That'd be great but I wouldn't hold my breath. GM showed it was willing to destroy the entire world if necessary to put Pontiac out of business with decades of sabotaging PMD to keep it from leaving Chevy in the dust.
I would live it if they did bring it back. I LOVED the Fiero when it was available. But just missed out on getting one. I was stationed in Europe for the duration of its manufacturing run.
Never cared much for Ford's, Chevy's, GM's etc. but Pontiac was a badass company. In the 80's, all their sports cars looked much cooler than all the competition's cars to me. Really wish they didn't go under. Not having Pontiac around as an option today for an American sports car sucks and was a big mistake imo...
What happened there was a prototype Fiero the had an all aluminum fiero (N*star rumored) which ran better than the then Corvettes. That is when the Corvette guys started to demand the fiero be cancelled to protect the vette. Combined with low sales # of th 88s, that was it. the 89/90's version would have been awesome with the Quad 4s, and the 3.4 dohc v6s.
Fiero has got to be the biggest "What if?" GM has had in the last 50 years. GM corporate shit all over this program, and Pontiac in general from the mid 80's on.
Even before the 80s. GM always treated Pontiac as the proverbial "red-headed stepchild." When John DeLorean ran Pontiac in the early 60s he developed and released the GTO in total secrecy. He got away with it because it made lots of money for GM. When the Mustang came out, GM ordered Chevrolet and Pontiac to develop a competing car. Chevy built the Camaro. Pontiac built the Banshee. Only problem with the Banshee was it violated The General Motors Prime Directive and was better than the Corvette. So GM forced Pontiac to create the soon to be Firebird and base it on the Camaro. So in typical Pontiac fashion, Pontiac took a Chevy and made it better looking and a better performing car.
@@knytrydr73 I hate to say it but the same was true in 2009. 🤬 Actually, Saturn was probably even lower on the totem pole then because they had fixed the customer experience of the other GM divisions and the other divisions REALLY hated that.
I still have and own my 1986 Fiero GT since I purchased it new From Larry Fall Pontiac in Schaumburg, IL (restoring entire car) documenting as much of the Restoration as possible.
I own a White 2M4 1986 (automatic) that I bought new. Today I show it in "survivor" class, it does very well. Many Rt 66 rallys. Owes me zilch, no troubles to speak of: No fires. Overheats. Elect. Problems. Leaks. Does not use-burn oil. I drive it to events and home, wife goes shopping with the Fiero. Never to a car wash, never smoked it. FYI. 💝My car! Not for sale.
IMO one of the biggest blunders in GM history. This could have been the car that saved gm and took them into the new millennium on top. Can you imagine the car today with modern high hp reliable engines and technology? The whole thing didn't get the attention it deserved simply due to lack of interest from GM. Poor quality, bad rep, etc due to low quality control. By the time they got the bugs worked out it was cancelled. They could have marketed it if they had a clue. The base version was the PERFECT grocery getter or student off to college car. Then have performance versions for those who wanted more. In 84/85 I was thinking of getting one just to commute back and forth to work in. Great on gas, easy to park, and had place to put luggage. The real problem is? It would have competed with the darling corvette in performance and no, can't have that!
@@muskokamike127 I agree, with you. If you studied the history of the Fiero's development, Pontiac had to make a lot of compromises just to get the car to market...
@@HWolfeIII I know a bit not as much as aficionados tho. That's the problem with car makers: they would ruin a perfectly good product line in order to protect another not realizing for a second that anyone interested in a corvette wouldn't look twice at a fiero and vice versa. Kind of like how Ford refused to sell the 4 door ranger in North America because they wanted to sell more F150's and wouldn't bring the Focus R/S over for years because it would compete with the mustang. However, again, someone interested in the Focus wasn't in the market for a mustang. Think of this car now with so many makers building mid engine sports cars and selling them for HUGE money. This thing (other than the weak engine) had that going on 36 years ago. Now people are AMAZED at vehicle built with aluminum bodies and space frames again, fiero did it 36 yrs ago. I think if they increased the size by about 20%, put in modern suspension and drive train, it would sell like hotcakes. "oh but it would compete with the new mid engine corvette" no it wouldn't. People in the market for a Corvette would not look twice at a Fiero.
