The 1980 Pontiac Phoenix - Dealer Film (GM125)

The newly designed 1980 Pontiac Phoenix, a new kind of car for the 80's. Available in both coupe and hatchback on the new X-body. Ever see a Phoenix LJ?
Digitized from laserdisc GM125A; audio has been enhanced.

[@vollste]

Wow, that red ‘80 Phoenix…I still remember the day my Dad drove home with a brand new one. I ended up driving it a lot in HS.

[@norbertzimpfer7548]

I had a 2 tone black/silver 4 door LJ that I bought brand new in Frankfurt/Germany and kept for 6 years. Loved that car. Drove it all over Western Europe and the UK and even behind the iron curtain (GDR, Yugoslavia and Hungary). Sold it in 1986 in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

Thank you Cory for uploading all of these films! It's rather hilarious that GM touts the generous and long long list of standard features this car has. AM Radio, Freedom Battery, compact spare tire and radial tires. Wow! Surprised they didn't mentioned doors, windows, wheels, seats on the list too!

[@JCNDCIII]

lol right?

[@75aces97]

It had doors, wheels, seats, too! And mirrors! And hubcaps. And a gas gauge, so you won't need a dipstick to check your ⛽

[@new2000car]

It was a stingy list of standard features compared to the Japanese competition. Trying to nickel and dime the customers along with stealing their time while the car was in the shop, who would have thought the customers would rebel?

[@UraniumBullets]

Please don't act like every non-luxury car manufacturer didn't do the exact same thing in 1979.

[@spod2998]

You forgot the most important standard feature: Rear Floor Mats!

[@landyachtfan79]

The Phoenix, as well as the other X-cars, will always be one of those car lines that REALLY frustrates me. They had all of the ingredients to be the best cars ever built, & that is exactly what they could & should have been. Ultimately, I feel that the X-cars' undoing was not really the cars THEMSELVES, but the company who built them, late-'70's/early '80's GM. As was the case with Ford & Chrysler, they became too focused on beating the European & Japanese competition at their own game & not focused ENOUGH on providing the American car-buying public with viable alternatives to the imports. As a result, quality & reliability were allowed to fall by the wayside.

[@75aces97]

That became GM's MO for a while, didn't it? Spend tons of money, time, and talent, ostensibly to build the car that will rewrite the rules of the market segment, only to hold out on what customers really want, and deliver a mediocre (or worse) car. It felt like they went for plausible deniability than excellence. I.e., "You can't fault us for failing. I mean look what all we tried to bring you." Now that I think of it, they didn't even make the valiant effort of matching the target competition and one-upping them with options the other guys couldn't offer, like standard radio/tape deck, standard a/c, more powerful engines, something.

[@paulparoma]

That's all true, but "the best cars ever built" is a bit too ambitious a statement. They could have been very good midsize cars and possibly best in class, but ended up being pretty terrible.

[@faschuck]

I hear exactly what you’re saying and can’t help but concur 100%. Say what you will about AMC cars (ugly, old, yada-yada-yada), but you know what? They were ALWAYS built solidly and were super-reliable. My Dad had a rootbeer brown 1972 Gremlin that he and Mom (RIP both) had bought brand-new in Pittsburgh, and they owned it for 10 nearly trouble-free years even after they moved us down to Morgantown, WV. Man, do I miss our old Gremmy…

[@saxongreen78]

When you consider that the beleaguered, miserly British Motor Corporation _pioneered_ this format in the Austin 1800 in 1964, producing a car that was quite adequate which didn't lock its brakes or explode into shrapnel and generally met expectations, GM should have been SHOT for releasing this!

[@V8Power5300]

I drove a 1980 Olds Omega for a few months last year. It actually drove pretty good, was pretty quick (V6, manual trans) and was overall a decent car.

[@robertwright5487]

I owned a used 1980 Pontiac Phoenix. I really can't complain about the car. Did everything well till the day it was rear ended and totalled. It held a lot. I just got back from Germany with the Phoenix. Had to go to El Paso to pick up wife and kids so I took my parents wagon from Missouri to Texas along with luggage. My parents were going to switch cars for the drive from Missouri to North Carolina our new home. They felt that the wagon would hold more. Long story the Phoenix held everything the wagon did plus. Put a set of air shocks to level it out and presto! Parents were shocked to see that little car swallow everything up. Although no a very long car it was very wide and made good use of space. It held the 4 of us in comfort and the hatch held all the luggage.

