The Fiero was a different kind of car for Pontiac. When it was introduced in 1984, it was Pontiac’s first 2-seater since 1938 and the U.S. industry’s first mass-produced rear-engine car. To keep weight and costs down, the body panels were made of composite materials. It sold well initially but wasn’t a huge performer and declining sales led Pontiac to discontinue the car after 1988. This nice ’88 example is the GT edition and has a rebuilt V6 engine. Located in Santee, California, this Pontiac is available here on eBay where the next bid over $8,200 might take it home!
GM designers never intended the Fiero to compete against the other internal sports car, the Chevy Corvette. it came with the “Iron Duke” 4-cylinder motor as routine with a peppier V6 being optional (but standard in the GT). While much of the car was all-new, they did borrow from the Pontiac parts bin whenever possible, such as the rear suspension coming from the FWD Phoenix. The car made Car & Driver’s Top 10 list in 1984 and paced the field at the Indianapolis 500, as well. A ton of the cars were built at 370,000 across five years, yet you seldom see them anymore as they were considered inexpensive autos to build.
This nice Fiero has only had two owners, with current ownership lasting nearly 30 years. It’s the fastest Fiero you could buy with the V6 and a 5-speed manual transmission. The overall car has 57,000 miles, but the engine has only 3,000 since a rebuild took place (why was that needed?). It’s one of 6.848 GTs produced in the Fiero’s last year and it looks as though it has been babied for much of its life.
Most of the items on the options list must have been checked as this Pontiac is loaded. Sunroof, power windows, power door locks, power mirrors, air conditioning – they’re all there. We’re told the Poncho spends a lot of its time in the garage but has newer tires and shocks. That suggests it should be ready for a lot more weekend outings. This little coupe should be a fun ride to take to Cars & Coffee where it might be mistaken for a Japanese crotch rocket.
Hated them at the time, but like then, especially the GT.
Looks like you might get a decent fun car to drive without spending a fortune.b
Crotch rocket is a motorcycle, Russ.
And nobody mistook these for a Japanese anything. They’re 400lbs on the wrong side of the ledger.
This year Fiero is the best year if you are looking for one. The options discussed make it more attractive. By 1988 Pontiac had knocked out all the bugs and with the V-6, performance was excellent. I don’t know how many “G’s” you could pull in this car I seem to recall they were on the same scale of a Ferrari 308. Most folks today don’t even know what this year Fiero can do, but would be surprised if they took one for a ride. You find one like this Fiero, don’t expect to experience double digit appreciation in value at 1963 split window Corvettes levels. You can expect an enjoyable time with a neat little car that will fit in your garage and offer a lot of fun behind the wheel.
One of two cars that got 4 stars for side impact without airbags.
These do have a niche type fan base these days since many were driven hard and or turned into lamborgini or ferrari kit lookalikes. This one looks ready for a radwood 1980s to 1990s era car show!
Beautiful car that will be fun to drive and probably be relatively inexpensive to buy. If you’re in the market for the best Fiero of the production run, this is the one you want. The 5 speed only makes it more desirable, and ‘88 was the only year with the upgraded suspension, making it handle a lot better than previous years. I’ve always wondered what these would be like with an aluminum V8 and transmission, suspension and brake upgrades. I bet it would be a blast to drive on twisty roads.
Several with Northstar V8’s fitted in place of the V6 have appeared in various publications, such as this one, Hemmings Motor News or Craigslist. Think Ferrari on a budget. Modern V6’s would also work, for more power than the original V6 with less work to make it fit. The best year to get was the ’88, since many of the Chevette suspension parts were replaced with the newer, more capable items that the designers originally intended to use.
The Fiero was designed on a strict budget, and the Engineers who championed the idea of a low cost, two-seat, mid-engined sports car had to sell it to the bean counters who ran GM at the time as a low cost economy car, which severely limited the car’s potential. The business schools will be studying the failures of the Fiero in case studies for decades to come, but the biggest problem for GM was that Toyota stole the recipe when designing the MR2, but the MR2 was a better car than the Fiero in almost every way. So when the MR2 hit the streets, the Fiero was doomed, because by the time GM had made the Fiero competitive, its reputation had already been damaged by poor quality and engine fires, so when the MR2 became an alternative, with Toyota’s legendary quality, buyers deserted GM in droves in favor of the nimble, zippy “Mister Two” from Toyota, and never looked back.
