The Pontiac Fiero is a terrible sports car, but why is it then rarely corrected to refer to as an economy car? In the mistake I am not getting my point across, the Pontiac Fiero is not a sports car. It’s styling you can thank by George Milidrag and Hulki Aldikacti, which designed this italian stallion. There were many, many iterations of the Fiero from the concept phase to the next step in the Fiero production. It garnered its own community and respectively it is thriving even today. A cheap american mid engined car that predated the so called predecessor, the MR2. The Fiero was sold as an economy car and was built for so much more, to say it was held back is an understatement. The Fiero is influential in many ways you probably don’t know about. This is why the Fiero is the worst car ever made, because it had no chance.

The year was 1978, GM wanted a two seater “commuter car” over another muscle car. Horsepower numbers were very low because of the oil crisis. The Chevrolet Corvette California had only 180 Horsepower, which is less than the average car today. The concept was green lit after six months and a running prototype. Given an ungrateful amount to produce even this car, they were given $400 million for the budget. That is a terrible amount even for the early ’80s, that is about less than 1/3 of an average budget. The prototype was designed initially by Hulki Aldikacti, and he wanted it to have a high revving V6. The prototype turned out to be with a 1.8L four cylinder, but neither was that adopted in its production. With terrible budget constraints they had to think out of the box or in it, and that they did. Creating a frankenstein GM vehicle with the only obvious unique parts being the chassis and it’s components to make it mid-engined. The prototype had all sorts of unique parts, such as the front suspension. That wasn’t introduced till four years later, after production was going to end. They were doomed to make this car successful, but a success it was. (initially) Selling a hundred thousand within its first year it was selling. A ‘commuter car’ that looks like a Ferrari, who wouldn’t buy that? It was highly praised for its handling at the time.

The Fiero was finally getting its V6 which came with the new GT model in ’85 and added a whopping 43 hp more than the base four cylinder. Beyond that the GT model was nothing to have beyond the new powertrain. There wasn’t even new suspension, nothing. With the facelift of the GT in ’86 it remained the same in quality. The Fiero was used plenty for a ‘slow’ car in the motorsport scene. The IMSA homologated Fiero had a 2.7L four cylinder producing 230 hp naturally aspirated. It gained more power with later and last iteration. It was actually the basis for Pontiac’s Le Mans division, and it resembles the Fiero. These motorsports sadly did not contribute to the production numbers or production in general (in power). The Fiero never got a significant power gain besides the V6’s introduction. Making it considerably slow towards its last years of production. The Fiero had many concepts within its production, and one especially was going to be a game changer for the Fiero. That is another story for another time.

In the late ’80s the Fiero in ’88 was finally discontinued after frequent loss in profits, and media sources claiming highly flammable properties. Yes, they did have a tendency to catch on fire, one out of 508 of every fiero which is out of ~370,000. That would be 0.14% of Fieros actually caught on fire. With that simple math, I presume it’s highly possible for any car to have a similar percentage. The factor of the cause would relate to engine oil. If you didn’t check your oil regularly like you should it wouldn’t catch on fire. It was all basically due to the negligence of owners. Even if the oil was low for standards it would be very aware for the buyer that owns it, that they should check oil as anyone should. They had a recall in 1988 and found only 260 contributed to the known problem. It is still the worst car ever made.

Not being able to surpass 120 mph this car was slow, and remains slow. But, don’t count the GM masterpieces such as, the Iron Duke Camaro or the V6 Firebird those cars are even slower. (Because they’re heavier) The Fiero sucked as a sports car, and yet is still considered one today despite its initial production market. The car predates the Toyota MR2, the Mazda Miata. (The Fiero pioneered seat speakers, but let’s not get complementary) The Fiero was terrible even as a ‘commuter car’ it never reached 50 miles per gallon even with the four cylinder on the highway. With these lies, truly GM is the puppet master of every product. The Fiero wouldn’t have sold well without the aspects of efficiency. It did lose GM money towards the end. They had terrible decisions to not produce the Fiero with the factories they set for it. The last and final reason the Fiero was doomed, they didn’t care to make it better or sell more. (They did lose numbers compared to their initial sales, yet they could have fixed that with a new model) It was too late and by ’88, “they finally got decent,” Some people may say. The Fiero still is an abomination of a car, it’s the worst car ever made.

Long story short, I should own every Fiero ever produced, and that includes the entire junkyard.