A Far Too Brief History Of The Pontiac Fiero
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- Опубликовано: 9 июн 2024
- The Pontiac Fiero started life not as a sporty car, but as a urban runabout. Designed with a shoestring budget, the Fiero showcased several new innovations such as their polymer panels while also having to make do with old engines and suspensions repurposed from other cars.
Despite limitations and somewhat of a bad reputation, the car was improved over the years, and once GM had gotten it at it's best performing and best looking iteration - they cancelled it.
Start 00:00
Backstory 00:32
Conceiving the Fiero 01:13
Designing the Fiero 02:13
Manufacturing Innovation 05:45
Naming the Fiero 06:40
Releasing the Fiero 07:13
Pontiac Mera 09:20
Last Year 09:40
Problems 10:32
What could have been 12:07
Conclusion 12:55
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The Fiero's failure can be summed up in one word: Corvette! GM was so obsessed with the Corvette being their flagship car that they wouldn't allow any other vehicle to compete with it. The Fiero would have been better if they did it right the first time.
Everyone always pontificates on the negatives but having owned a few Fieros I can tell you even under powered they were fun as heck. They handle on rails, looked great and were ahead of their time.
I had one as well, totally agree.
One of my favorite cars
You’re absolutely correct. As I would tell my friends, “…it’s not a 1/4 mile terror by no means, but it’s a blast in the curves…”. After a ride they would all agree. When I was in High School, I wanted one, after riding in my friends brand new 84 SE. But, my dad, after reading all the negative reviews, was absolutely against it. Several years later, on a whim, I seen an 84 at a local car dealer, and bought it. Dad told me, “You’ve just made a poor financial decision!” I talked him into a ride, and lo and behold, he loved it! And soon he became an enthusiast. I still have that 84, and several others (including his), and unfortunately right after his passing, I found, by accident, HIS dream Fiero, a very low mileage, one owner 86 Black GT Fastback, that I bought immediately. I miss him and wish he could’ve driven it. But, I know he’s with me in the garage or Passenger Seat, when driving or washing it.
I have a yellow 88 GT V6/5 spd.
By far and away the best car I've ever owned and I've owned a lot.
This is definitely one of my childhood favorites. I would love to do a resto-mod Fiero w/ t-tops
Especially with a Ls4 and a 6 spd f40.
Believe me, you wouldn't like T-tops. It leaks & feels like a greenhouse inside. No Thanks!
@@vice4134 Oh how I remember 80’s GM seals. I had an 87 Z24 w/ the removable sunroof. I can still remember that awkward smell 🤣
i love how Pontiac and Toyota in 1983 realized they had basically designed very simmilar cars by sheer luck when in 1984 the MR2 AW11 came out
My dad had an 87 GT. He tells me it had all sorts of issues, several recalls, broken power windows, broken AC, several other problems, and this was in the 90s when it was under a decade old. But it was his second favorite car of all time (of like 25 cars), number 1 being his current car, a Dodge Challenger
yup, my 1st car was a red 84 SE( in '96), used it also for my 1st engine rebuild/swap. went on to have 3 more after that, and still now today i have my latest, a Met Blue '87 GT 5-sp, with a 3400 in it. that's more like the engine they SHOULD have come with! boy is it fun to drive!
My first car back in the late 90's was a 1988 5 speed with the iron duke. Not the fastest thing by any stretch, but it got the looks. Many fond memories with that car.
I'd really like to get another... an 87 or 88 GT fastback with the 5 speed would be perfect. Maybe one day. Problem seems to be finding a clean example, so many were trashed or modified beyond recognition.
the 1990 prototype wasnt influenced by firebird, the designer himself in his own book said they used the '90 to design the forth gen canadian firebird and camaro
I love my 88 nb. Even more when she runs.
