I owned an 88 and drove the hell out of it...Never failed to start and I never spent $$$ on anything but tires and gas...Only problem was that the front end needed additional weight added for counterbalance...I loved this car. The seats were the best:)

When GM produces a car that people like, they immediately discontinue it. i.e. Fiero, Saturn, Impala, etc.

My sister bought an '88 Fiero Formula new. Still has it. 28,000 miles.

I have been involved with the Fiero since 1980. I know the history from start to end. Some of what is told here is true but there is so much more to this than just what is presented. Yes GM did not want the car and it was canceled several times till it was approved. Pontiac hid the program at a company called Entech to hide it till they could present it as a commuter car with full intentions of doing a sports car from the start. The problem is they had to build the car at a plant that could make 250K cars a year and they had to over build and over sell the car. Lets face it how many 2 seat cars can you really sell and keep it going? While this was going on GM had the plan to put the FWD F body replacement the GM 80 platform set to move into the plant to eat up excess production. Well Ford had planned to use the Probe as the new Mustang and with good sales on the RWD they chose to keep the Fox body around. Once that happened the unpopular GM 80 was killed and the 4th Gen F body was put fourth. Once the GM 80 was killed the Fiero was a sitting duck. Yes the Corvette people were not happy as they were seeing sales drop as the C4 was aging and they need to protect ever sale they could. They wanted the Fiero dead as the 1990 was going to get a DOHC V6. While the Corvette would still have been a faster car the lower price may have taken enough sales to put them in trouble. Fiero sales even in 1988 were still really high for a two seat car at over 30K units a year. They really should have been selling even lower numbers to support sales as the Miata even sells less than 20K average per year. As I was told by John Schinella the head of Design on the Fiero Chevy sells more cars and Chevy get more say on what happens. It killed the Fiero due to plant under capacity issues. This lead to UAW issues and bad blood between Pontiac and GM. The culture was toxic and GM did more damage internally than externally. Power was not an issue as even at 140 HP the Corvette was only 185 HP at the same time and heavier. More power was on the way. The Turbo was not a 2.8 but a 2.9 all aluminum engine. It was not crazy power like today but impressive for the time. Two cars were built with it and called Porsche Eaters. They had to remove the name from the tail lamps in 1985 as the 1988 Suspension though designed by GM was tuned in the front by Porsche Engineering for turn in and feel. Many claimed it was Lotus but that was never true. The car was killed but the design lived on. The 1990 design was used for the 4th Gen F body. they used the over all shape and cues for the new car when they transformed it to the larger platform with Front engine. Note they did carry over some of the sheet molded panels too. There is a lot more but this is the bones of the story. I got much of this from people in the Fiero program and even the book Inside the Corvette by John Mc Clelland also states the same. He even said the concept of the mid engine V6 was from the GM tech center and offered to the lead Fiero engineer as a way to lower the cowl of the car. Hulki took what they offered and adapted it to his program. Odds are the Fiero would not have lived much more than 5 years anyways. The life of a 2 seat car that is not a Corvette or Miata is generally 10 years or less. The volumes are low and the return on the dollar is not much. Just look at all the two seat cars that did sell well and how short their lives were. Even cars like the RX7 etc all had limited lives. Pontiac was failing and not a global brand so they were on their way to death a long time before they died. I still own my Fiero I bough in 1985. I show it and even have a some prototype parts on it. It was never a perfect car but like a MG or Spitfire it is a fun and affordable car. The fires did not help and what they said is true. The worst part though is the fire would start and right over the fire was a plast deck lid. Just kindling for the fire. Once they start they kept going. Most fires are due to leaking V covers and if they were sealed with a gasket vs RTV it may never had been an issue. Most were the Iron Dukes as their covers all leaked no matter what car. Just in the front the air flowing though prevented it from igniting. The Fiero is a good snap shot how how damaged GM culture was back in those days. GM did not fail years later they failed years before and it only took that long to show. Today things are much better and most of the people who were the problem are now gone.

I had a 1987 Fiero GT with the stock 6 cylinder..... Was a great car. I called it the poor man's corvette alternative. Was nimble fast and eye catching for it's time and still is today in 2019. There was an article in the 1990's edition of High Tech Performance Magazine in which a Cadillac NorthStar Engine was shoe horned and added more HP to the rear axle. Another place was Archie's V8 engine swap..... That allowed you the ability to install a small block V8. Holley had upgrades that helped the 84-88 year models. I would like to get a 1988 Fiero one day in Silver

I also wondered why they discontinued, but it wasn't for lack of appearance-very sharp car. I thought it's plastic body panels were an ingenious idea.