The L67 (supercharged 3.8) is a very popular swap in these too.
I prefer the simpler lines of the Formula version, but any ’88 Fiero is worth grabbing, especially when it appears to be in as good nick as this one.
I will say — from experience — that an engine rebuild can be called for by a tin-ear mechanic for something as simple as a bent pushrod or, I suppose, a bad fuel injector. Some will say “We have to go through it” if it makes any odd noise or has a miss….
I remember making “GIJOOOE’s” comment to a Pontiac engineer back when the ’88s were shown to the press. His reply was a wide smile and a “You should see the ‘891” Sadly, we never saw the ’89.
So this one looks like a good car for good money.
Since I can’t edit (WHY?), have to make clear that “891” was a typo. Y’all knew I meant “89!”
Yeah I remember reading about the ‘89 Fiero that never was, it’s a shame GM didn’t let Pontiac evolve the design into a true mid-engine sports car. I’ve seen a few Fieros at car shows with Cadillac North Star V8’s but with a slushbox. I’d love to drive one with a LS3 and a 6 speed, and the appropriate brake and suspension upgrades.
“…the 89 one!” perhaps? That’s how I read it, LOL! The biggest shortcoming of the Fiero was that Iron Duke as a base engine. The ’89 was supposed to get the Olds Quad 4 as a base engine instead of the Iron Duke, and earlier versions would have been much better served with the Brazilian Family Two engine used in the Pontiac J2000, a.k.a. the Sunbird. The fact that GM, as was common practice for GM at the time, used their customers as development engineers, and the early models of the car as test mules to work the bugs out of them, didn’t help the Fiero’s reputation any. The poor quality and resulting customer dissatisfaction from this peractice, combined with the superior competition from Toyota’s MR2, killed the Fiero, a great idea ruined by poor execution.
Here is a picture of a ’90 Fiero prototype that I found and posted the last time the subject came up.
“Ah, what might have been!” are probably the saddest words in the English language! Just when GM got it’s act together with the Fiero, the cars teething pains and poor reputation, with the correspondingly poor sales that resulted from that poor reputation, killed the car just before it became able to fulfill its promise. Possibly the most important rule in marketing is: “You only get one chance to make a first impression!”. GM broke that rule and cost itself millions of dollars in sales as a result. Toyota followed that rule and buried GM in the sales race! End of Story.
At the time, there were probably just as many ‘laughers” as there were lovers, but (also) at the time, these were very unique…they weren’t going to beat anyone off the starting line but that Iron Duke was pretty indestructible.
And the styling points were…well…on point. And also also…these were the ‘notorious’ days of C&D being “bought” by their advertisers so there were quite a few cars that were more deserving ‘of the year’ designation over the Fiero but but but…
Always wonderrd why they stopped making them when they figured out how to do it right
In this case, the major suspension and steering improvements for the final-year ’88 models weren’t originally intended to be a “one year only” thing; they were a sneak preview of more and better improvements to come with the 2nd-gen Fiero then in development and planned for launch in ’89 or ’90, which sadly wound up getting canceled at the last minute.
I believe the Chevy Corvair was the first mass produced rear engine car manufactured in the U. S..
Russ
I think you meant it was first us maker MID engine mass production model because I believe the corvair would have bee the first rear engine mass production model ??
One of my coworkers, who was a dead ringer for Connie Sellecca, bought a red one when they first came out in ’84. She gave me a ride in it on a beautiful summer day. A fun ride, but as expected, not the roomiest interior.
You’re a lucky guy! Just the picture of Connie Selleca in my head makes me smile!
The I famous plastic panel bodied mono-chassis machine drilled Feiro – 1 machine to drill them all..after it wore out Entire program was trashed
Achilles heel of these models is B-PILLAR a solid Hit there and entire car comes apart
Which I saw in person on the freeway when a trailer came loose clipped the left driver rear fender…car went sideways & it hit a freeway light pole
Car came apart engine part kept going 600+feet up the road ….
Driver ?.not a scratch on him seat belt on instantly dead from impact shock every blood vessel shattered turned Grey
Super spooky cuz his name was same as a pal of mine.
