All the Recall Stuff =

The 84 2.5L "Iron Duke" (Gotta love an OHV 4 Cylinder) was the only engine recalled. Every existing car was recalled and GM records indicate none with out the fix exist.

If you don't think people would buy them...
I am willing to bet if you did a serch on the term "Pontiac Fiero" a year ago (before all the hoopla about the GTO) you would have been surpised top see there are many more Fiero Sites than GTO sites.

 

And yes there were plans on making the fiero much faster. I believe the turbo 3.1 found in 89 and 90 turbo grand prix, which was partly designed my Mc Claron, into the fiero had it not been for the cancellation of the car, due to someone wanting the saturns built. Also last year at the Street Rod Nationals here in Louisville, KY the 1990 fiero concept was shown. And it wore GTA badges. The guy that sent the car here got demoted because of his desision. Let me see if I can bring up a pic go to here . Notice this is a 10 page long topic. Notice a little 4th gen trans am in this car's styling? This should get the ball rolling.

 

A sweet front engine RWD turbo 4banger would be perfect for the Fiero. It could compete with any of the roadster cars, and offer a turbo setup. Turn up the boost alittle and smack around BMW Z3's, S2000's, and Porche boxsters That would be too good. Too bad that would never happen. I think GM is like honda. Anti-turbo

 

04 fiero-3.8 s/c series 3 250 hp six speed transaxle 2300 lbs.

 

I actually test drove a new one before I picked up my 85 Mustang police car instead. I don't remember much about that drive, but I do remember it was a fun car. I just wanted something ferocious at the time.

 

Ahhh Fieros ...

I've owned three Fieros over the years ('86 GT, '88 GT, '88 Formula) and there is just something about them that draws you in. As others have pointed out, the '84 Iron Duke was the only engine which had fire problems. The fire problem was somewhat overblown thanks to the media attention given to it at the time. It's really not much different than Audi's "unintended acceleration" hype and the fabled fire hazzard in GM pickups with side-saddle gas tanks. Fieros were just victims of the media and poor GM quality. To be fair, there were other recalls to later models (including the V6s) to remove a drip shield from the front of the decklid (to aid in venting engine heat) and some other hose re-routing on the engine to move things away from the exhaust manifolds, but these were merely precautionary.

IMHO, the fastback Fiero ('86 - '88 GT models) is absolutely one of the best body designs to come out of any GM design studio The fastback GT looks as fresh today as it did back then. The Solstice is just another car cut from a bar of soap -- it looks like a giant jelly bean with wheels. While it has some interesting lines, the thing is just, well, round. Yawn ...

I would love to see GM bring back a Fiero-ish design. Clearly, the name has no clout with the general public and given the media fiasco around the fires with the '84 models, it'll likely never be resurrected on a new car.

It is funny how rabid fans of the car can be -- and I count myself among them. The Fiero may not have been the greatest vehicle GM ever produced, but at least those in charge at the time had the guts to try it out. Fieros have a lot of character, which is something you can't say about a lot of GM cars these days.

 

I'd have to agree. I would put this design right up there with the stingrays and gto's. Even today it doesnt look outdated. Dont look for a picture of the fastback fiero on any GM website-seems they want to make you think the car didnt exist (or maybe dont want people to wonder how could you cancel a car that looks like this). All that is pictured is the plain jane 4cyl and gtp race car.

No one has mentioned this but the solstice looks like a poor copy of the Buick Bengal. They should have made the Bengal.

Gm says they want to make "gotta have products"-Fiero GT is one of these!!

 

Im looking into building a 3800 s/c for an 88 FieroGT. I just love hte stupid little car.

 

I'd drop the Solstice concept in favor of a Fiero-type concept IF it was more viable at the time. Currently there are no 'competent' chassis programs I'm aware of that could be converted to a mid-engine setup. If it was possible, however, it's easy to see the possibility for a space-frame car with a plastic 'skin' and a sub-2500 lb. weight (I know the GT weighed like 2800 at the time), two-seat parts-in interior, provided that the parts bin is brought up to modern par, parts-bin powertrain (Ecotec 4, 3500 V6 and/or HF V6).

Probably a mirror of the engine/trans choices available for the next-gen Grand Am.

(You Pontiac guys reading this?)

 

All GM has to do is dust off the old 88 fiero tooling and put it in a saturn plant or at Bowling Green (GM did actually consider moving fiero production there before cancelling the car). I toured the Spring Hill Saturn plant recently, the space frame they use looks identical to the fiero. (it cant be outdated if Saturn still uses it today!) The 1990 version of the fiero would be much heavier if built due to the increased length.

I also just noticed Opel announced another coupe/roadster for 2004 which will be built by a french company. So much for the Solstice sharing a platform with an Opel car as had been speculated. Amazing Opel will have 2 lower/midrange price sports cars for 2004 model year (unless Speedster is halted or maybe exported here exclusively, its cousin the Lotus Elise will be sold here then) and GM North America so far has zero. Wouldnt suprise me to see Solstice suddenly transformed to a mid-engine car.

Lastly, dont think the fiero doesnt have supporters within GM. Pontiac wanted to continue the car, GM was responsible for the cancellation.
Vice president Mark Hogan (in charge of advanced vehicle development) was pictured at a car show this summer in the Detroit News with his 88 fiero gt. His boss is Bob Lutz.