I owned a brand new 1987 Fiero GT, silver, with no rear deck spoiler, 5 speed manual, V6. Had if for 2 years and enjoyed almost 50k trouble free miles. A real looker, as it was constantly mistaken for an exotic car, and I enjoyed giving many young ladies a 'ride' in it.... At the time, I chose this vehicle over a similarly priced RX7 and MR2 as they were under powered compared to the Fiero, and frankly, were not as exciting to look at or to drive. Nothing but great memories for me regarding my 1987 Fiero GT.

GM guy: "the Mister2 from Toyota" HAHA

Long ago, a work buddy of mine had a Fiero and he told me that he was frequently turned down by mechanics to fix his car. I even witnessed one of them hanging up on him, right after he told him what car he drives, LOL!

True. Once the Pontiac team threw in a better motor/suspension-that was like throwing dirt in the face of all Corvette owners. As for the styling of the Fiero the GT fastbacks hold their own for many years, but if you add some tweaks to the exterior body with wheels it's back on top and that's 30-yrs later. Granted, GM did the same for the Cadillac XLR (but over priced) but in either case the Fiero and the XLR (although a short production run) still looks better than most cars today.

I've got a pontiac fiero right now, and the cars is great it's like a street legal go-cart its fun as hell

thats also what killed the grand national the gnx was faster than the vette and gm was not happy about it

I HAD TWO FIEROS LOVED EVERY MINUTE I HAD WITH THESE CARS YOU DONT KNOW WHAT YOU MISSING ,

I had 2 of them... And I loved them both. Now... I will be getting one more to restore to keep until I die.

With my "engine fire bug" recall, they replaced the entire engine. It cost me just $1. My car lasted 18 1/2 years. It did not die of age. Instead, a guy lost control of his car and ended up smashing into my car while it was merely parked in my apartment outdoor parking lot spot.

The Fiero GT was a great car. I had 2 in the UK, one mildly tuned to about 150bhp with performance headers, cam and Chip. I also had a Renault Alpine GTA V6 Turbo. A very similar car in design, rear engine, full endurflex body. Very light. And super fast. The Alpine was definitely the better car but never sold in America.

I've owned several of these and loved this car...

I had an 85 v-6, manual 4 speed. it was fast, handled like crazy and looked so cool. so fun to drive. best, most fun car I ever had. It quit running and vandals completely destroyed it. miss that car.

Sadly, as did the Fiero go by the wayside, so did Pontiac Motor Division.

They are very attractive cars and I would love to own one some day. I am happy with my 86 Trans Am though.

Great video! I always loved the looks of these ever since I first saw them growing up in the 80s/90s. Unfortunately when I was of driving age, I couldn’t afford to buy one plus insurance rates were almost double of other cars at the time. Some day...some day... Thank you for the great content, including the rare factory/assembly line videos!👍👍

I own an 84 SE with 236,000 miles on it. Owned for 24 years.

So, the marketing guys of GM saw the Fiero outclass the Corvette, they saw Fiero sales go down, and they saw a Toyota MR2 rising, so they decided to throw the towel and quit to avoid having to boost up Corvette power and avoid losing money. Well, I can follow that logic, but still I would have made different choices.

I owned the 85 v6 new back in the day. It handled great. It sounded great and it looked great. Never any major mechanical issues. Never a dent! It was even good in the snow. My G35 is the coolest car I own but my rsxs gets my daily driver award.

Gm has made mistakes. Bad ones since the early 80s. Making crap cars. Trying to fool customers. I dont buy gm anymore. They had me...never going back.

I have always liked the design of the Fiero. I read an article/review of the last model year, the Formula Fiero. The review said that Pontiac had finally got all the flaws sorted out!

Those guys are right anything that threatens the Vette will get crushed at GM. Which is funny to me because in those days Vette owners were bald, fat, and over the hill looking to pick up anything that gets wet. Any one south of 40 years old wasn't interested in a vette. GM could of sold both.

The Custom Trans Am vents in that Fiero look strange flipped..

I'm in Canada and I remember this..... It was very expensive to insure for some reason. That's what discouraged me from buying a GT model in fact any model.

Gm needs to be shut down this isn't the first time a car was discontinued because it beat sales of that shitty corvette.

I loved my Fiero! I owned 2. One for me and another my wife drove. We never had a problem with the cars!

Never drove one, or owned one but road in them a few times. They were okay...but I'm over 6 foot tall...and when I got out of the car, I just opened the door, pivoted in my seat, and crawled out onto the ground. Then stood up. Also, due it's height, pickup truck lights hit you right in the eyes.....now that does happen with other vehicles, but it was somehow just worse with this car. But I have meet their owners who do quite simply love them. Even knew a man who was a club member of a Fiero group and just loved it.

