Faults:

Major problem: Transmission went out.

Power door locks failed.

Steering was whacked out, the wheel would turn fine, but when you get it so far turned, the power assist would be gone, then it would come back. I heard it was a rack problem, and it would cost $500 to fix.

Cooling fan was non-operative. Would overheat if not moving for too long.

The mass airflow sensor was bad, so when the computer figured that out, the check engine light would light up, and the car would go into limp mode and have less power and less fuel economy.

General Comments:

I love this car, I want to fix it, but it will be expensive. Those 440-T4 automatic transaxles are expensive to fix.

The High Output V-6 would spin the tires whenever I wanted it to. If I was at a stoplight, and some guy next to me was in his V-8 Camaro or Mustang, I would race him and win up to the speed limit because this engine would race up to the redline with no hesitation.

Now for the High Output explanation: The engine was an engine that was designed for SCCA racing in the Citation X-11, but soon went to other cars (notably, Camaros for economy, and Celebrity Eurosport, 6000 STE, Ciera GT, Century T-Type, and Fieros for speed). It was originally (1980-1984) a carburated engine with the actual HO designation. In 1985 (the last year) General Motors added fuel injection and dropped the HO off it, but it still had the High Output crankshaft, camshaft, pistons, etc. In 1986, GM put fuel injection in the normal V-6, and dropped the HO V-6. The Fuel Injected HO V-6 has more horsepower (150 vs. 130), but has less torque (165 lb/ft vs. 170 lb/ft).

This car was comfortable with the vinyl upholstery (the vinyl was stitched like leather, so it looked/felt like leather, but didn't wear :) like leather)

With the split rear seatbacks down, this car would hold an entire couch AND the tailgate could still be closed!!!

This car could cruise down the highway at nearly idle speed (the muffler was rusted out, so you could hear the rumpty-rump of the HO) when doing 90 MPH.

Faults:

The tranny fluid was a little low when I got it - I had it flushed since the fluid in there appeared old.

I replaced the distributor cap, wires and plugs since they looked old (and yeah, they *were*-- plugs and distributor cap metal were almost worn to nothing 8-).

Noteably, even before I changed those the car gave me no trouble, and it hasn't acted up since either..

General Comments:

My friend used to have one.. they're especially good in the winter; the weight distribution is excellent, and it's front wheel drive. It also has good throttle response, so you can vary the amount of throttle easily to limit wheel spin on slippery surfaces (on the Shadow, which was a 2.5L, and on a 3.0L Plymouth Acclaim I had before that, I ended up leaving them in 1st gear if I was driving around in slippery snow, since otherwise the wheels would break loose *really* easily - just touching the throttle would break them loose.)

I remember my friend commenting that the few times it dropped below about -20 (F), he'd have to wait about 15 or 30 seconds between the time he shifted the transmission shifter and when it *really* shifted.. (it'd be normal after a minute or two of driving). Maybe it was due for new fluid 8-). Since it's fuel injected, it started right up though.

Also, on his, the previous owners didn't know the oil even existed, so it was never changed. He got it at 100,000 miles. After about 9 months of changing the oil frequently, the oil quit sludging up. After all that, the engine didn't consume any oil. He drove it for probably 50,000 miles before he sold it to someone else..