I think GM's lack of appetite really hurt this car. I agree with the penny wise comment for sure because like so many GM vehicles the potential was there, yet it's delivery is less than steller. Yet I think the use of the Iron Duke was simple. It was cheap and fairly reliable. While the V6 was simply a no brainer. The quad four would have definitely made this car a better car all around. In it's own merit the quad four wasn't a bad engine at all. It's definitely not my favorite by far but for GM it was decent. Many owners let the oil get too low and that damaged them quick. The quad four was very intolerant to dirty or worse low oil conditions. The iron duke had a tendency to go sideways if ran low as well. But it was already a slow revving, low output engine that ran hot. I couldn't imagine only a 3 quart oil pan.. it would definitely need an external oil cooler. But GM was dead scared of losing Corvette sales that it held back a lot of potential on a lot of cars. Meanwhile the Corvette is a Corvette, I think it was a little foolish. Most Corvette buyers buy a Corvette for what it is. It's not like they're going to change their minds and buy another GM vehicle instead, Corvette buyers are special in that regard. I have an uncle like that. He's owned Corvettes since the 80's and owns a few. He's not buying anything else. No other slick GM car is competition with that of a Corvette with Corvette buyers.
Your uncle was very smart. He understood that the Corvette is its own vehicle. GM, on the other hand, was obsessed with keeping the Corvette at the top. They wouldn't allow any other GM product to be better than the Corvette(or at least be competitive).
The car was doomed from the start. The Iron Duke was just too slow for a car that looked as fast as this. It still needed to be quick not necessarily fast in order to satisfy the buyers. That is clearly seen in the steady decline in sales. The V6 should have been the only option until the Quadfour was available. I thinking how much better it would be with even the 1.8 DOHC that Mazda put in my 93 Protege and that five speed transmission attached to it. Through the suspension in while you're at it . Dang to bad Mazda didn't give it a shot. But then again the Protege had four doors and a nice sized boot (trunk).
In high school, I built a v8 version. But ran out of money and time getting it only about 80% complete
Had a friend who put a 350 in it, went pretty good then.
I built a Monogram 85 Fiero GT model kit back in June.. Came out pretty nice I think...
My first car was a Pontiac Phoenix (X-Body) with an Iron Duke.........I'd likely still be driving it today if it wasn't for the underbody rusting so badly.
I can only dream of how a 2.0 supercharged ecotec mated to an f40 would have made this machine perform . Even better with a UEL header ...and LSD . In this modern era , even the addition of some electric front wheels would be tolerable. Add in some miller-cycle and 50-60mpg would be attainable even with good performance.
The 88 suspension should have the original suspension from the start, and really the Olds Quad 4 should have been the base engine, it just wasn't available for another 4 years.
There's quite a few 'should have's' about the Fiero if GM had just invested in it.
I had the 85 2m4se with sunroof. The seating position was not sporty. You kinda sat UP with your feet straight into the firewall- as uncomfortable as that sounds. And the iron duke was slooooow. I remember the disk brakes wondering what the point was in this pokey little car. It DID have curb appeal and it was svelte compared to the cars at the time, the big Caprice, etc.
Well here was the problem - the car used too many heavy and cheap components. Should've used Opel suspension, Opel inline-4 engine, Isuzu dashboard, etc.
OMG, did you say love ....lol !
You know what would be kickass? Electric Fiero…
I built one in 2011. The Fiero is a good platform for conversion. A shop in Denver just built one with tesla runing gear and batterys.
Cool!@@MartinWibert
An electric Fiero might be faster than the Corvette. Chevrolet won't stand for that.
It was a joke never sparked interest in me but I am a big guy 6’5” 250 so that ruled out a lot of other cars made me a truck guy when the Auto companies quit producing true full size cars
As Ford found with the Pinto, nobody wants to buy any car which has any reputation of catching on fire, whether the reputation is deserved or not. And as Chevy found with the Vega, nobody wants to buy a car where the engine will need replacement before half the warranty time is up. What the "On-Fire-O" needed but didn't get was an immediate re-vamp that unquestionably solved it's known problems. It was 88 when that rolled around and by then it was too little too late to save the car.
