Safety Brake

GM is sued over its X-cars

When they were introduced in April 1979, General Motors' X-model autos made a huge hit with buyers. By the end of the first model year, 1.1 million of the economical front-wheel-drive cars were sold under the names Chevrolet Citation, Pontiac Phoenix, Oldsmobile Omega and Buick Skylark. The X-cars, however, turned out to be less a salesman's dream than a mechanic's nightmare. Since they initially appeared in showrooms, they have been subjected to ten recalls, involving 967,603 vehicles (some were recalled more than once) for defects ranging from...