Anybody want to start a crappy 80s car collection?

http://jxn.craigslist.org/cto/3846345745.html

I found the perfect start, a citation, the worst car GM ever produced. I thought they all went to the shredder by now.

Worst? Never. The full size, rear drive Fleetwood with the 4.1 self-destructo was, in my opinion, slightly worse than the 4-6-8 in the same chassis, but either of them were worse than a Citation...which was better than the first Escort we got here.

In reply to Streetwiseguy:

When you consider they attempted to pull a Ferrari with the press cars, and then produced a much worse car, I think it get the #1 spot.

At least the Cadillacs were trying, the Citation was 10 years behind when new.

what, exactly, was so bad about the Citation? yeah, the radios were sideways on the early ones, but they weren't any worse than any other GM fwd car of the era.. the front suspension was good enough to be the rear suspension in Pontiac's mid engined plastic super car, and the X11 was a pretty badass car for the day...

Waddaya mean, start?

My parents had one. It had no good qualities.

I had an '81 X-11. The ChryCo products of that era were MUCH worse.

Streetwiseguy wrote: Worst? Never. The full size, rear drive Fleetwood with the 4.1 self-destructo was, in my opinion, slightly worse than the 4-6-8 in the same chassis, but either of them were worse than a Citation...which was better than the first Escort we got here.

the 4-6-8 was a engine way ahead of its time same as the 4100 both of these engines were the furture of the V-8 really look at how they were built and designed the technology just wasnt there to make the ideas work but they work now and as far as the 4-6-8 goes all you had to do was lock it on 8 and the engine ran for 100k plus i know i had many.........i have always said GM uses caddy as a testing area for engine design

a 4 door, 4 cylinder, automatic kind of stacks the deck toward suck. The X-11 looked and drove so much better it was like a different car. It also won SCCA showroom stock for the season back then. Jon Heinrecy of Corvette fame had his hand in it. Please note my avatar.....

novaderrik wrote: they weren't any worse than any other GM fwd car of the era..

You could cover about 3 decades with that comment...

No thanks. I already have a crappy 90's car collection.

I admit that I occasionally search Craigslist for 80s Chevy Cavalier 2-door coupes. I found a mint, low mileage one and the seller would never reply. I spent many, many miles behind the wheel of a square-body Cavalier and the little suckers never let me down.

novaderrik wrote: what, exactly, was so bad about the Citation? yeah, the radios were sideways on the early ones, but they weren't any worse than any other GM fwd car of the era..

"Well I just found out I have syphilis, but it's not any worse than any of the other STDs out there today...."

Actually, yes - I would really like to start a crappy 80's car collection. Alas, I don't have the space, time, or even the money.

novaderrik wrote: what, exactly, was so bad about the Citation? yeah, the radios were sideways on the early ones, but they weren't any worse than any other GM fwd car of the era.. the front suspension was good enough to be the rear suspension in Pontiac's mid engined plastic super car, and the X11 was a pretty badass car for the day...

The X-cars were a disaster. They were launched with a tremendous amount of hype. They were supposedly GM's "answer" to foreign cars, being more compact than the cars they replaced, more fuel efficient, and FWD. GM had FWD before then (Toronados, Eldos, and such), but the X-cars were the first mass-market FWD cars GM made. And then the recalls started. The cars were years behind the competition when they came out, everything in them was new and inadequately tested, and they did more to hurt GM's reputation than anything had in decades. If it hadn't been for the hype, they might not have attracted so much attention for their problems, but that's not how it went.

Of course, in true GM fashion, they eventually got them right, but it was too late and they killed them. See also: Fiero

I'm kind of considering ending mine.

Tom_Spangler wrote:

novaderrik wrote: what, exactly, was so bad about the Citation? yeah, the radios were sideways on the early ones, but they weren't any worse than any other GM fwd car of the era.. the front suspension was good enough to be the rear suspension in Pontiac's mid engined plastic super car, and the X11 was a pretty badass car for the day...

The X-cars were a disaster. They were launched with a tremendous amount of hype. They were supposedly GM's "answer" to foreign cars, being more compact than the cars they replaced, more fuel efficient, and FWD. GM had FWD before then (Toronados, Eldos, and such), but the X-cars were the first mass-market FWD cars GM made. And then the recalls started. The cars were years behind the competition when they came out, everything in them was new and inadequately tested, and they did more to hurt GM's reputation than anything had in decades. If it hadn't been for the hype, they might not have attracted so much attention for their problems, but that's not how it went. Of course, in true GM fashion, they eventually got them right, but it was too late and they killed them. See also: Fiero

the domestic auto makers were kind of racing to get the new fwd stuff out at that time... GM and Chrysler pushed the development faster than they should have, and the results were the K car for Chrysler and the X cars for GM.. the Ks were more simple because Chrysler was more broke and didn't have the resources to do it "right", so they were a little less bad than the more decked out GM X cars... Ford had the wisdom to wait a couple of years to work out most of the bugs in the Escorts and what not and let things shake out and see how the GM and Chrysler products worked out..

Tom_Spangler wrote: See also: Fiero

This thread has me wondering how many of the well known engine swaps for Fieros would work equally well in a Citation. Imagine how many people would be shocked if you brought a Citation with a V8 Archie kit or an LS4 swap to the dragstrip.

MadScientistMatt wrote:

Tom_Spangler wrote: See also: Fiero

This thread has me wondering how many of the well known engine swaps for Fieros would work equally well in a Citation. Imagine how many people would be shocked if you brought a Citation with a V8 Archie kit or an LS4 swap to the dragstrip.

an LS4/5 speed X11 notchback would be insane...

V8 Citations have been done. GM actually has a twin engine MPFI V6 car that shows up a the occasional show here in MI.