The Phoenix was a compact car offered by Pontiac between 1977 to 1984. For the first three years, it was a rear-wheel-drive variant of the Chevy Nova. When the Nova was retired in 1980 in favor of the front-wheel-drive Citation, Pontiac and the Phoenix followed suit. This 1980 hatchback has been off the road since 2009 and runs, but it needs brake work. Located in Millerton, Pennsylvania, examples like this are seldom-seen today and this one is available as cheap wheels for $1,900 here on Facebook Marketplace. Thanks for the tip, Dennis House!
Pontiac’s choice of moniker for these cars was interesting – to say the least – since they were named for the mythological Phoenix, which would die in a self-inflicted fire and then be reborn from the ashes. That turned out to be a bit of an irony with these X-platform cars as their reputation would suffer due to poor workmanship, two major recalls, and a dangerous tendency for the cars to lock the rear wheels upon braking. The Grand Am on the N-body would replace the Phoenix in 1985, so it was a relatively short run for the second-generation vehicle.
After sitting in an exposed outdoor structure for 13 years, it looks as though this one-owner Phoenix was pulled out and given a bath. So, we get several photos of the exterior, but none of the interior. Other than some rust on the hatch lid, the body seems to be in decent shape and the silver paint may buff out. Why the car was parked after 70,000 miles isn’t known, but it might be a daily driver with new brakes and a replenishment of all the fluids and rubber pieces.
We’re not sure what engine sits under the hood. If the 2.5-liter “Iron Duke” 4-cylinder, then that’s a good powerplant. A 2.8-liter V6 was available as an option. Regardless, the transmission of choice for this Pontiac was a 4-speed manual, which we assume has held up. I owned one of these X-platform cars in the early 1980s. I bought a Citation, took it home, bathed it, water poured into the floorboards, and I returned it the next day to get my old car back.
Ummm, nope.
I wouldn’t have wanted it new, never mind it’s near scrap status now.
I had an 82 Phoenix, black on black with the 2.8L. Huge hatchback space. Always ran, got me everywhere. Only problem was the upper engine mount dog bone wore out quickly, but it was cheap, two bolts and 5 min to replace, no biggie.
Always liked the Pontiac versions of the GM platforms and the slotted taillights looked good on here.
Replaced it with a 90 Lumina Euro eventually, another good rental car reliable vehicle.
Tim
Sep 6, 2022 at 4:50pm
Wha cha mean nope. I’m surprised this piece of junk is still around. This GM’s answer to K-carz.
I had a 81 Pontiac Phoenix and had to replace the transmission cover seal about once a year. I was always under it tightening the bolts and adding transmission fluid to it.
It was to replace an AMC Sportabout. I should have kept the AMC
It wasn’t the answer to the K car. The K car came out over a year after these. It was the other way around.
They are similar though in that they provided a platform that was well used by their respective companies for years. The subsequent FWD 1982-96 A-bodies were built on this same chassis and were highly successful and did not have any notable problems. And of course the K car was used to build pretty much every Chrysler product from 1981 well into the ’90s.
I stand corrected, thank you.
I purchased one of those in about 1990 from a abandoned car auction for $100 bucks it ran and drove but when driving it made a weird noise like someone was slapping the inside of the transmission with a chain, so I changed the oil in the transmission and sold it $950 in the little nickel paper
I had a Citation given to me by a friend when I was bucks down. New tires, radiator and tune up done 1500 miles prior to my ownership. I drove it in nasty Ohio for four years with zero issues, just maintenance. I passed it to the next guy when I was able to get a newer vehicle. My parents always gave their older cars to someone in need when they bought a new one so I figured I’d keep the tradition going and have for 20 years.
I traded a 1980 Chevy Citation (basically the same car) in on a 1986 Mustang GT in 1988. The Citation was actually a pretty good car but I would love to have that 86 Mustang GT back.
My aunt and uncle had a red two door Phoenix in 1980 as a new car. That was before I knew the slightest thing about cars. I remember riding in it a handful of times and it having a nice red cloth or velour interior. I don’t know which engine it had in it. I don’t think they had it long. But with a few exceptions my uncle never kept cars very long. It looked sporty compared to the four door versions.
They sold about 1.4 million X cars in 1980. This was the 3rd most popular (178,300), behind the Citation (810,000) and Skylark (265,700). The Omega was the least popular but still strong (134,000).
If 1,400 between all four are left today, I would be stunned. What an amazing fall from grace. These were so popular back in the day, it’s hard for people now to even understand it. But their sales fell off very fast after 1981, due to multiple and very well publicized defects. But for a shining moment, it was the biggest triumph of the US auto industry history.
