The Chevrolet Citation was a compact car

Compact car

A compact car , or small family car , is a classification of cars which are larger than a supermini but smaller than or equal to a mid-size car...

 sold by the Chevrolet

Chevrolet

Chevrolet , also known as Chevy , is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company . Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in 1918...

 brand of American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 automaker General Motors

General Motors

General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...

 (GM) for model year

Model year

The model year of a product is a number used worldwide, but with a high level of prominence in North America, to describe approximately when a product was produced, and indicates the coinciding base specification of that product....

s 1980-1985. The Citation (originally to be named the "Condor") and its X-body

GM X platform

There have been two X-body automobile platforms from General Motors. All X-bodies were small entry-level models.-Rear wheel drive:The rear-wheel drive X-body underpinned the Chevrolet Nova and similar cars of the late 1960s and 1970s. It was also the basis for the Cadillac Seville's K platform...

 siblings (Buick Skylark

Buick Skylark

The Buick Skylark was a passenger car produced by the Buick division of General Motors. The model was made in six production runs. In each run, the car design varied dramatically due to changing technology and tastes, as well as new standards implemented over the years.-1953–1954:Introduced to mark...

, Oldsmobile Omega

Oldsmobile Omega

The Omega was one of 2 more X-body Chevrolet Nova clones introduced in 1973 . Naturally it shared the Nova's body and many of its mechanicals, but it had its own unique nose and tail, and, being an Oldsmobile, it had a little fancier trim than the Nova...

, and Pontiac Phoenix

Pontiac Phoenix

In 1980, the Phoenix was downsized and moved to front wheel drive, and was available as 2-door coupe or a 5-door hatchback. The base, LJ, and SJ models were still available for this generation...

) were among GM's first front wheel drive compact cars, following the trend of front drive compacts such as the Honda Accord

Honda Accord

The Honda Accord is a series of compact, mid-size and full-size automobiles manufactured by Honda since 1976, and sold in a majority of automotive markets throughout the world....

 and Volkswagen Dasher. 1,642,587 were produced.
In anticipating consumer demand for smaller cars, GM switched from V8 engine

V8 engine

A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft....

s to smaller, more economical V6 and 4-cylinder

Straight-4

The inline-four engine or straight-four engine is an internal combustion engine with all four cylinders mounted in a straight line, or plane along the crankcase. The single bank of cylinders may be oriented in either a vertical or an inclined plane with all the pistons driving a common crankshaft....

 engines.