What killed the Fiero was GM banking on the SUV market going into the 90s. Chrysler's success with their minivans was a clear market indicator that customers wanted practicality and utility over sport. This also killed the large Sedans by the mid 90s, GM's bread and butter since the 50s. Even today practical vehicles outsell sport coupes by silly numbers. Sure they are desirable to rich Europeans but that's it. Terrible market

Love the fiero .... I'm 36 and have had 5 sence I was 16 .... and still have 3 of them .... even today they are head turners

The '88 GT actually looked good... I remember someone made a tube frame Pro Street one and dumped a blown BBC in one..must have been a wild ride..

typical GM corporate BS. They could have made so many great cars that people would want to keep around as collectors that were fast and fun and could have competed with other sporty cars but no. nothing could be as fast as or faster than, or even more popular than the fucking corvette.

Auto shop in high school had a Fiero pace car. Have also driven one with a Cadillac Northstar swap. Much more fun to drive.

Never had one, but I remember the first time I saw a new one and it was parked in a grocery store parking lot. Few cars ever impressed me like that. It looked so different, exotic, gorgeous. It was a great success in my book.

I was driving my 1987 Fiero 2M6 SE Notchback Silver, sunroof, full body kit with large spoiler 2.8l v6 4 speed and 76k miles. I purchased it for $1,800 in 1993 and I sold it for the same $1,8000 to another student in 1998 after high school. It was AMAZING I LOVE IT STILL, now at 40 years old I have a Yellow 1988 GT T-Top, I just swapped my 56k mile 2.8l with a new crate 3.8l Supercharged making 475HP to a 6 speed transmission. It's not your mom's Fiero that's for sure, It is scary fast. Hello from Colorado

That whole corvette and mustang B.S. really stifled the performance of several cars and even prevented some from being put into production. Kinda sad when you think about it. Lol you ever wondered why they couldn't just make the corvette's and mustang's faster and better so they didn't have to worry about little Fiero's or Taurus S.H.O's outperforming their flagship counterparts? Owell can't change the past, but people sure remember when they get dusted by a Fiero or a $800 Taurus SHO 🤤😲😊

Man, I am sick of hearing about Fieros and fire. The only ones that caught fire were 4 cylinder, manual transmission cars that had oil leaks and had not had the oil diversion kits installed AND suffered a catastrophic engine failure at high RPM due to abuse by the owner. When you tally those up next to the production numbers, 0.07% of Fieros caught on fire. That's less production vehicles catching on fire than pretty much any car ever made. Unless you owned a very specific version of the car and neglected maintenance AND abused your car, you have virtually no chance of your Fiero catching on fire. If your Fiero catches on fire, buy a lottery ticket because ridiculous odds favor you.

Car was Brilliant. I bought a new one the first year they came out. I was in a hard side impact accident and it was fine while the car that hit me was packed up to the windshield. I had a V6 automatic later, and should have never sold it. Great CAR!

2:48 straight up Waffen S.S. symbols on that car hahaha

I remember back in the 80s my sister wanted one, salesman had a hammer and swung at a panel showing its resilience. Always remember that.

Especially the '88, it's a cool looking car. I liked the look since i first saw one in '84.

Why GM fails... "don't make the Corvette better, just axe the car that's cutting into it."

Who killed the Fiero - the executives who decided to put that clunker of a low performance engine in a promising car.

Dad bought it for me,Loved it!!!!

on the bottom of a cliff in Palos Verdes california there is the remains of a Fiero that was drove off the cliff onto the beach 30 years ago. can still see the v6 eng in it. neat to look at.

If someone cant fix a Fiero they are a lousy mechanic and i wouldn’t let them work on any of my cars. It’s pretty simple.

Who killed it? GM did. They raised the price while the press was full of recalls. GM is famous for starting a new car and fixing the bugs over the years and than cancelling production when the kinks are all fixed. GM is a joke.

the problem was that cooling system...

Great concept....tons of potential...wrong company....GM makes a mess of most things they are involved with.

I remember working on several early examples of this car, and they were crap. Suspension trouble, massive oil leaks, and coolant tubes that leaked were just some of the downfalls.. not to mention sub par Delco electronics... When we saw the 88s, we were impressed by how far they had evolved. And we were equally stunned to find out that GM had canceled the program. I had a neighbor that had a 2M6 with a 4 speed, an early 86. It was fun to drive to be sure. My boss of the time had an 84 with the 2.5 and 4 speed. The joke at our shop was calling it the mini Vette or half Vette. Still, even that was fun to drive.

