1981 Chevrolet Citation from North America - Comments

You turn left, it'd stall. You turn right, it'd stall. Press on the gas, it'd stall. Press on the brake, it'd stall. Shifting from Park to Drive, dropped into gear violently (BANG!), and stall. Shifting from Park to Reverse, dropped into gear violently (BANG!), and stall. Shifting from Neutral to Drive, dropped into gear violently (BANG!), and stall. Had to drive 2-footed just to change direction!

Dash lights like to flash and dance periodically.

Needed a carburator that was worth more than the car. Filled up every 2 days!!

Rusted as if GM put a UV catalyst in the paint! Fenders and quarter panels became wavy from UV.

Useless vertically mounted radio.

At one point the tranny steamed out all of its ATF out of every orifice like a tea kettle.

Had to silicone a window shut, kept flopping down.

Dash was all dried out and handles started breaking off in my hand!!

Piece of crap car.

In my opinion any car that gets 200,000 miles can't be that bad.

Unless it's a Citation.

The stalling was a "feature" on my dad's new Citation in 1980, but it was fixed by the dealer (I believe that GM issued a technical service bulletin on the stalling problem). Perhaps the previous owner (s) of your car never had this checked.

Once the stalling problem was fixed, the car ran very reliably until I totalled it in 1989. At the time of my accident the car had 120,000 miles and was still running strong.

Citations are one of the worst cars GM produced. But how can you call yours a piece of crap when it had 186,000 miles when you got it. Any car with those kind of miles is not likely to be a quality automobile. I'm suprized a citation lasted that long. You should be grateful you got that many miles out of a citation.

I can understand why (the person who wrote the review) this person did not like the interior of the car. I own a 1984 Citation 2 and a 1985 Citation 2. The 1984 had a pretty ugly interior and the vertically mounted radio is stupid and I think GM realized that and that's why the 1985 Citation has a horizontally mounted radio above the heater controls. The problem with the radio is it has a pretty good tuner on it, but why is there no cassette player on it? There was enough room for it. If you get a Citation, hold onto it. If you don't like it, then sell it to someone who does.

I agree with the very first comment. I have owned many automobiles and without a doubt this is the worst I have ever invested money in. I purchased my 1980 Citation last year from "the literal" little old lady who was the second owner of that car, as I have the papers that prove she was. I thought I was doing her a good deed by taking it off her hands after her husband passed away as she no longer needed a 2nd car. Have I ever learned by lesson about doing good deeds for old ladies. Specifically, I have spent more on the carburetor system trying to get it to stop stalling every time you stop at a light, stop sign or what ever. I am beginning to think that maybe I should purchase a gas well just to keep it in gasoline, as it only gets about 14 miles per gallon. Filling up ever 2 to 3 days is expensive here in Montana. Honestly, I would not be able to sleep if I pawned that thing off on someone else. Anyway, buyers beware of this monster.

Oh come on all of you!! Get a Haynes (or different) manual and just keep fixinng it!! Citations are good cars if you know them well. If you want a totally maintenance free vehicle then get a Honda!! Yes I do own a Blue 1985 Citation with a 2.5 liter "Iron Duke" engine in it and I have never touched it (repairs). Maybe you can modify yours to take a throttle body fuel Injection (TBI). I know Carbreutors are a PAIN!!

My dad had a Nissan Truck for a couple of weeks and it had a miserable carburetor problem!! He even own a Ford Wagon that ALWAYS had carburetor problems!!

E-mail me at timothyap5vm@hotmail.com if you want to talk about your citation (s).

Later!!

I have a 1982 citation and must say it runs well, of course, it only has 25,000 miles (40,000 KMS) so it should still run well. The interior is in absolute ruins, the seats are crusty and rip when you put pressure on them, the dash has like 20 large cracks in it, the outer, shiny layer of blue vinyl is flaking off like dust on everything inside. The rear seat does not fold down. The hatch does not stay up when it is cold. However, for a 16 year old, it is just fine. Runs well, but I don't know how long I can take the fm/am pushbutton radio. If the interior wasn't falling apart, it would be a better car, but it is OK. Oh and as a testiment to 1980s quality, the whole car shakes and rattles at highway speeds. I can see the hood vibrate at high speeds, the doors are thin and the car generally feels like a pop can. But since I will never again take it on the highway, the frail body isn't that big of deal. The engine and transmission are very solid though, I have been driving the hell out of it since I got it a couple months ago, I have no doubt the engine and tranny can take it. Even if the dashboard falls onto my knees, the little cast iron 4 banger will be roaring away punching out all its 90HP. This baby looks like a chevette and it runs like a chevette (with 30 more HP:-) Long live Chevys!