And yet it wasn't exactly a bad car- the design was above and beyond innovative including how they included changes at the factory which were as far ahead of the times as the plastic body panels were. The mid-engine layout made sports-car enthusiasts giddy with how well it handled, especially compared to any other American car. The styling hit the bullseye for it's time. It was and is still a head-turner of a car as well as an icon of how screwed up the US car industry was and still is, always managing to snatch defeat straight out of the jaws of victory somehow, more often than not the result of the "bean-counter management'" so many of our once-great industries have followed head-long into the abyss of death, never seeing the suicide they're committing because they're only looking at today's numbers as if nothing else matters.
There's still nothing quite like the Fiero though there should be.It would be a huge hit if it was done right.
Here is an actual Pontiac Fiero that mechanic Scotty Kilmer reviewed: ruclips.net/video/9JgSCpdjl1k/видео.html
That would have been awsome with a HP Quad4!
Agreed.
A GM care with reliability issues? What are the odds?
I want to like American cars, I really do but just can't
pretty good but you are off on a couple of ur facts, fiero wasnt named in the way you described--oh well
I never seen any Men drive these when ever I seen these it was always Women that drove these cars and the Buick Reattas and Mercury LN7s & Ford EXPs
Pontiac did not get permission to design the car to look like a Ferrari, so Ferrari sued
Put an ht 4.1 v8. 😰😊
That's BULL!!! Fiero outsold both MR2 and Corvette for ALL five years and made a profit for all FIVE years as well. The Corvette whined about Fiero to GM and GM told Pontiac to make sure that Fiero doesn't go faster than Corvette.
On the track in 1986, Corvette people were pissed off that Fiero had V8 and V6 with turbo installed and kicked Vette's a55. So, they reported to GM and GM cut Fiero in 1988 on purpose, not because of some financial analysis. That's BS! They didn't want to look bad so they used accounting dept to come up with something so they can cancel the Fiero program without looking bad. It's all BS!!!
The Fiero never had a V8 or even a turbo V6. If we could have gotten the 1990 version, it could have been available with the Quad 4 engine(160-190hp), 3.1 liter V6(140-160hp), 3.1 liter turbo V6(205hp), or even the 3.4 liter dohc 24v V6(210-215hp). What a colossal waste! The Fiero could have been something special and GM botched it just to satisfy the Corvette faithful.
@@johnnymason2460 WRONG!
They did have prototypes in V6 with Turbo in 1985 and they do have this prototype at the museum, along with V8 and it was tested on the GM track.
However, GM made it clear to Pontiac that Fiero cannot go faster than corvette. That's why Pontiac made the engine bay big enough to fit in a V8 for future use.
@@vice4134 Prototypes don't matter. I was referring to actual production versions. You can modify an old Fiero anyway you want now. But back then, there were no plans to offer a turbo V6 or a V8 in production Fieros. I'm sure the prototypes exist. However, that's all they are: prototypes.
@@johnnymason2460
It does matter because it proves that they are able to build a Fiero with a powerful engine to beat corvette on the track and Chevy people screamed their heads off.
Pontiac wanted to offer V6 with turbo and V8 as well, but GM is blocking them from reaching their goals. Those prototypes are made by Pontiac and it shows what they are able to do over 38 years ago. Alright? Jeez! That's the point I'm making here. You are going way off about production versions.
I really didn't like it at the time
The Corsica was total garbage 🗑, had one, always at dealership, leaks, etc.
I would have bought the mr2 instead
Right of the bat, you distinguish yourself as bland and generic in your approach. Only less than 300 officially reported fires are on record for the entire 5 year production run. ARGGh, you only got it half right. Try BEING a Pontiac employee, who has owned 4 of these, all of them 88 improved models, having been reliable, even dependable.
Well You're making one serious mistake - taking the 88 car as an example. Early Fieros were the problem.