@@muskokamike127 Another example of this kind of repressive thinking was the decision to kill the Buick Regal Grand National in 1987 .A GNX could smoke a heavily modified twin turbo Calloway Corvette and some in the automotive press, actually scorned GM for allowing their so called old folks division for engineering a Regal that could destroy their halo car. So forget about sales, innovation and popularity. We can't allow anything to disturb the status quo.
I was at the 20th anniversary and have owned a few Fieros (first one and first car was an 88 Formula) so was psyched to see this video pop up in my feed. Even more suprised to see I'm in the video when they opened the deck lid! What a cool throwback to remember that fun trip and such cool people. Out of all the car and motorcycle communities I've been a part of not one has come close to how helpful, friendly, and willing to go far out of thier way to keep another owner out on the road. Thanks for uploading this!
I had a couple of them myself 2m4 and a gt. Loved the cockpit feel when I drove them, and the handling was fun with its independent suspension I believe. And believe or not I’d put fatter tires on during the winter and it would handle just fine. Good times
I've had go karts that were faster than the Fiero I had to myself they wouldn't go over 85 mph unless you ripped them apart and rebuilt them out of the factory they only went 85 miles an hour it was a piece of s*** bad memories of that car scared of driving next to a f****** semi truck on the highway you couldn't get out of the way of anybody cuz the thing wouldn't go over 85 miles an hour unless you did thousands upon thousands of dollars of work to make them go a couple of miles an hour faster like they said it topped out at like 1:30 beefed up to the max they only get about 130 miles an hour my motorcycle 600cc hits 160 stock
I loved my 86. Formula nose, but no rear spoiler. 2.8L V6 automatic. And t-tops. Had to trade it off when my wife was pregnant with our first child. It was our only car. But lord knows, I tried to figure out how to mount that baby carrier in that car.
The one big major improvement that would have been made is the trunk. The extra length of the 1990 Fiero comes from extending the rear spaceframe, and nearly doubling of the size for the trunk. that is why it was two separate opening covers. One for the engine and trunk would have been way too big. I'm still surprised that some sort of body kit hasn't been made to try and duplicate this car.
I owned an 84' 2M4 Fiero for 5 years, then an 86' GT for 20 years. Did a lot of street and strip racing in that car. I believe I still hold the record for fastest stock Fiero.
I've always had luck with the 2.8l v6 in the firebird and the fiero. The 3.1 v6 that Chevy was using in the cameros in the late 80s and early 90s was pretty tough as well.
The GM 3.8 L V-6 was also very good, reliable and powerful since its introduction in the later 1970's an through the various upgraded versions with EFI, supercharger, and proposed- prototype turbo.
I had a 86 gt, loved the car but dealership suck'd on fixing minor problems. Eventually traded it for a anniversary 78 vett which had way more problems.
What you didn't see was the GT clay model with exposed engine bits (valve covers, intake manifold), using the then-new twin cam, 24V V6. The body took inspiration from the IMSA race cars of the period.
@@vice4134 I worked at Pontiac marketing at the time and saw the full-size clay model of the Fieros get created. It could have been a game-changer, much more daring in design than the Corvette.
@@christiansass To elaborate further the 3.4 DOHC LQ1 engine of the Lumina Z34 and Monte Carlo SS was originally developed for the next Fiero GT to be mated with a Getrag 5 speed transaxle. No wonder Corvette was concerned.
I have had three Fiero Gt vehicles. They were fine driving cars with little to no problems. I can't say the Same for my Cadillac SRX. GM really screwed up when they cancelled the Fiero program. Ford & Chrysler had nothing to compare. The four banger was a great commuter vehicle, and the Gt6 was a great fun car, it would have been awesome with a super charged 3800, leaving Ford & Chrysler way behind. Once again, GM is renown for corporate screw ups. Way to go GM, what else can you mess up.
