“The plastic was junk,” he said frankly. “It would break down from sunlight and turn chalky white and then disintegrate.” The car’s pop-up sunroof, an aftermarket accessory, is a particular sore point.

“I hate it,” Mr. Spiegel said. “But I think it’s the only reason the headliner didn’t fall in. It’s held up by the sunroof frame.”

He turned to the positive, praising the car’s roomy cabin, cavernous trunk and excellent visibility. And his car came with the original components of the X-11 performance upgrade package. The 14-inch alloy wheels, unique to the X-11, have the Citation name cast into them, a surprising detail given the car’s frugal character. The hood, made of fiberglass, is a variation on the so-called cowl induction design that was a highlight of the carmaker’s muscle cars in the late 1960s and early 1970s. An inlet at the rear of the raised center section feeds cool air to the carburetor, ostensibly to increase power.

The “High Output V6” badges on the hood proclaim the centerpiece of the X-11 option package — a 2.8-liter V6 engine that produced 135 horsepower (the Corvette’s V8 engine made 190 that year) instead of the standard V6’s 110. Contemporary magazine reviews measured the X-11’s acceleration as nearly equal to the Datsun 280 ZX, a sports car costing thousands of dollars more.

Mr. Spiegel is fond of his car’s 4-speed manual transmission. “I wouldn’t have bought one with the automatic,” he said. “It’s pretty quick with the 4-speed. It’s very light, about 2,700 pounds.”

His favorite aspect is the car’s styling.

“I like the boxy look, especially the front end,” he said. “It’s totally different from early 1970s cars and totally different than the later 1980s. Ford went to its aero look soon after, so the Citation looked old very quickly. But it’s so period. I like it a lot.”

The color is a negative, though.

“The beige kills me, and it’s not even correct, it’s a more fleshy tone,” he said about a repaint the previous owner had done. “These cars all have the wrong decals if they’re repainted. I had one of my sign vendors recreate the original decal in vinyl,” he added, pointing to the large X-11 emblem on the door.