Chevy’s First FWD: 57k Mile 1981 Chevrolet Citation
The Citation was the successor to the Chevy II/Nova which enjoyed a long run from 1962 to 1979. Under development throughout the 1970s, the Citation was launched in 1980 as Chevy’s first front-wheel-drive product. It gained a sketchy reputation for quality and recalls and never went to a second generation of production. They’re not often seen these days, which may make this 1981 coupe one of the nicest examples still in circulation. From New Milford, Connecticut, this X-body survivor is available here on craigslist for $7,850. Thanks, Mitchell G., for searching out this tip!
Chevy’s Citation was a lot different than the car it replaced. Besides having FWD, it also had a 4-cylinder engine as standard equipment, not something the Nova used since the 1960s (and not many were sold). It was also a bit smaller car and shed some of the weight that the Nova had, making for a more fuel-efficient vehicle than its predecessor. General Motors took full advantage of the development of these cars by offering variants over at Pontiac (Phoenix), Buick (Skylark), and Oldsmobile (Omega). The Citation sold well enough in total from 1980-85 at 1.6 million copies, but each successive year’s sales were lower than those from the year before.
This Citation has led a rather sheltered life in that it’s only had two owners who together have put just 57,000 miles on the clock. Whatever teething problems GM may have had with these cars have been left in the rearview mirror by this one for managing to look so good after 42 years. The two-tone paint presents well enough though there are a couple of chinks in the armor (small dent by the lower left side rear bumper, for example). The interior looks fine, though the door panels are faded in places and the materials used appear rather austere.
Chevy gave this Citation the base inline-4 engine with an automatic transmission. We don’t know if there are any issues with the mechanical health of this car. I owned a Citation for a brief time and it had this same drivetrain and was far from a rocket ship in acceleration. If you’re looking for an automobile that likely won’t be duplicated at Cars & Coffee, this could be it. But is a Citation, regardless of condition, a nearly $8,000 automobile?
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Comments
Had an ’82 X-11 Citation hatchback. If the rear seat was folded flat the area behind the front seats seemed cavernous. I brought a few large items home that way.
The suspension allowed the Citation to shine in cornering/taking sweeping turns. The shape is a little dated and boxy but I’m still fond of it.
Just before the first X-Bodies hit the road, our GM Fisher Body plant manager, Mr. Neubauer, arranged to have a pre-production 1980 Buick Skylark wheeled into our cafeteria on the 2nd floor. Everyone arriving for work got a sneak peek at what we’d be working on (making parts) for the past year. Little stickers on the vehicle identified the parts which came from our plant on Parkway Avenue in West Trenton, New Jersey.
Buy this car, then park it on the side of the road. Close your eyes and relive those moments from yesteryear. When you were waiting for that tow truck.
Bought a new one for my wife with V6 and the transmission was the same as the 4 cyl. The flex plate cracked 3 times and leaked oil. had to have it towed 3 times. the dealer said the flex plate would not take the V6 torque. Also had to repaint due to pealing. solved problems with lemon law. bought a great Toyota Corola
My mom bought one in late 79 from Long Chevrolet.Timmy the paper boy commercial fame .2 door white upper dark blue lower.Biggest pos I’ve ever seen.The car had silver half dollar sized holes right below the a pillars after 2 years.You’d open the hatch and were greeted with paint falling off and severe rust.She had the X car rear brake lock up problem too.The floors were rotted thru in 3 years in small spots everywhere.The 2.8 with the Rochester Varijet was junk.The ac stopped working after about a year because of the crappy r4 compressor.Nothing but driveability problems with that anemic 2.8 60° v6.You could literally watch this car rust while you looked at it.Worse then a Vega imo. Car was nothing but grief. 5 years later she sold it as a winter beater that needed repairs for 500 and only 50k miles on it. She bought a used 70 mustang with a 302 to replace that pos and it was a heck of a lot better and I’m not a Ford guy.Sorry I wouldn’t give a plug nickel for this car imo.
Ah, Long Chevrolet. Brings back memories! Along with Fencil-Tufo and Celozzi-Ettleson. I think Long was the biggest though. Wasn’t there a scandal there at some point about cars just disappearing?