Sorry for the long reply.. But... From what I understand, there Actually was another running prototype. I don't know the numbers, and details as to engine HP and torque figures, but when track tested, it whooped the doors off of the top-end Corvette in performance. Better cornering, better acceleration, better top speed, better braking, and obviously better weight distribution. The big shots at "Vette went to the GM bigshots and pitched a bitch-fit about a Pontiac being able out-do the GM flagship sports car. The "King must not be de-thoned" so to speak. So the the decision was made to cancel the Fiero line, thus eliminating any threat to Corvette. The prototype was crushed and existence of the threat was "conveniently" forgotten. Many will spew the corporate spiel about how the fires of the first gen Fieros severely reduced sales figures. And how the numbers were so dismal by '87 that there was no point in going beyond the 88 year. Blah blah blah.. Well, Those fires occurred in LESS than 1% of the 84's, due to a culmination of issues... 1- Defective con-rods 2- Incorrect stamping of the oil dipsicks, causing then to read "full" when the oil level was actually critically low. 3- Insufficient coolant fill procedure. 4- Drivers thinking they had a Ferrari, and not a Fiero. AND, you don't make a freaking prototype and plan to continue making cars for 3+ more years if the sales are THAT bad! * sniff sniff * Something doesn't smell right... Smells like corporate BULLSHIT. So you have what was supposed to be a Sporty looking commuter car. It is powered by the heavy and low-revving, 151 ci Iron Duke. It has low oil. And possible air entrapment in the cooling system, if it had been drained and INCORRECTLY refilled by some fool who didn't know the difference between a piston and a lugnut. Now add some idiot redlining each shift and whooping the piss out of the poor thing as if it were some exotic sports car. No wonder a handful of them spewed their guts out onto the catalytic converter. (The cat being located just forward of the block, right where a thrown rod would peek through, and dump the rest of the little oil onto that afore-mentioned red hot cat!) POOF! Fire directly below the wiring on the firewall and the intake manifold and accompanying fuel lines. Again. this was in less than ONE percent of the 1984 models. (All 84's had the duke) The recalls addressed the mechanical issues by replacing the con-rods with ones that were up to spec, Replacing the errant dipsticks, and a detailed booklet on how to properly flush and fill the coolant. That solved the first three issues. As for #4, well, no one can do much about stupidity. I'm the current, and second owner of an '84 SE with 65K original miles. All stock, (Been fixed in recall) and It still runs like a champ. Paint job is shot, and the sun has baked the interior vinyl, swelling the sections around the radio cluster and the 4-speed shifter a bit, but she still runs & drives just fine! Fortunately, the original owner possessed an uncommon trait, mistakenly known as "common sense" and didn't beat the car, and responded to the recall in a timely manner. I have had 'er since 2009. (Bought with 32k miles)
@@Cammi_Rosalie Yep...since at least the 1950s Chevy always had to go running and crying to GM brass to make them stop Pontiac from beating up on them with vastly superior prototypes & engineering in general. Disgusting. 🤬. Hell, Chevy even ripped off the original Pontiac V8 valvetrain design for their very first small block in 1955, and Pontiac was literally decades ahead of them with "reverse flow cooling", "air-gap intake manifolds", etc., right from the beginning that year...and unlike Chevy, Pontiac actually knew how to build an engine where you could simply swap the timing set without dropping the freakin pan, change plugs at the track without having to wait for the headers to cool off and swap the intake without having to pull the dizzy! Ridiculous! 😂
I had a regular fiero that went on fire like they did. I took off my coat and smothered the fire. Next day I replaced the plugs and rewired it was good as new. Always had a soft spot for them because just as they got good they were cancelled. Good work in quitting on the good cars and finding the shitty lifeless cars General.