Nice get around car if someone pushes a shopping cart into it who cares
when it dies just take the plates and leave it there
Looks like the iron duke to me…
A took a new one out from a dealer in 1980. I rather liked it. By modern standards its pretty bad, but in those days, it was a breath of fresh air. We need to judge these by the time they came from, not like they were new today. I just used my 800 mile, 2 month old, 2022 Tacoma to haul a heavy trailer up and down some steep bluffs today. Did it in air conditioned comfort while listening to satellite radio. My 1978 Dodge pick up sure wasn’t that nice, but in that year I drove that with a smile too.
My friend’s dad bought him a brand new 1980 Citation to drive to college. An X-11. Nice looking, and none of us had a new car at 18. One day after he bought it, I was riding in the back seat and opened the rear flip out window, which promptly fell off the car. That great GM feeling
Ah yes, 1980. “GM” definitely earned its reputation as “Garbage Motors” with the X car. So many people were fooled and bought one. I wonder how many of those people never bought a GM vehicle again? (My “guess” is a good chunk. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice…)
I own a 1980 Buick Skylark X Car, and mine is actually a very good car. Good engineering and packaging as it has a lot of room inside relative to the outer dimensions. This example, as does mine, houses the 2.5L Iron Duke. Mine runs great. Honestly it’s the fastest starting engine I’ve ever owned. Literally I tap the key and it runs. Ride and handling is good too, by 1980 standards. The interior is very comfortable and the seats are great. Material quality on the inside is also quite good, especially compared to my Hondas and Toyotas of late 70s early 80s vintage.
Now the bad: The engine, while reliable is extremely coarse and crude and despite running well, doesn’t inspire confidence. The body structure itself you can see is not assembled all that well with seams and improperly completed stampings visible.
They were a great idea, 80% engineered very well, but it was that last 20% and last bit of unspent effort that GM didn’t do that prevented them from being the good cars they could have been. Such a shame. This is evidenced by the fact that the later-arriving A body cars, which used similar floor pans and chassis bits were significantly better and that chassis was used for a long time, selling millions of cars. GM just had too many makes and models at the time to have enough cash to fully engineer and market all of them, all while trying to simultaneously increase MPG, safety, and emissions
My mom bought a first year 1980 Buick Skylark. 2.8 auto. Actually was a very good dependable car. Felt surprisingly quick. Fit in our 1960’s small garage with ease compared to the 1973 Caprice.
It seems like these were really hit-or-miss. A friend of mine had a 1980 Citation whose steering had a bizarre disconnected feeling. It was scary to drive, near terrifying at highway speeds.
But then I had a 1980 Cite for a while when I lived in the city going to college. It was a great little car, and felt peppy even with the Iron Duke, and was very practical. It even helped me move once.
Those who got good ones will remember them fondly. But very few people preserved them. They were just cars people used up.
That “bizarre disconnected feeling” to the steering may have had something to do with the powertrain subframe (including the lower front suspension arms) being mounted to the unibody with rubber bushings, isolating NVH but also allowing the steering geometry to change with engine movement and suspension travel, especially as those bushings got soft or disintegrated with age.
GM is known to have purchased several Lancia Beta sedans for engineering study and test mules in the X-car development program, eventually transplanting the X-car powertrains into the Beta for testing. It’s obvious they just copied the Beta in many regards — for good reason, as the Beta was superbly engineered and the bellwether of nearly all transverse FWD platforms to come after it industry-wide — but they should have left well enough alone when it came to “improving” on the designs of Lancia engineers, who’d made the Beta’s subframe rigidly mounted for a reason.
That could be. I don’t know. It was the strangest feeling. I haven’t felt it before or since. It wasn’t a flexy feeling. it was more like the steering wheel wasn’t connected at all. Maybe that was a symptom? Dunno. As long as I never experience it again I am good!
Of the 4 divisions , the Phoenix was by far the ugliest of the X cars inside and out ,and it seems like 99% of the Pontiacs were the ugly 4 door liftback style.
These did have problems to be sure, and I dont think they will ever be something someone would want ( except maybe a Citation x-11) .These were throw away cars and not meant to be saved, and as soon as they got tired and had some issues, they were junked. I crushed hundreds of X cars and never thought twice about it. The best thing for this is probably a compact demo derby – they may have been junk, but structurally they were built tough !
It has the Iron Duke 4 cylinder.
Sometimes referred to as the Iron Puke.
I worked in a Pontiac dealership parts department when these monstrosities hit the showroom floors. Most customers regretted having bought them, but with GM’s slipshod engineering and quality control, plus the numerous recalls, the parts personnel had a steady source of income.