[@UraniumBullets]

I own and daily drive a 1980 Pontiac Phoenix. These are actually fantastic little cars when you actually take care of them.

[@Doctor_Robert]

Surely you should rename yourself "Golden Phoenix?"

[@sasz2107]

I will wholeheartedly agree. I have had several X cars and I have found they were perfectly good cars. I wasn't dissatisfied.

[@daviatorcustoms3168]

Back in the mid 80s, a coworker had an SJ 2 door that was passed down to her from her mom as her first car. That car had a great appearance, lots of interior room, was very comfy and although no sports car, had a little pep to get up and go when it needed to. Unfortunately, being about 6 years old and having almost 60,000 miles on it at the time, it started developing serious and expensive issues, as most mid size and small GM cars did of that vintage. She dumped it quickly and used the money she sold it for to put a down payment on a 2 year old Nissan Maxima.

[@saxongreen78]

(Maxima would potentially still be crisp today with proper maintenence...stark contrast.)

[@matsuri626]

The red coupe with white landau roof actually looks pretty cool, in a disco-era sort of way. Speaking of which, love the music in this video!

[@nlpnt]

These are the sort of heartbreaking "almost" cars GM became infamous for. Worldbeaters on paper, but just a bit too much cost-cutting and too little development fine-tuning turned the early models into lemons, and by the time they were finally the car they should've been it was too late.

[@SpockvsMcCoy]

Gas prices, inflation, and interest rates were all soaring in 1979 when GM's X-cars were introduced. Many customers waited several months for delivery for their cars because demand was very high. For many of them it was the last American car they would ever purchase.

[@75aces97]

@@SpockvsMcCoy not just this platform. For a lot of boomers I happen to know from my parents' generation, cars built from roughly this time became their last straw with the big 3. Or at least the last one they'd buy for the next 20 years.

[@johnathanstevens8436]

..cough..VEGA..cough cough..

[@75aces97]

@@johnathanstevens8436 oh man! That one was a sore spot with my folks. Well, actually the (dis)Astre. The first new car they bought, and the last one they ever bought from the General. Between them they’d owned 2 Pontiacs before, plus family cars they’d grown up with. But they soured.

[@johnathanstevens8436]

@@75aces97 my mom had a Vega well after their prime, she just kept a case of oil in the backseat and would top it off every time she stopped someplace. I hear they eventually did solve many of the issues but the car's reputation was already trashed.

[@severinjohn]

I want the red Phoenix with the white vinyl top and wide whitewalls. Simulated wire wheel covers are a plus.

[@tablesizeproductions4360]

I miss the days when even what was considered the bad cars still had personality and charm.

[@billsmith8591]

I owned a 1980 Phoenix SJ coupe in 2 tone silver and black with rally wheels. It was a very nice looking car and had a comfortable interior of burgundy cloth bucket seats. It had a serious engine overheating issue that the dealer could never figure out. They disconnected the temperature light as a " fix " and said it would be okay. On a long distance trip pulling long hills, the engine actually did overheat very badly and stopped running. It blew the head gasket and burnt 3 valves by driving it. The dealer REFUSED to repair the engine even though they were the cause of the problem. They eventually agreed to pay 1/2 the cost to fix the car. I dumped it 4 months later as a trade in on a brand new Dodge 600 ES convertible. Other than the engine issues, I actually really liked the car.

[@JoeSmith-pu9hi]

Had a 1983. Same overheating issues. Total gutless iron duke 2.5L. Married a dodge owner and everything is good now.

[@yanktornado5121]

I like your content a lot man. Memories

[@Doctor_Robert]

I've driven two of these X-bodies; one at length. One Citation and one Phoenix. They are utterly charming to drive in 2022--very simple, very smooth. I can't imagine why everybody hated them and still hates them. My only theory is that the vast host of 'em were built poorly and the ones that are left were the few that were built on a Wednesday... because this design is not a horrific or terrifying driving experience.