On that Indy, the seat belt guide is upside down. Looks like someone incorrectly put the passenger side on the driver side and has it turned upside down.

I bought a new 1987 base model Fiero (2.5 manual) and kept it for 7 years. Not a single problem. I loved it. My situation changed and I had to sell it. I had 115,000 miles on it. Wish they still made them. It was ROGER B. SMITH that killed the Fiero. May he rot in hell.

Great video

Fiero's were never $25,000. Mine was just over $16k for the GT.

I remember a magazine article that detailed how to fit the 305,v8 into it.

my middle brother Sam rented a red Fiero in 85.he had such a blast in it. you could hear the car from 4 blocks away. sam shrieking with laughter. parts started falling off rather soon. i helped him return it to San Jose

I bought a brand new Fiero in 1984 Red , it was a good looking car, till I started commuting 65 mile a day to work, and back. The back tires Goodyear Eagles, wore out too soon. The clutch cable came off while I was going to JR collage, after work. Spun out twice in rain and snow. It was all over the road. Going down the interstate the engine would sometime, make a loud noise like it was about to jump out of the motor mounts. I took a big lost and sold it.. Dad had said never buy a new unproven car. He was right. RIP. Dad.

Not me, I started to bring my 88 Formula back to life yesterday!! Fun little street gocart...Worst thing about it is it's so dang small inside you have to get out to take off a jacket or change your mind!

My first car was a 1976 Pontiac Acadian. Loved that little 2door.

The Mera (Ferrari Fiero) was built for almost 2 years after Fiero production ended. GM had quite a few dealers nationwide order end of production Fieros for their transformation into the Meras by Corporate Concepts in Capac Michigan. Bob, owner told me GM had to keep the Fiero plant open longer than planned to fulfill the last minute spike in orders. The last Fieros were good cars in the end & a prominate car magazine in europe rated it as the number one sportscar in the world for it's class. All because Corvette was worried about their own volume of sales. The same thing happened to the Buick Reatta. Sales were good & promising the last year of production for the Reatta but Cadillac pulled the plug because of concern that it would be taking away & hurt Cadillac Allante sales. What a joke. The Cadillac Allante production was halted one year after the Reatta was killed. GM had a habit back in the day of shooting themselves in the foot.

LS swap seems to fix all.

corvete also killed the gn early too.there was a 1988 montecarlo. on rwd platform but no grannational.

Owned the 87 GT and had 180K on it, and if the ex wife didn't get it I'd still be driving it.

You can tell a segment is pretty bias when in less than 1 minute they point out these love to catch fire. When in reality 0.38% were ever recorded catching fire and all affected units were recalled.

"..once it stopped catching fire and they put a V6 in it, it was actually a nice car." lol I love the look of the Fiero, the Fiat X1/9 and Toyota MR2

I used to love GM vehicles, for this reason I went to European cars with better style. GM seems to always kill off the the wrong cars.

In Western Canada, there were very few, perhaps no, 1988 versions being sold. I worked for a couple of Pontiac dealerships and drove several versions of the car. My favourite all-around was a black 1986 GT, with V-6 & an auto transmission. The '87 black ones had lower silver mouldings which detracted, rather than enhanced, it's looks. Why production ended? Imo, poor sales. In 1984, Pontiac did a decent job of promoting it, however, when they'd worked out most of the negatives in 1986, they weren't doing a very good job of promoting it - in '86 to '88 - and were competing with the ever more popular Toyotas, Hondas, and Nissans. There was nothing in the way of cargo space, as compared to the others and the public were disenchanted with the quality of cars that "the big 3" were turning out. When I think of the prospect of a 300 horse version... wow! Great driving cars, felt like a go cart that someone had "plushed out". I had always wanted to get my hands on one as a collector vehicle, but, never got around to it.

I read that also in the summer of '85 Pontiac tested a one-off V8 in the Fiero. When word got back to the Corvette people, Chevrolet lobbied heavily to kill the car. And since Chevrolet has always been the sales volume division within GM, they usually got their way.

Last few comments were right. Ppl we're buying the fiero more than the Corvette at the time CEO of GM and CEO of the Corvette was nervous that the Corvette would died. They killed their new baby Fiero.

I had an ‘85 and it was fun, but as a mid engine car it was tricky at times.

Decades later, GM V6s would have the SAME PROBLEM with fires. How hard is it to seal a valve cover properly so your cars don't catch fire? Anyway, I always loved the look of the Fiero and I always loved the mid, transverse engine configuration, especially in the MR2.