Bought one brand new in 84. Had no pre conceived notions as to what it was as far as performance, handling fit and finish etc. was concerned.All I knew was that GM was in a place with this car that could change everything ! It was my street legal air conditioned stereo equipped 2 seater Go kart.The possibilities it represented with its inno vative body panel system and rear engine configuration made this freshman entry into the American car market and its fairly obvious shortcomings more than forgivable.I was looking to the not so distant future,with Pontiac taking this newborn to the promised land of 6 speed short throw thumb paddle shifting, ABS brakes, 300 or so horsepower with the Aftermarket heavy hitters spewing upgrades in bodywork, Gull wing doors and 200 or so more Horsepower worth of induction and exhaust bolt ons...And that would ultimately lead to at least a couple more incarnations that would find there way in the GM line up,triumphantly finding their places at Caddilac (imagine that one for a moment) and Oldsmobile between this little red 4 banger and how the rear engine Corvette that should have been in production 20 years ago would be in the here and now.. But sadly , it was bean counters and not Engineers and artisans at the helm of An automaker that was for one magical instant poised for totally sending the worlds auto industry to face their biggest WTF? triple snap wake up in yesterday Bitch slap in history. Sometimes I wonder just what could have resulted if Lee Iacocca had stepped in and Roger Smith was nothing more than a really bad strip of blotter acid I took in the Cobo parking garage before I spent the day at the 93 Auto show...Then this whole tragedy might have been no more than a freddy kruger level hallucination...
I spent the 1970's and 80's selling GM cars and trucks and remember in the early 70's when they became obsessed with the bottom line. I was at a sales conference for Chevrolet and Robert Cook a VP, stated that they were not in the auto business but the business of making money and would manufacture refrigerators if it was more profitable. I look back at the demise of Pontiac and of Oldsmobile and see two Pontiacs that seem to enbody possibility and one, the Aztec that should never have been built. If Pontiac could go back and build the Fiero and the Soltice properly, they could definitely have stopped people from buying so many Miatas.
Pontiac totally flubbed by cancelling the Fierro with a slick prototype like that. Could've been a major contender for the MR2. I love the MR2 but that looks better. 👍
It wasn't Pontiac's fault; GM did it because they were insanely paranoid for decades that Pontiac Motor Division would embarrass their largest division Chevy all day, every day...because, whenever they were left unfettered for even a moment, they DID...and GM couldn't have THAT ..
Pretty sure that engine in the '90 prototype is a 3.4 DOHC production engine only dressed with specially made covers. Not likely they made a special 3.2 DOHC to put in it, as was stated in the video. FWIW
The front nose of the 90 car looks almost identical to the M4S Turbo Interceptor. Looks like they just copied the front and back half of other cars and came up with this.
fwddodge22 I can see that. The sidemarkers and blinkers look like they’d swap right out with the ones on my MR2T and the buttresses in the rear and the engine lid also look the same. It’s uncanny really
Aww, I cried. How can I reach Mike? I want to buy it. Ten months later, I just watched it and again, cried. I am not an easy crier I just love cars so much especially the 1980's and 1990's sports cars.
Even though I'm a GM fan (not of anything newer than 07) them waiting so long to fix the problems with this car pisses me off. If they had gotten it sorted out by 85 or 86, this car would have lived on a little longer
That is no coincidence. The styling was used on the 4th gen Firebird after the Fiero was cancelled. The Fiero cluster that you see here was also used in the Firebird. It's wearing a Firebird GTA badge because that's what they had laying around and probably stuck it on there to imagine this body style on the new Firebird. It doesn't necessarily mean that's what they would have called the Fiero.
@@jscott1000 Did You all notice the GTA Fiero emblem has "Trans Am" printed inside the emblem ? clearly the tail assembly is very similar with the Firebird Trans Am, later produced.
3:32 what was the first car you got to drive on the first need for speed? Wasn't it a nissan 240sx? This kind of looks just like it. This fiero is by far the sickest I've seen. The wouldn't of been able to keep this model on the shelves lol or floor I should say.