Anyway, I’m very surprised to see one of these surviving in this condition in 2023.There’s probably like 50 left in the whole country, even though over a million were built in ’80 and ’81. They rusted fairly prolifically, and mechanical issues often did them in.
Bash it all you want, but bring it to a cars and coffee and guess which car there will get the most attention.
Most likely because it actually arrived at the event.
Haha, good one. Citations were really hit or miss. You either got a good one or a bad one. I had an ’80 4-door hatchback in college. Oddly optioned with cruise control but no A/C or other options. Iron Duke. It was perfectly reliable and never let me down. It was even somehow reasonably peppy (probably due to its gearing).
By contrast, my buddy had one that had terrifyingly vague steering. I hated driving it, especially on the highway. You literally could not feel one iota of the road. You felt like you were floating. Very weird, and I never experienced anything like that again (nor do I particularly want to!).
Between the 1980 and 1981 model years, Chevy churned out 1,225,000 million of these things – 812,000 in ’80 (which actually started in April ’79) and another 413,000 in 1981. Just Citations, not other X-cars. My brain struggles to even comprehend that!
I will guess that fewer than 25,000 still exist. That is probably a generous estimate but let’s go with it. If each car weighed 2,400 pounds on average, that is 2.9 billion pounds of scrap material that just two model years of Chevrolet Citation introduced to the earth! Well, maybe 2.7 or 2.8 billion accounting for rust. So I suspect that most of us on this forum have a little Chevy Citation in our own homes, in your washer, dryer, stove, refrigerator, or what have you.
There’s a long story of what happened at the end of days. Long was a nice guy, General Manager robbed him blind.. Cars were given to sales staff as severance pay.
Short version!
About twelve years ago Don Yenko’s race Citation was for sale on Craigslist for $700. It was being sold as a regular beat up Citation. The person selling it knew nothing about its race/ownership history. He said the roll bar had a sticker on it with the name of a guy named “Don Yenko”. I wonder where that car is now..
Omg! The Champion spark plug challenge car! While I love Fords 2.8 V6, I wore out my copy of Pat Gahahl’s How to modify your V6. The picture of that car on the inside cover was one of my favorites. It inspired me to modify my Mums Olds Cutlas Ciera. Unbeknownst to her….. I used X11 valves and pistons and a Crane cam. I told her I gave it a tune up…. How I miss being 20….. And that Cutlas. I wish I knew that car was for sale. History, no matter how you look at it.
It was most likely shredded and probably made into 2 Kia’s and a Hyundai by now….maybe even a few kitchen appliances.
I was working at a Ford dealer in the early 80’s and drove tow truck, I was on my way back to the shop with a pickup truck on the hook, going about 35 mph in town an old lady driving a Citation stopped dead in front of my, stiff legging my brakes l hit her and expected to see the rear seat on the hood, actually the car came through it pretty good, a wrinkled back fender, bent up bumper, and exploded back window, the lady was fine just scared. After the Ford dealerships body shop fixed it I would see it driving around looking like the back end was trying to pass the front end, shortly after I changed jobs and never saw the car again. Always wondered if they kept it or scrapped it.
My dad bought a 1980 Citation and taught me to drive stick in it when I was 13. We had the same experience as Maggy. By 1985 the car was scrap.
Tons of mechanical problems and it rusted super fast. It had a hole the size of a basketball under the carpet in the back seat. This on a 4 year old car!! My parents never bought a domestic car again after that one.
I always liked the styling. It was too bad, the big hatch and round style was really unique.
Cheap Crap!
My Aunt had an 81 Phoenix when I was a kid. I used to wash and wax it for her. It was much more reliable than her first car, a 76 Volkswagen Rabbit. She had the Phoenix for several years. A neighbor had a Citation for 4-5 years but I don’t remember if they had problems with it or not. I wouldn’t be surprised either way.
By the way, I don’t see this car worth more than maybe $2000 IF it runs and drives well, and everything works.
My price, too.
These cars were trash, as the whole readership here notes; but this one does have the value of singularity. Take it to C&C; and take a tow rope, because you’ll probably need it.
