GM has a spotty track record for front-wheel drive performance cars. Some were great, like the Chevy Cobalt SS and Saturn Ion Redline. Some were pretty good, like the V8-powered FWD SS variants of the Chevy Impala and Monte Carlo. But some were forgotten for good reasons, like the Chevy Citation X-11. Although not exactly a bright spot in the history of Chevy muscle cars, a surprisingly clean survivor example of the Citation X-11 with 80,900 miles on it is up for auction in Chicago on Barn Finds.
Power comes from a 2.8L V6 LH7 rated at 135 horsepower, which was pretty strong for a compact car in the early 1980s. A 3-speed automatic transmission was optional, but this one is equipped with the standard 4-speed manual. Being an X-body car, it has front-wheel drive.
In addition to the V6, some of the sporty enhancements of the X-11 over the regular Chevy Citation include a sport-tuned suspension system, quicker steering, an appearance package that included 14-inch aluminum wheels, a bulging hood, “X-11” decals, and a black grille. This X-11 has a 3-door hatchback body with Burnt Orange Metallic paint, but it was also available as a 2-door “club coupe.”
A copy of the window sticker in the gallery shows an original invoice price of $8,924.49. A few options on this car in addition to the X-11 package. include a removable sunroof, air conditioning, a center console, power steering, beige custom vinyl bucket seats, and an electric rear window defogger. This was a pretty well-equipped Chevy Citation.
This was GM’s attempt to compete in the sport compact segment against the likes of the Volkswagen Scirocco, Datsun 310, and Honda Prelude. However, the Citation X-11 is a largely forgotten oddity because it was overshadowed by its rivals and because of the infamy of the problematic GM X-body platform.
As of this writing, the high bid on this Chevy Citation X-11 is $2,500. The auction ends on Tuesday, June 10th, so if, for some reason, you’ve always wanted a clean Citation X-11, now is your chance to place your bid.
Comments
Geeezzz….Crappy color
Is that all? lol
Great color!
I had a red X-11 with the 4 speed……..it actually was a really good car. It handled well for a FWD had great acceleration for the time and was comfortable. This would be a great affordable car for someone to get into the collector car hobby.
WAB,
The auction X-11 is still affordable, but there’s still about three days to go before the hammer goes down. If it remains what I consider a relative bargain, I probably bid with plans to use it as a daily driver.
Reminds me of the ’89 Beretta GT I ordered new with the 5 speed Getrag transmission. It also had a 2.8 l V-6. What a smoking pile of crap. I unloaded it 6 months and 3,000 miles later on an ’89 Honda Accord, and never looked back.
Rear brakes would lock up in a heartbeat on slippery surfaces on this platform causing the car to wildly fishtail or spin out of control. I know this from personal experience as it happened twice to me.
Totally agree, rear brakes were grabby in the wet and over the limit handling was atrocious in all conditions. I had a good spin once on dry roads and many a scary incident in our 82 Phoenix. Once the rear broke loose it was almost always coming around. However, the 65/35 weight distribution made this thing the best snow car ever. Climbed up steep hills slaloming around stuck cars many times in the Phoenix. Never came close to getting stuck in the snow with standard all season tires.
Very well said and precisely my experience in our 1983 Buick Century Limited. Now that I’ve given it more thought it happened at least three times to me and it’s a wonder I didn’t take out another car or hit a guardrail during the full-loop spins. But like you said that platform would go practically anywhere in the snow and the 3.3 liter V6 motor Buick installed up front was a small wonder: plenty of get up and go.
Had an ’81 Citation Iron Duke automatic. Could not brake hard on slippery surfaces because the rears would lock and around she came!
I worked at the Chevy dealer when these came out. They were stacked in the back with failed automatic transmissions and no parts.