Go ahead buy it ….I DARE YA
A sample size of one (1) is hardly statistically valid, and if I hit anything hard enough, it will break! Hitting a light pole at highway speed (60-70 mph) certainly qualifies, so I’m not at all surprised the car came apart. The question to be asked is, would any other car have fared any better under the same circumstances? The short answer is, some would do better and some wouldn’t. Just about any two-seat sports car would likely have fared poorly under those conditions, including a fiberglass bodied Corvette, so to blame the car is somewhat unfair. With that being said, I might be reluctant to buy one as well if I saw the same result. Accidents are always traumatic, and if the result was as horrific as you saw, I might be afraid of a Fiero as well!
I worked in a GM dealership for 27 years and worked on many fiero body repairs. I put one back together that flipped end over end and rolled multiple times. Driver walked away without a scratch and car was far from totaled. Fiero is one of a few cars that has total body strength WITHOUT body panels attached.
I purchased an 85 GT with the V6 back in 88 as the second owner. Still have it today and remains a blast to drive. I take it to lots of car shows throughout the summer and love to see parents point to the motor in the back to show their kids.
The Toyota MR2 did everything better than the ‘On Fiero’, but that’s a beautiful car. My recollection is the head gaskets’ cork needed a careful re-torque (as per sequential guide) and the head bolts on one bank were difficult to reach. If it wasn’t done, the cooling of one side uneven with the other led to gasket failure much like Harley VTwin issues. Makers like Toyota had higher tolerance mating surfaces to begin with and superior gasket materials. It is those types of details that set Toyota apart from GM. Then and now. But just hypothesis. Also, as with any car that old, motor mount rubber gets rigid and they may have decided to do both at the same time. If done well it’s good another 20 years. If the rebuild included better gaskets and torque practice, I would consult with the machine shop or engine builder on recommendation. People forget that cars used to have Preventative Maintenance schedules that openly recommended things like torquing engine head bolts, main pulley bolts etc at 20-30,000 miles. Some manufacturers had that recommendation earlier after a break-in period. Then again later. But doing them out of sequence can be disasterous as well. If for example you torque perimeter then interior head bolts while warm, the head can crack. If you torque them in cold weather while cold, all kinds of failures can occur. Everything has to be warm to do properly. And that tight bay might leave your forearm like Kung Fu. Hopefully the builder took all of this into consideration with updated gaskets and good initial build practice, planing surfaces in the process.
Then the other possibility is it may have had a small fire from that gas line recall and perhaps damage necessitated the removal. But longshot since it looks beautiful. I’m sure this car would have had the recall done. I believe it was just a heat shield add and an additional bracket to keep the line from working free. That recall was what killed the project. A shame really. It’s a really good car with a few quirks addressed. There are some clubs still around I believe with lots of experience to lean on. The 6 with a 5 speed is going to be pretty fun. Just enjoy it and keep it as original as possible.
As an unconditional convertible lover , a fiero was never considered but i did have a few mr2’s
As like many , i have seen modified ones and loved the more powerful swaps but could never go for a roof over my head
The mr2’s were also underpowered but swapping the engines was way too costly so i upgraded to a boxster but that’s another story…
Yes, the Fiero only offers a sunroof, you could get an early MR2 with either a sunroof or T-Tops, and of course the third-generation MR2 was a full drop top. I shopped both the Fiero and the MR2 when I was shopping for my first new car fresh out of college in 1985, and neither one got my money. The Fiero’s Iron Duke and plastic-y GM interior were turn offs, and the Toyota dealers were tacking on an extra $3k above the “sticker” price in “Additional Dealer Markups” or “Availability Charges”, so forget the MR2! I’ve never paid list price for a car in my entire life, and I certainly didn’t want to start back then, with student loans still outstanding. So I bought a VW Jetta GLI instead, but that’s a story for another day.
Used to buy these at a wrecker/towing auction for the seats for MGBs. Usually found enough change under the seats to offset most of the purchase price. Mainly pissed off my neighbors and incurred the wrath of the zoning Gestapo.
Parts sharing with other Pontiacs has been mentioned, Phoenix front suspension moved to the rear, but since we’re talking PONTIAC, the front suspension would have been sourced from the T-1000. When was the last time you saw one of those? Say what you want about GM quality (and I’ll likely agree), but Robert Atkinson, Jr. is right. The Ford Pinto is held up for derision because of their fire potential, but at least they didn’t spontaneously combust, like the early Fieros. Got my last speeding ticket in a ’88 GT.