And don’t expect to find parts for X-Body cars. Even had GM intended to make support available, at this late date it would be pointless. It’s an extinct breed.
A shame. GM was, back then, reeling under criticism that their cars were of far-lower quality than imports; and what do they do? Bring out THE worst car EVER for the corporation. Low quality across divisional lines! That’ll teach those cheapskates – they should have bought Impalas!
I have no idea what the thought process was, but they KNEW. It was later revealed that Motor Trend and Car & Driver got “ringers” for their tests – hand-built models, thoroughly checked, and with some non-standard parts, as for brakes and fuel systems. They didn’t want their low-quality Japan-fighters to be trashed by the “buff books.”
Well, if their plan was to hand the smaller-than-full-size auto business to Japan, it worked.
I bought a 77 Caprice Classic and less than two years old it looked like it had measles. Rust spots broke out all over it.
I purchased a used one from a guy who lives out near my house. He didn”t tell me but Fuel Pump was leaking GAS., What a MESS. From then on out it was always something the matter with this CAR. I only kept it about 1 year., Traded it in to the NISSAN Dealer for another used car., the dealer did /he promised to give me $500.00 for it. Just remember I told you, DO NOT BUY THIS PIECE OF JUNK. We traded it for a NISSAN 4 door.
There really is life after death, just ask a Vega, it came back as a Citation. And with a vengeance. Lol
These cars were in local junkyards in 1983, and not just one, but many. All had less than 50k miles. Yet I knew someone in Wisconsin who had an X11 with over 200k miles in the mid 1990s. I guess there we one or two that mistakenly got built right despite GMs best efforts.
Had an 81′. Nothing but problems. I believe they started rusting from the factory to the dealers. I can’t believe one this old could be original.
I guess I’ll be the one to tell a good story. My dad bought one brand new in 1980. It was the only new car he ever had. We went everywhere in it, including long distance road trips. It never had any real problems to speak of. It was driven through over a decade of salty winters in Massachusetts and never really rusted. It lost the clear coat on top, but Dad just repainted it with a brush. Somewhere in the 90s Dad sold it, and it was still fully functional. Looking back I think he regretted it. My brother and I did too. Sleeping in that hatchback before the days of mandatory seat belts was wonderful.
Others dream of Mustangs, Camaros, and Trans Ams. I dream of Citations. Now only if this was a 4 door with a manual trans like Dad’s.
I can remember this thing being billed as GM’s great import fighter. The family across the street brought home a new one around ’81 or ’82, and that thing did not last long at all! These days it seems like most American cars have reached parity with the imports in terms of quality and reliability, but in the ’80s I think it was cars like the Citation that pushed a lot of Americans to buy imports in the first place.
My mother ordered a first year Skylark for fun, never intended to buy. Came in and she liked it. 2.8, auto, neat cruise control that was a engage button on the shifter, only. Held up great, never rusted, and the V6 was peppy for the time period. She kept it for 10 years. Always garaged. She just turned 100 and still drives her 45k 2006 Buick Rendezvous, another disdained vehicle.
The Rendezvous has a loyal following. I still see them out and about. The Rendezvous is related to the maligned Pontiac Aztec which has actually aged quite well. Happy motoring to your mother!
In the mid 80s I worked at a junkyard in CT, where everything rusts, and we did get Citations ( and the BOP sisters ) in, but they were never as rusty as others here have said. They did rust on the passenger floor due to the catalytic converter heat, but they were usually junked with blown engines, and most of those were v6 models . Like a lot of low end cars, they probably weren’t taken care of as well as more expensive models and some were abused . They weren’t great , there’s no arguing that , but keep in mind, at the same time as these were coming into our yard , were were getting in Ford Escorts on a daily basis all with bad heads , tons of late 70s early 80s Asian cars in with severe structural rust , and Omni/ Horizons with junk engines. Nobody ever came in looking for parts for any of these cars, they were looked on as disposable . At the time scrap prices were low , and we never paid a dime for any of them . Just knowing the amount of cars like this we crushed out every couple months or so, I’m surprised any of these early 80s cars are left
My buddy’s parents had 2 of them and they never had any issues. Thenone with the stick was traded in on an 83 c10 truck.