"I agree with the very first comment. I have owned many automobiles and without a doubt this is the worst I have ever invested money in. I purchased my 1980 Citation last year from "the literal" little old lady who was the second owner of that car, as I have the papers that prove she was. I thought I was doing her a good deed by taking it off her hands after her husband passed away as she no longer needed a 2nd car. Have I ever learned by lesson about doing good deeds for old ladies. Specifically, I have spent more on the carburetor system trying to get it to stop stalling every time you stop at a light, stop sign or what ever. I am beginning to think that maybe I should purchase a gas well just to keep it in gasoline, as it only gets about 14 miles per gallon. Filling up ever 2 to 3 days is expensive here in Montana. Honestly, I would not be able to sleep if I pawned that thing off on someone else. Anyway, buyers beware of this monster."

Have you ever heard of a "choke"? Come on this is pointing to a choke problem from every angle! Stalls at lights? Gets horrible gas mileage? And I bet it has NO get-up and go. FIX THE CHOKE! Carburetors are fine as long as they are working well, but when they are not working well, they REALLY aren't working well. A carburetor walks on a fine line of excellent mileage and performance, if it isn't on that fine line, it is in the ditch. Fix the choke and replace the air and fuel filters, it will run much better.

Hondas are not maintenance free, they have their share of problems like any other car. Its because of cars like the Citation that the "buy a Honda" mentality still thrives today. In reality, American cars are the best value today when you combine performance with dependability and availability of parts.

I see all of the replys and I would like to correct a lot of them.

First of all the Honda is king, do not try to find a way to justify a chevrolet when we all know Honda's reliability. Throwing the availibilty for parts excuse for a Chevrolet that's more than 20 years old which the dealer doesn't even stock parts for is a waste of everyones time. Carburetors are not a pain if you have a quality built one that is not abused. I have owned my 1984 Honda CRX DX with its baby carburetor for 6 years now. The car was bought new by my uncle in 1984, it has never had a rebuild on the carburetor and I am closing in on 400,000 miles. CV axels, starter, alternator, waterpump, hoses, belts, filters, clutch, tuneups are all this car has ever recieved. My uncle still claims the car needs a valve job which its never had in its entire 400k journey.

Recently I aquired a 1985 Citation 2.8L automatic. It has 124,000 miles on the clock and required me to do a lot of work. I first had to replace the carburetor, repair radiator, replace alternator, starter, ignition switch, power steering pump, rack and pinion, exhaust manifold gasket, valve cover gasket, front main seal, fuel pump, turn signal flasher, headlight wiring, coolant temperature sending unit, window cranks, fan relay, cv axels, emergency brake cable, brake booster, brake master cylinder, hoses, belts. After dumping money into the Citation I thought it was all done with, 124,000 miles with almost everything I could think of replaced. It wasn't over it ofcorse. My wonderful hydromatic transmission then died. I spent 1200 on a rebuild and sold the car to a guy down the street that ended up having the heater core go bad and ran without coolant blowing headgaskets and cracking one of the heads. He ended up selling the car to the junkyard. I will never take another Citation for free, you'd have to pay me.

Citations may not be the best car ever built, but it's old and high miles. You can't expect new car reliability. On the bright side, they are right parts are cheap and easy to find.

With respect to Hondas being more reliable, I think not. I have three friends with 2 newer Civics and an Accord. All three have had to have multiple transmission rebuilds inside of the 1st 3 years of owner ships. One Civic and the Accord both had the stereo/HVAC controls fail. They seem terribly reliable to me. Good thing they paid more than the American equivalent. This way they can keep paying more to fix them.