Had they produced the 90 proto I feel it would have pulled sales from the Vette. Had they put the supercharged 3.8 it would have made the Vette obsolete.
GM shit all over the Fiero program. What's ironic is it only took them 30 years to come back to the mid-engine with the Corvette. This thing could have been beating the doors off of 348s and 944s with the right mill and a little bit better development.
lol ya big problems. never even heard of a 90 prototype till this video we had 3 fiero's growing up. Pontiac was a head of there time in the 80s and 90s they should of never joined gm.
jboogie yeah!for sure, I saw the video of the making of the 1990 Pontiac fiero, it was more higher and wider. it would of made huge turnaround for Pontiac. when I saw the video of the car, I said wow.
This car lived on as the 4th generation Firebirds in terms of styling. The 90 Prototype is too similar to a Trans Am. Sales would've been bleak or at least would've stolen from the F body who's sales were already declining.
The Fiero was the average mans only way to get a mid engine platform sports car. I don't understand why no other American manufacturers offered a mid engine model. I would love to have one myself.
All because of Chevrolet, with their political corporation agendas to force Pontiac to drop the Fiero two seater mid- engine with its best styling cues model for either '89 or '90 for mass production. A shame indeed if Pontiac, was to continue to produce such a car like the '90 Fiero and to further its increase in the market and todays markets the Pontiac, wouldn't be defunct in '02 alongside with both Pontiac Firebird T.A. and Chevrolet, Camaro formulas. Ironic though Chevrolet Corvette didn't want to compete with the Pontiac Fiero 30 plus years ago and yet 20yrs. ago both early '90's and '00's Pontiac and Camaro formulas did indeed compete yet shared the same engine platform of the V8 yet Chevrolet Corvette can't coexist to do same for the Fiero? Imagine not only both '90's and early '00's Firebird and Camaro formulas competed with one another but Fiero and Corvette as well, which car enthusiasts would've enjoyed. Bowtie Vs. Phoenix.
Fiero died in 1988. LS1 started production in 1997. Couldn’t happen. And even if it could have, it would have been automatic. Something like 70% of the Fieros were automatic.
They should have put the 3.8 turbo in it like the grand national. Then it would actually be a sports car. Coming from the muscle car error we couldn't help but laugh at a little go cart with an under powered small v-6. But then most cars in the 70s and 80s we're pretty much neutered by then. But the absolute worst of all were the 74'-90' corvettes those were an embarrassment to all vettes that had come before.
I’d love to see GM revive the fiero. It was such a cool car and had so much potential.
Be cool if the guys who are building Trans Ams off the new Camaros built up some modern Fieros.
That'd be great but I wouldn't hold my breath. GM showed it was willing to destroy the entire world if necessary to put Pontiac out of business with decades of sabotaging PMD to keep it from leaving Chevy in the dust.
I would live it if they did bring it back. I LOVED the Fiero when it was available. But just missed out on getting one. I was stationed in Europe for the duration of its manufacturing run.
Never cared much for Ford's, Chevy's, GM's etc. but Pontiac was a badass company. In the 80's, all their sports cars looked much cooler than all the competition's cars to me. Really wish they didn't go under. Not having Pontiac around as an option today for an American sports car sucks and was a big mistake imo...
Pontiac was my favorite American Manufacturer. I had one 1984 Fiero and missed so much. A great little car.
Pontiac should have continued production!
They did it's just called a corvette and comes with a v8 now.
@@acgsix6844 lol
What happened there was a prototype Fiero the had an all aluminum fiero (N*star rumored) which ran better than the then Corvettes. That is when the Corvette guys started to demand the fiero be cancelled to protect the vette. Combined with low sales # of th 88s, that was it. the 89/90's version would have been awesome with the Quad 4s, and the 3.4 dohc v6s.
In fact, this car did hit production. Not as a Pontiac and not as a mid-engine car.
