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1988 Pontiac Fiero GT: 1,000 Miles

fierogt

It takes either a lot of restraint or a very vivid imagination to put a car in mothballs the day you drive it off the lot. I’ve never gotten this approach to auto investing, like this 1988 Pontiac Fiero GT listed on eBay with a tick over 1,000 miles on the clock. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a beautiful specimen – but I’m willing to bet if the seller drove it for 10,000 miles, there wouldn’t be much of a difference made to the final sale price. And even if there was, it’d be a pittance compared to the enjoyment of actually driving what the magazines said was a pretty decent car for the day. As far as using cars as an investment strategy, I can get behind the folks who bought and sat on a rusty 911 5 years ago because they saw the bubble coming, as those cars wouldn’t have been much fun to drive anyway. But this? It just seems like a wasted opportunity to me. Thanks to Barn Finds reader Jim S. for sending this along.

Comments

  1. Avatar George

    1 bid at $20K, BIN at $32K?

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  2. Avatar sparkster

    Window sticker pic would have been nice to see.

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  3. Avatar krash

    …really something that this guy stored a Fiero all these years…beautiful shape, granted….but it is what it is….

    ..not my first choice (from the amazingly diverse world of automobiles) to have taken up precious garage space since 1990, but I do give the seller credit for taking such good care of it…

    Some buyer will be very happy if a mint Fiero is a “must have” before he dies…

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  4. Avatar Chris in Nashville

    Bwahahahahahahahaha! 20k for Fiero. Not unless he is spotting me the first 15k as an interest free loan that I don’t have to pay back for 1000 years!

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  5. Avatar MH

    This car should be in a museum. It’s worth the money, where else are you going to find one?

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  6. Avatar boxdin

    I’ve had a dozen 88 Fieros including a new Formula in 88. I love them but they are a few hundred pounds too heavy, but were the best crashing vehicle tested in 1988 !
    I now prefer the 4cyl 5sp combo as it is lighter, more fun, and faster than any of my 6 cyl Fieros on our local road course track. That same 4cyl also gave me 40 mpg driving it back from LA w the AC on.

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  7. Avatar Al

    IMO GM has a habit of cancelling production on “problem” cars once they have gotten them right. This was one corvair another and several others out there.

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    • Avatar Jeff Staff

      Yup. This was perhaps the best version of the car and then they cancelled the program. Brilliant.

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  8. Avatar boxdin

    The very interesting story behind why the Fiero was killed is detailed at the main Fiero site; http://www.fiero.nl Yes its headquarted in the Neatherlands where there are a lot of Fiero Nuts.
    For example, the early ones blew up because Chevy division supplied all the connecting rods and Chevy gave Fiero all the bent rods. At one point they were blowing engines at the rate of a few per day ! The Fiero was internally sabotaged from the beginning because… GM has only one sports car… Corvette.
    It is a very interesting story.

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    • Avatar Toast54

      Seems the V6’s had an issue with catching fire quite often, due to a harness rubbing against an exhaust manifold.

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  9. Avatar Steve

    I was waiting for someone to mention the fire thing on the 6 cyl. An old girlfriend had one of these that caught fire twice, the second time fatally (to the car anyway, she was ok).

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  10. Avatar Dolphin Member

    I remember when these were tested by the car magazines when they were just released. They were pretty much panned for various reasons as underwhelming on the road, a lot of that due to the Iron Duke engine and the handling. Then there were lots of reports of unreliability. With the last year version, the body design and road tests were favorable, and then GM killed the car.

    It seemed almost as if GM thought up a strategy for the Fiero to fail: make it inexpensive but disappointing on the road and also unreliable, so that it would get a poor reputation, then make it better and redesign it so that it looks really good, and kill it.

    It’s the opposite of a lot of cars that were best in the earliest versions, then became softer and less exciting for enthusiasts, and more expensive. The Datsun Z cars come to mind.

    I’ve never driven a Fiero, but if this one goes as good as it looks I would consider a car like the one featured here—–if it were priced right. But at somewhere between $20K – $32K it isn’t. Lots of other cars I’d rather have for that kind of money.

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  11. Avatar pontiactivisit

    I’ve drove several of these over the years. Have to agree the 4cyl are more fun to drive. Have always toyed with doing a 3.8 supercharged one of these in formula trim. Would be a sweet little sleeper.

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  12. Avatar Alan (Michigan)

    Auction ended with two bids at $20,100.

    The seller might have to put it away for a few more years before someone wants it enough to pony up the $32K

    Like 0

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