Chevrolet Citation

The Chevrolet Citation was a compact car sold by the Chevrolet brand of American automaker General Motors for model years 1980-1985. The Citation and its X-body siblings were among GM's first front wheel drive compact cars, following the trend of front drive compacts such as the Honda Accord and Volkswagen Dasher. 1,642,587 were produced. In anticipating consumer demand for smaller cars, GM switched from V8 engines to smaller, more economical V6 and 4-cylinder engines. The X-body cars were some 800 lb lighter than the rear-drive compacts they replaced. The Citation was Motor Trend... magazine's Car of the Year for 1980, a decision later criticized by the staff of Car and Driver in 2009, citing that the poor build quality and mechanical reliability were not deserving of such an award in hindsight. 1980 model sales were brisk and the production lines were unable to keep up with the demand, causing significant delays in delivery to customers; some had to wait nine months to receive their vehicle. The Citation was also Chevrolet's first front-wheel drive car.
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