GM X-Cars

I loved the raspy exhaust note of that 2.8 in the X-11, and its cousin, the 6000 STE. Fun, quick cars for their day. I believe there was an article created by one of the car mags years ago, listing the attributes of the 20 worst cars ever made. The Citation made the list, saying it was "made of compressed rust". Funny stuff.
 
Originally Posted by madRiver
Just a mess all around of a car. I feel bad for people who bought it.

GMs first decent smaller car came with the Cruze because they imported it from GM Europe.

No they didn't. Opel supplied the platform [Delta II Cobalt and ION were on Delta I] GM Korea did all the development work
 
Originally Posted by GMBoy
Originally Posted by addyguy
Originally Posted by GMBoy
Originally Posted by MCompact
My wife had a 1984 Skylark T Type when we got married. It was actually a very nice car.


I loved them! My friend had an '85 T-type. That little 1.8Turbo was a peppy running motor! It was black and looked like a mini Grand National.


You are getting the SKYHAWK and SKYLARK mixed up.

SKYLARK T-type had a 2.8 V-6, the SKYHAWK T-type had the 1.8L Turbo.

The Skylark was the larger X-body; the Skyhawk was the smaller J-body.


I realized that too late. You can't delete posts on here anymore. But the Skylark was a nice more luxurious version and looked the best.


The Skylark and Century were also offered as a T Types.
 
Originally Posted by AC1DD
The sad and tragic part is that the basic engineering and design of the X cars was actually VERY good, the problem was execution, that was HORRID.
If these cars would have been built with the type of QC we have today in US products they would have been excellent cars for the time, possibly as good or better than the Japanese competition.

Just proves that US manglement in the car business was awful until the early 2000s or so.


The proof of your statement lies in the long run of the A Body platform, essentially an extended X Body. They even had the same wheelbase
 
Originally Posted by Hootbro
One of my running around buddies in High School in the mid 1980's had an Omega. That thing was put through some teenager driving abuse but took it like a champ. I thought it was good basic transportation. None of them were Chick wagons, but they got you where you needed to be.


+1, we had a light blue 1980 Omega that dad ordered from the factory. It had the brougham trim so the interior was dressed up a bit along with the half vinyl roof. We had it for 12 years when my brother traded it in on a new 92 Civic. It was the first year for the X car and was reliable except for the trans going out on it. Of course it had two teen age boys driving it and no atf service. A good trans shop was nearby and they fixed it for $900. They are still around with great reviews.
 
Originally Posted by fdcg27
I don't think that those who've never owned one should comment on how good or bad these cars were.
Having owned one, I'll share our experience.
We had an '80 4dr V-6 Citation four door. At the time, GM was by far the largest automaker in the world. They did know how to design, engineer, develop and build cars.
The car had incredible interior space even by current standards and offered a smooth and quiet highway ride along with good trip fuel economy.
The 2.8 offered strong acceleration, but it was let down at highway speeds by the incredibly tall overall gearing mated with a three speed automatic.
Handling was pretty good even with the soft suspension and on open sweepers it'll fade most anything else in its rearview mirror.
Heat and AC were very good in the GM tradition of the time.
The brakes never seemed great, although they were sufficient to save us in a swoop and squat attempt on I-71 by some gomer in a Fierro. I should have followed him until he got off and had a serious bit of convo with him, but wifey told me not to and we did have somewhere to be.
I later sold the car to a buddy who used it on his long commute for a few years.
The main issue with the Citation was the incredible amount of cost cutting that went into its design and build. Overall, the car had a really cheap interior look that was also lacking in durability.
Had GM budgeted another few hundred bucks into these cars, I'm convinced that they'd now be considered great cars of their era.
They did spawn the evergreen J cars as well as the then most reliable cars for sale FWD A cars, so the X cars must have had something right.



Excellent summation.

I had an 84 Citation 2 notchback. Triggered by my Father's 84 Oldsmobile Ciera. Both were roomy, rode well and were actually nicely trimmed. I loved it and wish I had it in my driveway.

The X body didn't spawn the J Body, though. That was an effort shared with Opel, Vauxhall, GM NA with Chevrolet taking the engineering lead in the US. See "The Decline & Fall Of The American Auto Industry" by Brock Yates for all the dirty details.

The Js shared some parts with the X which made them heavier than their weak Chevy designed 1.8 could handle, but this was a whole new platform unrelated to the X Body.
 
Would love to have one of these bad boys.




Z24.JPG
 
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Originally Posted by Jarlaxle
Originally Posted by DweezilAZ


The Skylark and Century were also offered as a T Types.

So was the Le Sabre.


So was the Regal. My mom's neighbor has a black 1987 that they bought new in pristine condition. I thought it was a GN until told otherwise.
 
Originally Posted by SatinSilver
Originally Posted by Jarlaxle
Originally Posted by DweezilAZ


The Skylark and Century were also offered as a T Types.