Love my 1988 Fiero GT w/t-top

Wonder where can you post pictures them

I had an 86 and loved it. Plastic panels, no corrosion in Miami area.

The mr2 is doing good and the corvette isn't? Better kill off our mid engine car!

I’m currently working on fixing up a ‘84 with the 4 cylinder iron duke engine. Call me crazy but I prefer the original model over the GT, it just looks so much better

GM internal haranguing between brands is part of this. If the Fiero was making the Corvette people nervous, then they should have been prompted to up their own game-you know-compete, instead of "protecting" Corvettes (or any other vehicle) and coddling them. Instead of: Hey Chevy, up your efforts! It was: Oh no, get rid of the newcomer. Also devastating was the coverage of these fires in the media. If this faulty wire placement was a fluke from a long known model, like the Impala, people would take it as a fluke. With the Fiero, it seemed since it's right out the gate, this was the faulty basis of the entire car. People still recalled "exploding Pinto's" after all.

I had a 87 pontiac Fiero GT v6 it was Blue and Siver with Sunroof rear wing bought it New never had any problems with it luv the car. Then i sold it to a friend. Im not sure if he still has it. Wish they bring it back. Would luv to get one again and put in a turbo motor in maybe a grand national v6.

I bought a 1986 SE in 1990. I paid 5 grand for it, IIRC. 36,000 miles on the clock when I bought it. The clutch took a sh*t in less than a year lol! I swapped the clutch three times before giving up and taking it to the Pontiac dealer to have it replaced. Six hundred bucks later it was good to go. Never had another problem and wish I hadn’t sold it. You could not give those cars away in the early 90s and nice ones go for six grand and up now.

The worst thing was the bracket and bolt for the alternator tensioner 2M4 version you could never torque it tight enough.

the 1988 Fiero GT V6 was actually a decent car they finally pulled that Chevette front end from underneath it and put a real front-end underneath that they got the handling down the breaking down and the motor the V6 was actually a decent motor and then they killed it makes no sense to me. but the four cylinders were junk.

I had a friend who had one and he loved it. He told me it was the insurance companies who make it impossible to get affordable insurance.

I always wanted one back then but never got one

I live in mn and there used to be this place where car ppl used to hang out in st. Paul and it was called Porkys. this lady used to bring her fiero there. she somehow managed to jam a 383 in there. I forget what trans she said she had to use but it was a manual. I never saw her get on it, but I'm sure it hauled the mail.

I have an 86, never caught fire.

I just saw the indy version in beverly hills, california today i just had to get more info on it :)

Where did Motoring TV go

We have a 1984, 4 banger when I was growing up. It wasn't a bad car but we had to give it up in 95 when It had a major oil leak and we couldn't find anybody who wanted to fix it without us taking out a second mortgage to pay for the repair. It wasn't the fastest car, It had no cargo room and very bad blind spots. But it was fun to drive and looked cool at a price my family could afford. To us it was a super car. RIP

I remember how excited we were when this model came out - and how envious we were of those who got one. But then they all ended up HATING the thing - and we shrugged and forgot all about it.

Fiero was two different cars and the final GT was also two cars. The original Fereo was a disappointing car from many aspects. Low power poor handling, ugly shape. The GT fixed many issues and the last production run of the GT has a completely reformulated front suspension. That final GT was a handling dream on the road for a small light mid engine standpoint. The square hard plastic dash was the only embarrassing attribute that remained in the final pretty close to perfect mid engine sports car. We owned a True GT Fiero and it was a fun car to drive. Like all mid engine cars they were somewhat unsafe on public roads as they can drive somewhat uncontrollably in certain conditions. Great fun car to drive.

I bought a new one (‘84) in silver; sold it to an in-law in mid ‘85 who still won’t talk to to me this very day 😂

Did he say " Mister 2 "? ( MR2 )

My 1985 Brand new Fiero was a lemon from the start. I would take it back to the dealer, still have problems, they wouldn't let me trade it in, they would rather work on it and inconvenience me to miss work .I had no sympathy for the workers when GM had to layoff their workers in Detroit, that car cost me thousands of dollars and time off work!

I witnessed one catch fire on start up in 91 Vancouver BC Canada

I bought a used 84 with a stick and I could not keep a clutch in it or whatever the problem was. Had to smack the radio on the side to get it to work, the windshield creaked all the time and the dang cover on the shifter curled up. Gave it away just to be rid of it. But you could go 60mph up a expressway ramp like nothing.

bought one of the very first ones in Louisiana. Within a month, the alternator went haywire, caused the battery to expand and literally burst, bathed the engine compartment in battery acid.............dealer had to pull the engine, sat in the shop for weeks