and then dropped again. An on-off sort of affair.
In 1980, the X11 was mostly an appearance package. It did come only with the 110-hp 2.8-liter V6, and a “sports-type suspension”, as well as a full-instrument dash and different steering wheel. But it was more show than go.
But in 1981, the X11 traded its pretender black stripe for the real thing: the new 135-hp HO V6, along with some bigger alloy wheels and other genuine enhancements. The change was significant, and the ’81 and up X11 was a well-regarded performer.
This X11 coupe is a bit odd in that it has regular wheel covers, and not the styled steel wheels shown in the brochure as part of the X11 package. And for that matter, it doesn’t have the little lip spoiler on the trunk either.
But one can barely make out the X11-specific steering wheel, so it looks genuine enough. It also has the column-mounted shifter for the automatic. All in all, a very modest expression of the X11 theme. Granny wanted a bit of sportiness in her new Citation. And now one of her grandkids is driving it (I assume).
What; no Citation Deadly Sin rant? We’ve done that (elsewhere) and we’ll take up the cudgel again here another time; anyway, it’s such a nice sunny day; I’m in too good a mood for that. And one has to celebrate a rare find like this, especially when it’s in such original condition. We salute you, X11! A hale and hearty survivor of the Deadly X-Virus Plague.
Side view 83 citation XS
My demo X-11 I got in 1980-81 form Luyster Chev in NY. I think it was $6k ‘new’ with 5000 smiles on it. Sold it for maybe 1600ish in ’86 with 80+K miles.
i have an original 1980 citation x11 coupe with four speed front wheel drive in it fast!! pass every thing!!
It’s nice to see this Chevy getting so much love here!! I would love to find a nice 4 door hatchback fully optioned in the cream/cinnamon 2 tone.
The hatchbacks were so much nicer looking. Just something about that droopy rear end on the notchbacks. Peugeot did that droopiness well, GM did not.
First Chevy (shit-box) of the ’80s!!! I was 15 in spring ’79 when these came out and I remember all the hype about them, every car mag was raving about them. People soon found out the truth!
Never understood why the Pontiac Phoenix version was the worst seller as I thought it was the nicest looking of all the Xs with the best interior.
I remember reading advance articles about the X-cars in the UK CAR magazine prior to the release. It seems the European and Japanese makers were concerned that the X-cars would steal a large part of their USA business by offering more “Americanized” small cars. This was GM’s first real effort at pushing the imports out, to be followed by the J-cars in a smaller class. Of course we all know how the story played out, and I’m sure the foreign manufacturers breathed a sigh of relief.
I thought the Buick Skylark version of the X-body came off the best-looking. While it still had the droopy-butt, it seemed to work better and didn’t look nearly as bad. On top of that, for some reason, the Skylark didn’t seem to acquire the same bad reputation of the Citation. Maybe it was the smaller volume (the Citation’s first year was a certified hit, selling in first year Falcon/Mustang numbers), or maybe it was the gentler driving and better maintenance habits of Buick owners.
Regardless, the X-body really did look terrific on paper (which was ironic, considering how the Vega had been the same way). Here was the first domestic, efficient, mainstream FWD car that could be used as a blue-collar family’s primary transportation, and one that would maintain GM’s lead in the automotive world well into the future.
Unfortunately, it turned out to be the usual GM Beta-tester, and a bad one at that. I can’t imagine how many former GM loyalists were driven into the waiting, open arms of the Japanese, thanks entirely to an X-car ownership experience. By 1980, GM had solidly adopted the PT Barnum business model of a sucker born every minute, and it did work for a long time. The only problem was, at some point, you run out of enough suckers to keep even a company as large as GM afloat.
Monogram did a model kit of these in 1/24 scale. I always wondered why they didn’t base their model on the much more popular hatchback. It’s been reissued within the past 10 years under the Revell brand (the two companies having merged in the ’90s) and that’s even more perplexing being it’s now a car that few remember fondly in a body style few remember at all.