My very first ride was a then 8 year old Omega. Whopping 45k on the clock. Paid $800 for it, because no one wanted it at $1200 for the 5 months it was for sale. Started everytime, but went through CV shafts, every suspension component and miscellaneous trim parts on a monthly basis. Leaky valve cover, assorted knocks and cracking sounds here and there….. but, again, it started everytime! Sometimes it just didn’t move. Lol. Still miss it…. That little pos
The father of my sisters best friend in high school had to go on a waiting list in 1980 to be able to pay sticker price for a fully loaded 4 door Citation with the 4 cylinder engine. I may be wrong, but I seem to remember the price being well over 8 thousand dollars, which wasn’t chump change in 1980. Remember, this was the aftermath of the Iranian revolution, gas prices were high, and seemingly everyone who wanted one of these cars wanted the 4, not the 6. He was a quiet, meek man, but his wife was loud, pushy, domineering, and was able to roll over him on pretty much everything in their marriage. Not this time, though. He stood his ground and insisted on getting that car. She was FURIOUS, especially with the fact that he was paying sticker price, since she was a person who believed in bargaining for virtually EVERYTHING, and was not shy about voicing her displeasure to anyone who made the mistake of asking her when their new Citation was arriving. She had her eye on a low mileage 77 2 door Marquis Brougham that was owned by the school secretary at the elementary school a couple of blocks away from their house, where she worked as a teacher’s aide. The secretary, a proverbial little old lady with a beehive hairdo, was talking about getting another car, and this guy’s wife smelled a bargain in the offing. Talk about being on opposite ends of the spectrum on a new car purchase!
I must admit, that Citation looked attractive when it finally arrived, in light metallic blue with chrome wheels, and the deluxe interior. But I’m sure he lived to regret making this the one issue where he drew a line in the sand. He had a lot of trouble with the car, and somewhere around 1982 it was totaled in an accident during a rainstorm, from what I remember probably due to the rear brakes locking up, as the Xcars were prone to do.
Needless to say, his wife NEVER let him live that purchase down…
X-body are junkpiles. GarbageMotors policy “one size fits all”
caused finally that they made 3 different EGR-valve enclose-
ments for the same engine and 2 different auto trans axle ratios.
1980 had the steering column shifter and a bench seat, from
1981 they had bucket seats and a wannabe center console
with floor shifter. The follower A-body did much better in the
competition. After 12 years they where rusted through and we
crushed dozens of them. Today, cars that nobody wants.
The R4 a/c compressor was used in the full model line-up, a
leaking crap. Broken clutches and bearings where common.
Unequal length drive axle shafts, yes, and leaking auto
transmissions.
Back then i worked in a GM ODC – means Uberseas Distri-
bution Corp. – so we had all brands in our showroom
together to compare.
My boss always asked me if i want to trade my Skylark to a
Senator or Ascona GSi – something who performed much
better and with low mpg compared to the faulty X-crap. Today
he had been right as a Ascona GSi or a 400 is much more
worth. After that i left Garbage Motors to work with Mercedes.
If I recall correctly, the X cars had so many issues that by the 1982 model year, Chevrolet tried damage control by listing all of the “improvements” to the Citation. So many improvements that Chevrolet renamed it the Citation II…Unfortunately the reputation of the X body cars was already horrible. My Mom’s friend bought a brand new 1981 Citation 4 door hatchback in tan metallic. Car was already rusting by 1983! Needless to say she was disappointed in her purchase and has never bought a GM car since. I was and always will be a Chevy guy, and I actually liked the looks of the Citation X-11 coupe, but these cars really are not good. Surprised this Pontiac is still around.
Pontiac went from building those beautiful 60s and 70s cruisers, not to mention the Goat, all occasionally featured here, to this.
I own a 1980 citation x11 4 speed. Low miles, drive almost daily in 2022. Ice cold air, tilt wheel cruise 85 mph on jersey turnpike no problem, original paint no rust at all. Peppy v6. Ok I’m gonna say it. I sold my 81 accord to buy this, and like it much better Loved the Honda, but just like the American feel of the citation.. Btw much more problems with Honda. Also owned a 1984 celebrity trouble free for 11 years GM used the X car set-up for almost 30 years
Another of the many forgettable Detroit heaps of the 1970’s and 1980’s. Allowing the japanese to gain a massive foothold in American market.
I had the oldsmobile omega and for a small front wheel drive car it rode alot like a big rwd. Quiet good ride and could steer it with a pinky , virtually no torque steer . I don’t know if they had more powerful power steering pumps but that’s what I remember most about it. Most fwd’s needed a firm grip on the wheel ..This generation still had a little 70s luxury in them compared to the next batch of Cavaliers and corsicas
The Phoenix and Crosley sound interesting. Might be interested under certain conditions. I have for a long time looked for a 1962 Plymouth Valiant (2 dr,, “3 on the tree” and no trunk “fake spare tire bump”) and 1969 Dodge Dart hardtop (no “b” pillar; wide open when windows down like a convertible with a solid roof, 2 dr., automatic, black “vinyl” top). No luck on either. Valiant – first car; Dart – had when dating wife.