My wife had an 83 Skylark. Most under powered car ever but she liked it. The 4 banger exhaust manifolds rusted away but it didn’t have too many issues. It was good in snow due to having 10 lbs of torque.
Replaced with a 92 Grand Prix that was much worse. Last GM we ever bought. Went to Fords and now to Toyota ‘s and never looked back.
I used to drive a Citation, until a backfire through the carb set the paper element on fire and burned up the air cleaner and surrounding flammable materials. No bueno. Es muy peligroso.
I bought an ’81 Buick Skylark (X-body) new. It was a case of good design/bad execution. Though it rode very well for such a small car, handled decently and was fuel-efficient, it was a mess, arriving from the factory with a stuck driver’s window and the front brake calipers installed backward. Turning the steering wheel with the car parked set up an earthquake-like shudder throughout the whole vehicle that would kill the engine, necessitating a restart. How GM leadership allowed cars like that onto the streets is a mystery to me. They certainly caused the company to lose legions of loyal customers forever.
i almost dozed off reading the article about 1 of the most boring cars ever maybe… zzzzz
Wow, my first new company car, a 4 door in the darker champagne color on this one. We called them Slowtations since acceleration was leisurely and the best thing it had going for it was no out-of-pocket costs. It was not a serious wallet-suck until our fleet manager cut a deal with the repair shop: I was out of town working and the steering rack mysteriously needed replacement. The car was replaced when it timed out with Ford’s version, a Topaz in the same color but a little more upscale interior.
57K? She done, bye-bye it would make a few nice boat anchors ⚓️ once it was cubed and sliced. One of Chevys biggest Piles.
With these things you either got a good one that was dependable or you got a bad one that was built on a Friday or Monday this one seems to have a lot of missing paint on the engine and rust on the shock towers for the claimed mileage, I always thought they were just a overgrown underpowered Vega to each their own I guess.
The perfect acronym for this is
Can
Hear
Every
Valve
Rattle
On
Long
Extended
Trips
In 1988 a fraternity brother in college had one of these, it was borrowed from his mother. Six of us got drunk at midnight and took it four-wheel-driving in the nearby rock quarry. The floorboards would bounce up and down on every rock we scraped on. Also I’ve never seen a Citation fly through the air until that night…
Not to be nit picky, but wasn’t the Toronado GMs first FWD?
Kurt- I don’t know about GM but the headline says: Chevy’s First FWD
I had a couple of these. The V6 one wasn’t so hot but the Iron Duke 4-banger was a good car for what I paid and what I got out of it.
Was a young gm tech (we were mechanics then) when these hit the road. Was involved with gm in developing a cure??? For the “morning sickness “ these exhibited….. no power steering assist when cold. Had to remove rack and pinion (mounted to firewall). Remove spool valve and replace 4 nylon rings… then hope you got valve back in the proper spot or it came out again!!!! Was a bandaid for rack housings wearing out and would only help for a while. Learned to cuss real well doing these!!
A relic from back in the days when the automakers were trying to force mediocre designs on customers. So ugly. It seemed like there wasn’t a care in the world what the consumer wanted and what would sell. My Dad called them “terrapins”. The fastback Buick Century and some others shared this front drive turtle back applied to rear drive models…a move to sway to this design I guess. Bleck. Not everything from the good ol’ days was good.
It’s unfortunate that GM chose to release the X-body cars in mid-1979. Pushing the debut to fall, 1979 would have allowed time to fix many of the cars’ faults.
I had a 1980 X-11 in college. It had the V6 and 4-speed, and it had every available option except cruise control, which wasn’t available with the 4-speed. It even had the AM/FM/CB radio with power antenna and the remote-control swing-out rear windows. (There was a lever in the headliner near the front passengers’ heads. Turning the lever opened or closed the rear side windows.)
I didn’t have many mechanical issues. The carb and clutch were the only things that needed attention in the 5 years that I owned it. I did have some electrical issues, though. Replacing the voltage regulator was roughly an annual thing. The only notable rust it had was in the floors, but that was after 7 years and 100,000+ miles. I replaced it with a Sunbird Turbo, and almost immediately regretted the move.