[@V8Power5300]

I drove a 1980 Omega for a few months in 2021. I can confirm everything you said. Unfortunately I had a fair amount of transmission issues. It was a V6 with the 4spd. The original trans went out so I put a Fiero trans in it. That starting making a slight noise after a few months so I sold the car. Other than that I have no complaints

[@dougn2350]

I'm actually surprised there are any still running in 2022

[@Doctor_Robert]

@@dougn2350 There's a strong handful of Citations still poking around along with a smaller number of Omegas and Skylarks (I've seen one or two of each in the wild here in the west). The Phoenix is virtually extinct. My friend's daily (which I borrowed and drove 8 hours last year) is the only one I've seen in person.

[@davetenney5800]

We had one of these as a loaner car for a shop I worked at years ago. That little car was a tank...Reliable and would go anywhere.

[@93sundance]

My family had a new 80 SJ coupe. It was my second car, I wish I had it back, the manual Trans was rather weak though.

[@landyachtfan79]

2:51................."Good evening, I'm Joan Face, & welcome to On the Spot."

[@landyachtfan79]

My friend Bill Simmons had a 1984 Phoenix back in the day, & he drove me to & from the New England Aquarium in it one day for a field trip.........WHAT A POS!!!!!!

[@pl5624]

The pheonix dash is a million times better than citation.

[@saxongreen78]

How did GM manage to retain _any_ customers after the X Car debacle? The design was production ready in 1977...the significant design flaws would have been obvious even at that time...but, it was left unchanged for some 18 months on hiatus until its 1979 release. Big sales means big _burn_ - and a burn it really was (having worked for GM Warranties in Australia I have some insight into their attitude.) Unforgivable.

[@dougn2350]

1:27 ... not wearing seat belts? In that death trap? WOW

[@yamajammer76]

The most rigorous testing program ever for a new Pontiac? That’s gotta be a lie. lol

[@saxongreen78]

A huge one...they sat on the unmodified, faulty design from 1977-79 and made no modifications.

[@scrambler69-xk3kv]

Unlike today's cars where we are the test beds allowing the company to reduce staff and increasing profits.

[@kc0lif]

like a chevy citation kinda sorta.

[@Romiman1]

Welcome to GM's batch-engineering!

[@paulparoma]

@@Romiman1 *badge

[@paulparoma]

It looked much better than the Citation, but was just as crappy. Same junk, different attire.

[@tillivanilli6481]

However it´s boring FWD, cheap garbage, it´s a nice movie of the "Bad, balck days of American Automobile History", when they trashed the major of the true, good RWD Platforms what they made untill the late 70´s. (Yes there where a few remaining RWD & Body on Frame Design RWD Platforms still in produtions when these bad cars came out. But it was the Agenda to destroy the customer oriented, reliable, good American mae Automobile to destroy & also outsource all the good Automobile Platforms made untill then. And it was made & coupled to the big lie of the "Oil Crices", the "Delet of the Gold-Standard" with "Governmental REGULATIONS. And that was a high stathegic destruction of the beautyful, amazing made American Automobile back then. it was a true destruction made with strategy. And i tell you that as an guy, an Automobile Designer with history coupled to a free mind who lives at Germany/Bavaria. I rally love the American Automobile like it was made untill the late 70´s. It´s also true that that production numbers & high variaty of vehicle choics for the customer, (even customer oriented) at the Amrican Automobile/-Marked would be never arrived again in such numbers, variaty and also quality again. And whn you asking me, the last remainings or even the later upcoming "Last reintroductions" of all that was made back in 2004 by Mopar with the Dodge Magnum, Chrysler 300C & the Dodge Charger in 2006, what lasts untill today, hopefully it would be LAST. Because if they would trash the LS, the HEMI, or that particular Platform they´ll last the last, reintroduced remaintings of the great American Automobile.... And that was not only sad, it was even bader for all of us car guy and customers who really like a nic car with history built into it. I really hope and design such cars like the Chryslr LX Platform, coupled with the RWD, with the V8 Push Rod Engine in 90° angle, bcause i know what is the difference....