tamir@ucbvax.ARPA (Yuval Tamir) (07/08/85)
I am considering buying a 1983 or 1984 Chevrolet Citation
or Pontiac Pheonix 4-door hatchback with a V6 engine.
Consumer Reports and similar publications recommend
avoiding these cars due to poor reliability.
However, I really like their size, the hatchback style,
and the availability of the V6 engine.
Due to their poor "ratings", the prices of these cars are
rather low.
I would be interested in hearing from people who own X-cars.
How bad are they ?
Ignoring the reliability issue, are you generally satisfied
with the comfort and performance ?
Any special problems ?
I will summarize the results in net.auto.
Yuval Tamir
ARPANET/CSNET: tamir@Berkeley
UUCP: ucbvax!tamirmikey@trsvax (07/10/85)
I'll post my response here. I had a 1980 Phoenix X-body car that over-all I was pleased with. But I still think GM should buy every one of those deathtraps back from their owners!!!! The car was smooth, comfortable, fairly responsive, and handled reasonably well, but NEVER EVER EVER try to drive one in the rain until you are SURE you can handle the brakes. Mine would spin around 180 degrees at 55 if I jabbed the brakes. I must have talked to the dealer about it until I knew exactly what he would say. "Yours isn't covered by the GM recall, sorry" I called the GM district office and they would take my name and number and never return my call. I suspect that if you said X-body your call was flagged and they wouldn't talk to you. The problem was intermittent. I replaced the brake linings on the rear and it helped some. New FAT radials all around helped some too, but when you least expect it, even on the dry, it could get away from you and leave you facing traffic after a spin on the freeway! I ended up taking just over $1000 for it on trade for a new Chrysler Omni GLH Turbo. How do you like a car depreciating from $10,000 to just over 10% of its value. I heard that Car and Diver knew about the problem when they reviewed the Citation when it came out and they agreed to downplay the braking problem after promisses from GM that it would be fixed in production. GM still claims that they fixed the problem in cars that exhibited the symptoms, but if your VIN number doesn't match their tables, you gotta pay a couple hundred bucks for a part that still doesn't guarantee a fix. To be fair, a friend has an 81 Phoenix V6 with the manual tranny and the GM recall fixed his problem right away. Mine had automatic with the V6 so the dealer said it wasn't covered. It's not so much the car I'm upset about as the way I was treated at the Pontiac shop. I was never bullied so much in my life. Then after that I had a power steering hose leak cause a minor fire. This Pontiac dealer couldn't get ANYTHING right, except "it will cost you". I was sick of going back and forth between "add ons" from the dealer for the repair and to the insurance company. At one point Ipicked up the car thursday night before labor day weekend and the car wouldn't start friday morning. I called and they said they would get right to it. At 5:00 pm, it was still sitting. I raised hell and they came and got it, but told me they couldn't work on it till tuesday. I was furious! Ihad just given a loaner car (a 280 Z) back to a friend and he went out of town. I would have to PAY for a rental from the dealer for his screwup! I took the rental and told the manager I'd see him in court as I left. On tuesday, the shop manager told me I'd have to pay cash for my car as he wouldn't take my check. At that point working for a corporation that buys hundreds of cars from GM came into play, I had our leasing office call their fleet manager and had him inquire as to what was the problem. The main manager called me and appologized. They still wanted me to pay for the rental but I held firm. They finally gave in after I had the rental almost a week. GM?? Never again! Of course, these are my personal opinions and may or may not reflect those of my employer. They may or may not even be representative of GM in the rest of the country. mikey at trsvax
heneghan@ihu1m.UUCP (Joe Heneghan) (07/12/85)
I have an 81' Skylark and although I've heard of others having problems, here's a summary of my experiences: 1. tires that came with the car were glass belted and unbalanced 2. delay wipers were repaired 6 times and the function eventually stopped after 1 year (this was the works in the turn signal job) 3. the rack went out after 2 months 4. fender had to be repainted as there were sanding marks (suggesting body work had been done before I bought it) 5. white stress marks on the inside door panel (after 2 times of unsuccessful paint I gave up- incompetant labor) 1. - 5. happened in the first year 6. new transmission gasket @ 50k mi. 7. general maintenance: tires brakes needed to be changed once so far in 80k mi. belts battery various bulbs panel behind rear window is zinc and the paint is flaking oil changes and lubes 2 alignments air shocks for trailering carx muffler thermostat antifreeze changes computor sensor @ 40k costed $100 In summary, a lot went wrong in the first year which was covered by warranty. After that, general maintenance was all that was necessary. I woudn't call it a great car but I would call it a good car. It has a lot of head room, can pull my sailboat, good economy with a 2.5 4 cylinder. Joe Heneghan
markv@dartvax.UUCP (Mark F. Vita) (07/13/85)
> > > > I'll post my response here. I had a 1980 Phoenix X-body car that over-all > I was pleased with. But I still think GM should buy every one of those > deathtraps back from their owners!!!! The car was smooth, comfortable, > fairly responsive, and handled reasonably well, but NEVER EVER EVER try > to drive one in the rain until you are SURE you can handle the brakes. > Mine would spin around 180 degrees at 55 if I jabbed the brakes. I must > have talked to the dealer about it until I knew exactly what he would say. > "Yours isn't covered by the GM recall, sorry" I called the GM district > office and they would take my name and number and never return my call. > I suspect that if you said X-body your call was flagged and they wouldn't talk > to you. The problem was intermittent. I replaced the brake linings on the > rear and it helped some. New FAT radials all around helped some too, > but when you least expect it, even on the dry, it could get away from you > and leave you facing traffic after a spin on the freeway! I ended up taking > just over $1000 for it on trade for a new Chrysler Omni GLH Turbo. How > do you like a car depreciating from $10,000 to just over 10% of its value. > > I heard that Car and Diver knew about the problem when they reviewed the > Citation when it came out and they agreed to downplay the braking problem > after promisses from GM that it would be fixed in production. GM still > claims that they fixed the problem in cars that exhibited the symptoms, but > if your VIN number doesn't match their tables, you gotta pay a couple hundred > bucks for a part that still doesn't guarantee a fix. To be fair, a friend > has an 81 Phoenix V6 with the manual tranny and the GM recall fixed his > problem right away. Mine had automatic with the V6 so the dealer said it > wasn't covered. Hmm. How many of the X-cars have this problem, and how can I tell whether mine has had the problem solved? I've owned a 1980 Pontiac Phoenix for about 2 months, and a couple weeks ago, I made a 150-mile trip home through *extremely* torrential rain, partially on I-93 in NH/Mass, and encountered no problems whatsoever with the brakes. True, I did have the rear brake shoes replaced about a month ago, but for a totally different reason (the previous owner had driven with the parking brake engaged.) Could this be why I didn't encounter the problem? Or did the previous owner perhaps have it fixed? > mikey at trsvax -- Mark Vita Dartmouth College USENET: {decvax,cornell,linus,astrovax}!dartvax!markv ARPA: markv%dartmouth@csnet-relay CSNET: markv@dartmouth