A GREAT example that old and in great shape does not always equal valuable.
The Chevy Citation ( and the other X-body cars) were the “First Computer designed cars “. The designers knew exactly what they were doing. But they were also in a rush to be first. EITHER WAY — an almost Biblical mistake to take advantage of Loyal Fellow American customers. The X-body cars were the first generation of cars that led up to today’s way of doing business. They looked MARVELOUS and HOOKED customers visually but took people to the “cleaners “. I love how this car looks – just wish it was built to match. Nice article!
Looks like it has a transverse Holden Starfire engine which was a cut down 186ci 6cyl used in the 2nd model Torana Sunbird and Toyota Corona here in Australia
My cousin had one of these off the show room floor it only had ten miles on it he was only able to put ten more miles on it before it died worse car ever
and then what happened ?
Bought one new in 82 car was great till brother-in-law wrecked it.
My first car was an ‘81 Olds Omega, my mothers boyfriend had to put both side floorpans and parking brake cables in it before I got it (the car was 6 years old. SIX.). It was a two door with the four cylinder and four speed manual. I replaced the hood 3 months into owning it since it was so rusty but otherwise? A great car. It was light tan with black wheels with dog dish hubcaps, my friends called me an undercover cop lol
I detailed cars at Ford Dealer during that time. People bought them and had bad experiences with them. They traded them in quickly, especially after the brake design scandal became public. Most of the bad ones were the V-6. ALWAYS had transmission problems. The iron duke 4 didn’t break down as much. Citations had that vertical radio. The Pontiac had a nice dashboard with the optional gauge package. The V-6 has good pick up for that time. Terrible to do the back 3 spark plugs and that are front motor mounts like M&M’s.
I bought a used ‘81 with the V-6 and a 4 speed for a cheap daily driver for work and running around. The transmission lost 2nd gear, then 3rd. Had to wind it out and shift from 1st to 4th. Put a used transmission in it and dumped it before something else failed. Absolute junk!
I find it amusing that there are always more comments on the crappy cars than the good finds. Thanks for posting guys, I am enjoying them.
Also because of sheer numbers…. for a common, high-volume car like this, way more of us have had first-hand experience with them. How many of us Barn Finders have first-hand experience back in the day with, say, a Superbird?
Bob, that’s a good point…. I had two of these Citations back in the day, for example, therefore I have an opinion on them. (And my opinion is they were ok with the Iron Duke 4).
And I don’t have a Superbird, yet… :)
I remember my dad having a 76 Ford Granada which was a lemon his cousin working for a GM dealer told him about the Chevrolet Citation which he thought would be a great car my dad traded one lemon for another lemon the Citation was awful always in the shop in 1981 dad traded for a 1981 Dodge Aries kept it over 10 years with 288,000 miles
The only Citation I want is built by Cessna,
The only Citation I want ,is built by Cessna!
I’d take an Edsel Citation
If you remember, these were called the X-body cars. There was supposedly a flaw with the brake design/system on all of them. Consequently, GM lost a lot of money and had tons of bad press. So, not too long after this, they introduced the Citation II. The iron duke now had throttle body fuel injection, a “revised” braking system, and some interior updates.. When I detailed cars at that Ford Dealer, people who bought these were getting towed in to the shop in the winter time because the throttle body fuel injection system would freeze up and they’d be a “no-start.” Also, around this time, GM introduced the larger platform of these bodies. Do you remember the Chevy Celebrity? Cutlass Cierra? and their corporate siblings, from Pontiac and Buick. They were bigger, more expensive, and nicer in some respects. They also started out with the same poor drivetrains and had the same headaches. It wasn’t until a few years in that they really improved them.. An example would be the the Buick eventually getting the bulletproof 3.8. In retrospect, it was a shame. The Citation was another example of why Americans turned away from American cars and started to buy Honda’s and Toyota’s in droves. When I cleaned these cars up, there were no rattles, they were easy to work on, and much more reliable.
doing the side step at 68 per hour at 8hr shift