1985 Chevrolet Celebrity CL Wagon review from North America

Major problem: Transmission went out.

Power door locks failed.

Steering was whacked out, the wheel would turn fine, but when you get it so far turned, the power assist would be gone, then it would come back. I heard it was a rack problem, and it would cost $500 to fix.

Cooling fan was non-operative. Would overheat if not moving for too long.

The mass airflow sensor was bad, so when the computer figured that out, the check engine light would light up, and the car would go into limp mode and have less power and less fuel economy.

I love this car, I want to fix it, but it will be expensive. Those 440-T4 automatic transaxles are expensive to fix.

The High Output V-6 would spin the tires whenever I wanted it to. If I was at a stoplight, and some guy next to me was in his V-8 Camaro or Mustang, I would race him and win up to the speed limit because this engine would race up to the redline with no hesitation.

Now for the High Output explanation: The engine was an engine that was designed for SCCA racing in the Citation X-11, but soon went to other cars (notably, Camaros for economy, and Celebrity Eurosport, 6000 STE, Ciera GT, Century T-Type, and Fieros for speed). It was originally (1980-1984) a carburated engine with the actual HO designation. In 1985 (the last year) General Motors added fuel injection and dropped the HO off it, but it still had the High Output crankshaft, camshaft, pistons, etc. In 1986, GM put fuel injection in the normal V-6, and dropped the HO V-6. The Fuel Injected HO V-6 has more horsepower (150 vs. 130), but has less torque (165 lb/ft vs. 170 lb/ft).

This car was comfortable with the vinyl upholstery (the vinyl was stitched like leather, so it looked/felt like leather, but didn't wear :) like leather)

With the split rear seatbacks down, this car would hold an entire couch AND the tailgate could still be closed!!!

This car could cruise down the highway at nearly idle speed (the muffler was rusted out, so you could hear the rumpty-rump of the HO) when doing 90 MPH.