I miss my 86 Pontiac sunbird
Fiero has got to be the biggest "What if?" GM has had in the last 50 years. GM corporate shit all over this program, and Pontiac in general from the mid 80's on.
Even before the 80s. GM always treated Pontiac as the proverbial "red-headed stepchild." When John DeLorean ran Pontiac in the early 60s he developed and released the GTO in total secrecy. He got away with it because it made lots of money for GM. When the Mustang came out, GM ordered Chevrolet and Pontiac to develop a competing car. Chevy built the Camaro. Pontiac built the Banshee. Only problem with the Banshee was it violated The General Motors Prime Directive and was better than the Corvette. So GM forced Pontiac to create the soon to be Firebird and base it on the Camaro. So in typical Pontiac fashion, Pontiac took a Chevy and made it better looking and a better performing car.
@@knytrydr73 maybe we can convince Elon to bring back Pontiac LOL
@@christiansass - I'd have no problem with that. LOL
@@knytrydr73 I hate to say it but the same was true in 2009. 🤬
Actually, Saturn was probably even lower on the totem pole then because they had fixed the customer experience of the other GM divisions and the other divisions REALLY hated that.
I still have and own my 1986 Fiero GT since I purchased it new From Larry Fall Pontiac in Schaumburg, IL (restoring entire car) documenting as much of the Restoration as possible.
Can I buy it?
It's very cool that they cared enough to raffle off the last two to employees.
Cars Simplified
Agreed 👍
Right, surprisingly cool.
I own a White 2M4 1986 (automatic) that I bought new. Today I show it in "survivor" class, it does very well. Many Rt 66 rallys. Owes me zilch, no troubles to speak of: No fires. Overheats. Elect. Problems. Leaks. Does not use-burn oil. I drive it to events and home, wife goes shopping with the Fiero. Never to a car wash, never smoked it.
FYI. 💝My car! Not for sale.
I still have my 87 owned her since 1997
Can I buy it?
Makes me sad to see this, I miss Pontiac and I felt the Fiero was a victim of corporate politics..
HWolfeIII it was.
IMO one of the biggest blunders in GM history. This could have been the car that saved gm and took them into the new millennium on top.
Can you imagine the car today with modern high hp reliable engines and technology?
The whole thing didn't get the attention it deserved simply due to lack of interest from GM. Poor quality, bad rep, etc due to low quality control. By the time they got the bugs worked out it was cancelled.
They could have marketed it if they had a clue. The base version was the PERFECT grocery getter or student off to college car. Then have performance versions for those who wanted more. In 84/85 I was thinking of getting one just to commute back and forth to work in. Great on gas, easy to park, and had place to put luggage.
The real problem is? It would have competed with the darling corvette in performance and no, can't have that!
@@muskokamike127 I agree, with you. If you studied the history of the Fiero's development, Pontiac had to make a lot of compromises just to get the car to market...
@@HWolfeIII I know a bit not as much as aficionados tho. That's the problem with car makers: they would ruin a perfectly good product line in order to protect another not realizing for a second that anyone interested in a corvette wouldn't look twice at a fiero and vice versa.
Kind of like how Ford refused to sell the 4 door ranger in North America because they wanted to sell more F150's and wouldn't bring the Focus R/S over for years because it would compete with the mustang. However, again, someone interested in the Focus wasn't in the market for a mustang.
Think of this car now with so many makers building mid engine sports cars and selling them for HUGE money. This thing (other than the weak engine) had that going on 36 years ago. Now people are AMAZED at vehicle built with aluminum bodies and space frames again, fiero did it 36 yrs ago.
I think if they increased the size by about 20%, put in modern suspension and drive train, it would sell like hotcakes. "oh but it would compete with the new mid engine corvette" no it wouldn't. People in the market for a Corvette would not look twice at a Fiero.
