The clutch and pressure plate went out at approximately 30000 miles with the 4-speed manual transmission.
No other major malfunctions.
This car was just begging to be hopped up! The 231 V6 was a late-1970s smog engine, so it was predictably anemic. In my unofficial acceleration test, I got a 0-to-60 time in just over 13 seconds. (Given the 3300 pound weight of car+driver, this works out to about 120 horsepower.)
At the time I owned this car, the great potential of the 3.8-liter engine was just being tapped into by hot-rodders. It was no exaggeration that nearly 200 horsepower was achievable with only a handful of relatively inexpensive modifications. Ah, but if I'd only had the time...
You sure don't see many rear wheel drive Buick Skyhawk's or any of the H-body cars built from 1975-80, I think they're one of GM's most underrated cars and I feel they deserve more recognition than what they get.
I will have to agree with you
i personally own a 79 and it sofar has treated me great
if GM would have made this car more race oriented then the sale of this car would have been a lot better
these cars were cheap to drop a V8 in to and also had the plus that they were considerably light compared to its rivals
these cars were designed to compete with toyotas celicas and the mustang II's and power capability wise and price wise the skyhawks were by far the better buys for that time.
Note: A Comments RSS Feed 
is available. New comments appear in the Members Area before the main site