So was the Le Sabre.


So was the Regal. My mom's neighbor has a black 1987 that they bought new in pristine condition. I thought it was a GN until told otherwise.


Regular Regals were available with the turbocharged 3.8L. Didn't necessarily have to be a T-Type, GN, or GNX.

G-Bodies remain one of my favorite car platforms, I had a 1988 Monte Carlo 4.3L/700R4 that was the first brand new car I ever bought. It was the only fuel injected gas engine ever offered in a G-body besides the Turbocharged 3.8L.
 
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My brother had this Monte when I was in high school. Always thought he was dumb for not getting T-Tops, but he hates things that leak.

He's kept every other POS he's ever owned, but he sold this one. I was P*****. I woulda looked SO good in it. LOL





Monte.JPG
 
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Originally Posted by WylieCoyote
My brother had this Monte when I was in high school. Always thought he was dumb for not getting T-Tops, but he hates things that leak.

He's kept every other POS he's ever owned, but he sold this one. I was P*****. I woulda looked SO good in it. LOL




LOL. I love this
 
Originally Posted by WylieCoyote
Would love to have one of these bad boys.



Same here.

That bloody Citation I had I liked so much, years later when I bought my first brand new car, It was a 99 Cavalier two door. Close enough to be a perfect replacement.

The X Cars were a hot thing when they came out. On paper they were amazing for their space efficiency and as an answer to gas shocks, sticker shocks and for the buyer who was downsizing from a full size or intermediate. Hence the big car ride, the room, the traditional GM interiors with lots of velour, chrome, etc. One of the brands called theirs a "Little Limousine" and brochure pictures of the Omega have a surprising 98 vibe.

People forget what an impact these cars had. They want to concentrate on the recalls,bean counting and sloppy workmanship.Part of the story, but 3 billion spent in 70s dollars to bring these cars to market was one of, if not, the largest industrial investment ever made by a corporation at that time.

It's really tragic. GM could have owned these buyers for the next generation with an eye to the long game, but nooooooooooooooooooooooo.
 
Originally Posted by WylieCoyote
My brother had this Monte when I was in high school. Always thought he was dumb for not getting T-Tops, but he hates things that leak.

He's kept every other POS he's ever owned, but he sold this one. I was P*****. I woulda looked SO good in it. LOL



I had a couple like this, both 86's. My last one I bought from the original owner who had intended to make a race car out of it but then didn't. He ordered it with no A/C, radio delete, posi, etc. It was that same maroon color on gray interior. Really unique car. It only had 39k miles on it, was cherry. Miss that car.
 
We had a 1980 Citation X11, these were decal cars, no performance upgrades. I always thought it could have been a good car. It got totalled by a drunk driver and we bought an 82 Citation as we really didn't have any more problems than any other Chevy would have. Both were 4 speeds. The weird thing about the rear suspension geometry was if you put the e-brake on while rolling it would suck the back end down or to think of it another way it was pulling the rear twist axle up. So, hard braking unweights the rear and they naturally want to unload, no wonder they spun out.

[Linked Image]
Back then, any 0 to 60 under 10 seconds was decent.

9716EC14-69DA-4AC4-AFAA-6112969B1288.jpeg
 




Seems even brand new they weren't impressive

My father managed a transmission shop in the 80s

...he was good at these


Brand new car hard to start (Citation), paint overspray, poor paint quality visible on a 40 year old VHS recording and the diesel knocking on the Omega. Were GM's from this era really this terrible or was this just par for the course for all automakers?
 
You didn't have to own one to see that they were bad cars. Creaking, sagging, rusting hulks. Blue smoke everywhere. A lot of these car were seen running cattywumpus down the street.

The eighties were a bad decade for American cars in general. What I said about the GM cars applies to the rest as well. Since then they have improved. They had to.
I never thought the x cars were very good because I saw several failing to start when I was a kid (just like a lot of Ford's of the era) but I never saw any burning oil. Also if it applies to all GM's of the era then why are so many still on the road including my daily driver 84 Cutlass? I think you're speaking of stuff you don't know much about.
 
I missed this thread when it was first created,

Back in the late seventies, newly married, needing a car and short on money the new wife and I ended up with a Pontiac Phoenix. It was the most gutless, uninspiring vehicle I have ever owned. Probably why that marriage didn't last very long since my wife had to daily drive that POS and she hated me for it. Catherine, if you are reading this, I'm still truly sorry.
 
Originally Posted by madRiver
Just a mess all around of a car. I feel bad for people who bought it.

GMs first decent smaller car came with the Cruze because they imported it from GM Europe.

No they didn't. Opel supplied the platform [Delta II Cobalt and ION were on Delta I] GM Korea did all the development work
And the Cruze is much worse than the cobalt which was worse than the cavalier which was actually a pretty reliable car towards the end.
 
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