@@muskokamike127 Another example of this kind of repressive thinking was the decision to kill the Buick Regal Grand National in 1987 .A GNX could smoke a heavily modified twin turbo Calloway Corvette and some in the automotive press, actually scorned GM for allowing their so called old folks division for engineering a Regal that could destroy their halo car. So forget about sales, innovation and popularity. We can't allow anything to disturb the status quo.
Omg..that GTA is so badass
It looks like a mini firebird and since the bird has the moniker "screaming chicken" this could be the "screaming sparrow".
Almost bought a Fiero GT when those came out. Thanks for all the great info in this video!
Wow. 495 miles. In my opinion, the most coveted Fiero is the last production year with the Lotus suspension and the optional T-tops.
You can see the 1993 Firebird influences in that red prototype.
Yup. Gauge cluster is almost identical.
I was at the 20th anniversary and have owned a few Fieros (first one and first car was an 88 Formula) so was psyched to see this video pop up in my feed. Even more suprised to see I'm in the video when they opened the deck lid! What a cool throwback to remember that fun trip and such cool people. Out of all the car and motorcycle communities I've been a part of not one has come close to how helpful, friendly, and willing to go far out of thier way to keep another owner out on the road. Thanks for uploading this!
I had a couple of them myself 2m4 and a gt. Loved the cockpit feel when I drove them, and the handling was fun with its independent suspension I believe. And believe or not I’d put fatter tires on during the winter and it would handle just fine. Good times
I've had go karts that were faster than the Fiero I had to myself they wouldn't go over 85 mph unless you ripped them apart and rebuilt them out of the factory they only went 85 miles an hour it was a piece of s*** bad memories of that car scared of driving next to a f****** semi truck on the highway you couldn't get out of the way of anybody cuz the thing wouldn't go over 85 miles an hour unless you did thousands upon thousands of dollars of work to make them go a couple of miles an hour faster like they said it topped out at like 1:30 beefed up to the max they only get about 130 miles an hour my motorcycle 600cc hits 160 stock
@@Robert-kc7on
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣 Get outta here. You don't know what the heck you're talking about. Jeez!
I loved my 86. Formula nose, but no rear spoiler. 2.8L V6 automatic. And t-tops.
Had to trade it off when my wife was pregnant with our first child. It was our only car. But lord knows, I tried to figure out how to mount that baby carrier in that car.
Same thing with my 79 TA. Chick kept on popping out babies.
The one big major improvement that would have been made is the trunk. The extra length of the 1990 Fiero comes from extending the rear spaceframe, and nearly doubling of the size for the trunk. that is why it was two separate opening covers. One for the engine and trunk would have been way too big.
I'm still surprised that some sort of body kit hasn't been made to try and duplicate this car.
I have owned an 87 gt for 10 years. It's still my favorite car.
I owned an 84' 2M4 Fiero for 5 years, then an 86' GT for 20 years. Did a lot of street and strip racing in that car. I believe I still hold the record for fastest stock Fiero.
A gray 90 Fiero concept is parked on the street in Back to the Future II
I've always had luck with the 2.8l v6 in the firebird and the fiero. The 3.1 v6 that Chevy was using in the cameros in the late 80s and early 90s was pretty tough as well.
The GM 3.8 L V-6 was also very good, reliable and powerful since its introduction in the later 1970's an through the various upgraded versions with EFI, supercharger, and proposed- prototype turbo.
Ihad two fiero 1988 formula still have one been in garage since 1998 collecting dust should do something with it
It was fun to at least just hope that someday these could be made to be more than what they ended up becoming. GM strikes out again!
God I wish this had come out. It's even cooler since it didn't, but still.
GM really missed the mark by not bringing back the Fiero name back in the early 00's by rebadging Opel Speedsters/Vauxhall VX220's for the US market.
Always wanted one of them cars.
So sad this car never received the motor it deserved
The Buick GN engine or the SC 3.8 would have made it a road killer.
I had a 86 gt, loved the car but dealership suck'd on fixing minor problems. Eventually traded it for a anniversary 78 vett which had way more problems.
