Rusty But Trusty

Here’s another in the line of cars you wouldn’t give a second glance, but are becoming interesting because they’ve just about disappeared from American roads. Conceived as a response to poor sales of GM’s extra-large family cars, and heavily referencing the Lancia Beta sedan (as some will have you believe), the Chevrolet Citation debuted in 1980 to great acclaim. Motor Trend bestowed its Car of the Year award upon it, although we all know about their dubious choices. Before launching into full-scale mockery mode, though, let’s take a look at what this car really meant for GM – it was their first transverse-engined, front-wheel-drive family sedan, with a hatchback in most cases. It spawned the A-, L-, and N-body cars from GM. Sales hit nearly 1.4 million for the X-platform cars, with the majority of those going to the Citation. You can find this surviving 1981 Chevrolet Citation for sale in Salt Lake City, UT with no bids at $0 and one day left to go on the auction.

Not so bad, right? The car is said to have mechanical damage, but parts or even whole engines for these must be pretty cheap. Incidentally, who names a car after a traffic ticket? The ultimate cause of the Citation’s decline was a steady stream of recalls, including one for a loose transmission hose that could cause fires. And if GM was acting like GM in those times, their approach to such issues was likely deny, deny, deny.

Looks like there’s a minor rust spot near the lower left corner of the hatch, on the fender. Other than that, this car looks fairly straight and complete, even down to the often-missing plastic filler panels between the bumpers and body. Who else was making 5-door family hatchbacks then? Saab had the 99/900, VW had the Dasher hatchback, and perhaps we can count the aforementioned Lancia Beta sedan, even though this was technically a fastback sedan with a trunk lid that cut off just under the rear window.

The engine is the then-new 2.8-liter LE2 V6, with a road-burning 115hp and 135 lb.-ft. of torque. Surprisingly, this was enough to induce torque steer, one of the major issues in these cars. Under the hood, things look rust-free, which is probably not too surprising given the car’s location. Since there is said to be mechanical damage to the car, perhaps there’s an opportunity to swap in one of the later versions of this engine – say the LH7 with 135hp and 165 lb.-ft. of torque for some real torque steer. Just hang on to the steering wheel like a real man.

The interior’s seen better days. Supposedly the car has just over 73,000 miles, although this would be cause for doubt. You’ll definitely want to fully sanitize the interior, although the beige color helps show any dubious areas, like the back seat. Odds that a hooker has been inside this car at some point in its life are pretty good, although it *is* in Utah.

Not much more to say about this car, except Vertical Radio! That puts it up there with the Corvette and some Italian supercars! Now if you must have your Malaise-era iron in immaculate shape, check out this 1980 Chevrolet Citation 2-door in Downington, PA for $2200. And look, he’s parked it behind a Ferrari – perhaps they’re comparing radios?

Tags: american, chevrolet, citation, Feature, hatchback, under $2000

This entry was posted on January 16, 2014 at 1:14 pm and is filed under Feature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.