Speaking of Citation’s I did see a 5 door Citation (probably a 1981 model) in good shape as it was leaving the Fred Meyer parking lot and I did a double take when I’ve seen that car, for the FWD X-bodies I’ve thought the Omega was the best looking of the bunch.
The Car That Let The Japanese In (sigh).
These weren’t a common sight when they were new, and I always liked them better than the hatchbacks. Too bad they weren’t built to last. GM really should have been ashamed of themselves for putting such garbage on the road before working the bugs out of them.
Well, I had a gray club coupe in 1983 and I loved it.
I bought a u$ed ’80 X-11 hatchback which proved to be a moderate disappointment as a “hot” hatch despite the 4 speed. No doubt the later versions were better looking, but did the “performance” or handling ever really get better? OTOH, the Wisconsin State Patrol thought it was too fast one Saturday morn on I-43 south of Port Washington!! $igh……
I traded it in on a new ’85 turbo Dodge Lancer hatch back, stick. At the time that Dodge really impressed me. 50,000 miles later, not so much. 🙁 Still it was a more cohesive, modern look despite being a glorified “K” car than the X-11 was. 🙂 DFO
It’s rare, unpopular, short-lived cars that I find especially appealing at Curbside Classic. Designs, that fade away quickly. Such sterile, ungainly styling. As they are genuine snapshots, and time capsules, of a narrow and specific era. This Club Coupe takes you directly back to 1980.
Much like a popular song that reaches the middle charts, and proves to be a one-hit wonder tune, and artist. It is locked in that moment in time, as it never really graduates to a timeless classic. It shortly, stops being heard. July/August 1980 peak, for this one.
Unusual, true, but at least they didn’t give it a formal roof!
Perhaps the most attractive of the X coupes, though I would still have preferred a hatch for practicality. With that amount of chrome and those odd wheel covers, it could only have been American, but the overall shape is surprisingly good for a GM car of this era.
If only they hadn’t cheapened the engineering, it could have been GM’s answer to the Honda Prelude.
Here’s the Monogram model nlpnt mentions above, slightly modified.
The Citation Club Coupe sure was an odd duck, particularly since it looks like it had a completely unique roof separate from the Phoenix/Omega/Skylark coupes, which all shared the same, more formal roof. You’d have thought that the cut-off would be between Pontiac and Oldsmobile, with the former getting the Club Coupe’s roof, instead.
I’ll take a wild guess and say this was old-school think from the days when there was always a basic 2-door sedan in the model lines of the Low Priced Three, up to and including full-size cars.
Or maybe it was a holdover from The Sloan Ladder, where someone who happened to like the small, trunk coupes could move up from the Citation, all the way to a Buick X-body as their financial situation improved.
The only problem with the Citation version is the X-11 sporty variant. Of course, it could be said this existed with the big 2-door sedans, too, since there was always a ‘sleeper’ that packed the company’s biggest engine, ostensively a racetrack special, at first for NASCAR, then NHRA.
The very recent utter failures (then) of the Olds and Buick Aerocoupes, should have had GM thinking: Why come out with another non-hatchback? With unusual, and polarizing, styling. Being a non-hatchback, when it looked like a hatchback, was a major liability. And a likely big reason, it failed. Given the existing hatchback and sedan bodies styles were already satisfying much of the market. A small wagon, likely would have made more sense.
I like that look the most of any of the X-cars. The hatchback coupes looking a bit too symmetrical, front & rear, and the 4 door versions even moreso bland.
Disclosure though, I am, and always was, a fan of the longer front and short rear coupe look.
I have not seen an X-Car in decades, although after my experiences with it, I certainly have not been looking for one. I’m sure I like many got suckered into buying one by all of the praise being heaped on them by the auto rags. On paper they certainly looked great, but the actual driving experience was terrible, It was the last GM car I ever drove.
Seeing this car is like seeing a photo of an ex in a bikini. You remember how good she looked, then remember how freaking miserable she made your daily life.