I remember reading the rear was from a Chevy Citation and the front end from the Chevette. Same stuff, just a different GM Division
They made a few test cars with a turbo in the V6 that were not recommended for production nor release. Too much power.
My daughter had one of these , fun car to drive use to love it when i could borrow it ,the only way to go is the 2.8 L v6 & the five speed.My Other daughter had the 2.0 l 4cyl. with 5 speed also fun , but did not have the punch of the V6,
That would have been a kool car, would love one, even at my age ,(79)
The reason for the redesign for 88 was in preparation for the DOHC V6 that had a new home in the 89 Fiero. The 88 got all the chasis and suspension upgrades to with stand the 3.4 DOHC that was planned for the car. That same engine went into the 89 GXP Gran Prix.
These were fun cars to drive. To bad GM cancelled it when they finally got a nice package together.
I sort of liked those GM blocky/plasticy interiors. The felt modern after the metal/vinyl dashboards of the 60’s and 70’s cars.
In case anyone is wondering where the reserve is, ths owner bought this car a week ago for $11,300 on Cars and Bids.
I think it was 1988, but can’t be sure. Pocono Raceway did a dealer promo where each dealer that bought one of the pace cars was part of a parade lap around the track. Dad’s boss went all in and bought four of them, so dad, my brother, me and the boss were in cars 1-4. We were led by three black trans ams. I barely got my five speed out of third, as we were regulated at 50 mpg, but it was my nascar moment, three wide as we did the lap. I should look around the internet and see if there’s any photos.
One of the last of Pontiac’s engineering brain trust that included Bill Collins and Herb Adams was Terry Satchell. Terry worked for Penske Racing on both NASCAR and IndyCars, beginning with working with Rusty Wallace who was struggling with the transition to radial tires, and later with Al Unser Jr the year he won the Indy 500 and the CART championship. Before he left GM, he did much of the engineering on the suspension of the 2nd generation Fiero, which was cancelled a year later. As many of you know, the original car was justified based on trying out new design and manufacturing techniques, but with a very limited budget for component (i.e. suspension) engineering, so they made do with parts from other GM small cars. The fixes came too late.
Here’s an inside tip. The car, with its engine ahead of the rear axle, and short wheelbase, can be made to corner well, but if the tires break loose, such as when trail braking into a corner, things happen so fast it is hard to catch. In engineering parlance, this is described as a low yaw moment, and old-time engineers call it a low polar moment. To visualize what happens, imaging a tightrope walker with a really short balance pole.
There is a cheap fix for anybody that owns one of these. Buy 15 feet of welding cable, and snake it through the frame rail to the nose, and relocate the battery underneath the big plastic panel accessible from the front compartment. That weight shift, and more importantly, putting the heavy lump in the nose, increases the yaw moment.
If GM had done this, maybe the higher horsepower prototypes wouldn’t have been so sketchy.
“It was Pontiac’s first 2-seater since 1938 and the U.S. industry’s first mass-produced rear-engine car.”
Nobody commented on this. I don’t dispute the first part of that quote, but the second part is debatable. CORVAIR, anyone…? How many of those were built?
Anyway, I think the Fiero was a cute little car, however unreliable. I do have questions about the old Iron Duke…well, not questions, more like observations. I won’t dispute that one could not do any faster than 50 mph with an Iron Duke…but it appeared to be as good a 4-cylinder as America could offer as long as it wasn’t pushed beyond its limits (which happened too often, anyway). If it were as bad as some make it out to be, wouldn’t the USPS have turned on them much sooner…? I think Pontiac was much better with their 4-bangers than Oldsmobile was with their diesels…or any Japanese car with their taillights.
@Tony C Almost all Corvairs had a back seat. The ones that didn’t were like small pickups, but of course, all pickup trucks except the recent movement to extended cabs and 3-doors were two-seaters.
Ironically, few MR2s are left because they rusted away & the early ones IMO had too skinny tires – my friend tried to take a curve at the same speed as a ’77 t/a & spun out.
The ones i owned were the last generation 2000-2005 and with the stock setup were quite surprising
When i decided to put wider stickier tires the handling was so awesome that the car felt underpowered
And
Then
I upgraded to a boxster…
Would go back to a mr2
If i could find one with a camry aluminum v6 …