Yeah, lots of uninformed “experts” like to pile on the X-bodies. I ordered a new ’82 X11 six months out of college from Johnny Londoff Chevrolet in St. Louis. My wife and I checked every option in the book, except for the automatic, resulting in a sticker of $11,000+. We were both making way more money than we needed, and had driven junk through high school and college, so why not? The ONLY thing that went wrong with that car over five years of ownership was the centrifugal AC compressor locked up, and it was easily fixed. Rear wheels locking up? Never. It was Redwood metallic with the matching interior. We loved that car, and brought our first-born home in it. I traded it to Lou Fusz Pontiac for an ’86 Pontiac 6000 STE. Now that was a mistake. Finally went to arbitration after all the problems, and GM bought the car back. But I wish I’d kept that X11…
We serviced a large fleet of these for a local paper from 1980 till they went out of production. We never had issues with these. They were ordered all v6 and auto with F41 suspensions. They were used at route managers cars and often were loaded down with bundles of papers.
In all that time we only saw one engine failure and a couple cars that had steering rack failures. No transmissions fails. Early cars had CV boot issues but the design was changed.
The drivers could option the cars as they like and one ordered an X11.
We saw many more issues with Tempo’s and K cars than we did with these. It was not a good era for anything even Honda’s rotted out in the salt.
They went to a Cavalier wagon later with the V6 and F41 suspension. These were really Z24 wagons mechanically. They did well too.
Great cars no but better than the web likes to make them.
2M6,
I’m not dissing X-Body platforms or your Citation X-11, just saying that the rear brakes lock-up problem was real and a known issue. The fact you enjoyed an excellent ownership experience with your X-11 is good to hear. Perhaps your car’s configuration as well as your driving style and geographic location played roles in your overall satisfaction with braking performance. That said, I find the X-11 to be old-school cool and gladly take it over most all of today’s soulless thousand-shades-of-grey transportation appliances. :~)
I had an 80 Citation as a company car. Not an X-11 but it was nicely equipped including the 2.8 V6, and we were allowed to order additional equipment. My 80 had F-41 Suspension, white lettered tires, gauges. It handled pretty good for what it was, enough so that I autocrossed it a few times.
In 82 I ordered myself a Redwood X-11 to autocross. I got AC, the stereo radio, and sunroof, but skipped power windows, etc since I intended to autocross it and was considering taking it SCCA SSB racing. That car was a ball to drive, and I was quite successful autocrossing it. I drove the X-11 much harder than most drivers and never had brake locked up…unless I wanted it. I replaced it with an 84 Cavalier Z-24 to go SCCA SS racing with, but then life changed. Things got busier at work, our first child was born and the friend whose SCCA Corvette I’d worked on, decided to move up to the Trans Am series with me crewing for him. The Z-24 was never raced, but instead replaced my wife’s Corvette as her car seat equipped daily driver.
My comment was addressed to TM not 2M6. Sorry folks, my bad, my mistake.
While driving a new Citation on the interstate, the fuel pump died and left me stranded, until a tow truck arrived.
Great car. Never had any major problems and the brakes NEVER locked up.
I worked for a Chevy dealer at the time. We called it the Chevy Sanitation. Second to the Vega, windows would drop inside the doors because of the cheap tape drive window regulators, leaking steering rack & pinions, numerous water leaks. It was the top car of Chevy to ruin their reputation for many years.
I’m sure this could be slightly modernized, (but not ruin the style of course) add a 3.0 V-6 TT / upgrade the suspension etc. and it will be the best ever because it’s not a CUV/SUV. Then do the same to the sedan hatchback so we have a choice.
Loves the Sedan Hatchback – that’s a 4-Door Coupe! GM was ahead of it’s time. This body style was and is still very popular in Europe. North America slowly caught on. The Citation 4-door hatch was nice looking, sort of like the Rover SDI 3500GT “4-Door Coupe.”
I know where a brand new x-11 is sitting and has been since it was driven home from the dealership. Well preserved with a thick coat of dust. When the owner bites the dust it will probably go to auction. $20,000 to $30,000 you think?
Keep us in the loop Neil. Doubtless there’s someone here on GM Authority who might wish to snag it and bring it home.