What you didn't see was the GT clay model with exposed engine bits (valve covers, intake manifold), using the then-new twin cam, 24V V6. The body took inspiration from the IMSA race cars of the period.
The GTP clay model looks even nicer.
@@vice4134 I worked at Pontiac marketing at the time and saw the full-size clay model of the Fieros get created. It could have been a game-changer, much more daring in design than the Corvette.
@@rlsedition
Yeah, that must be the GTP.
@@vice4134 I believe it was.
I LIKE THE WAY THEY DID THE DASH
It was basically what became the Firebird dash.
The Corvette Division lobbied to have the Fiero cancelled because it was taking sales from the Corvette. IMO this lead to Pontiac itself going away.
couldn't agree more!
@@christiansass To elaborate further the 3.4 DOHC LQ1 engine of the Lumina Z34 and Monte Carlo SS was originally developed for the next Fiero GT to be mated with a Getrag 5 speed transaxle. No wonder Corvette was concerned.
@@bruces3613 have you seen Hulkis speach in this series.. he basically all but confirms this line
No, I came upon this information at Pennock's Fiero Forum about 20 years ago.
I had a fully-loaded '88 gt, miss that car...
I hear you...I had a 86 and an 87 GT.
@@captainmorgan5449 the 88 had turbo too, had a chance to swap straight-across for a vette but I preferred what I had 🤗
@@BubbafromSapperton
Cool. I kept both cars stocked with the 2.8 V6. Interior was stock also right down to the cassette tape player and GM radio
I have had three Fiero Gt vehicles. They were fine driving cars with little to no problems. I can't say the Same for my Cadillac SRX.
GM really screwed up when they cancelled the Fiero program.
Ford & Chrysler had nothing to compare.
The four banger was a great commuter vehicle, and the Gt6 was a great fun car, it would have been awesome with a super charged 3800, leaving Ford & Chrysler way behind.
Once again, GM is renown for corporate screw ups. Way to go GM, what else can you mess up.
My mother in law has a 88 gt still looks new no rust hers is red it has 49,000 miles on it
If your talking about the body having no rust, it's because they are made from fiberglass .
@@michaelhollon5332 no plastics
Pontiac, YOU HAD ONE JOB.
Wasn't corvette a little worried about this car so they canned it . I remember these cars growing up . Cool then , cool now.
Sorry for the long reply.. But...
From what I understand, there Actually was another running prototype. I don't know the numbers, and details as to engine HP and torque figures, but when track tested, it whooped the doors off of the top-end Corvette in performance. Better cornering, better acceleration, better top speed, better braking, and obviously better weight distribution. The big shots at "Vette went to the GM bigshots and pitched a bitch-fit about a Pontiac being able out-do the GM flagship sports car. The "King must not be de-thoned" so to speak. So the the decision was made to cancel the Fiero line, thus eliminating any threat to Corvette. The prototype was crushed and existence of the threat was "conveniently" forgotten.
Many will spew the corporate spiel about how the fires of the first gen Fieros severely reduced sales figures. And how the numbers were so dismal by '87 that there was no point in going beyond the 88 year. Blah blah blah..
Well, Those fires occurred in LESS than 1% of the 84's, due to a culmination of issues...
1- Defective con-rods
2- Incorrect stamping of the oil dipsicks, causing then to read "full" when the oil level was actually critically low.
3- Insufficient coolant fill procedure.
4- Drivers thinking they had a Ferrari, and not a Fiero.
AND, you don't make a freaking prototype and plan to continue making cars for 3+ more years if the sales are THAT bad!
* sniff sniff * Something doesn't smell right... Smells like corporate BULLSHIT.
So you have what was supposed to be a Sporty looking commuter car. It is powered by the heavy and low-revving, 151 ci Iron Duke. It has low oil. And possible air entrapment in the cooling system, if it had been drained and INCORRECTLY refilled by some fool who didn't know the difference between a piston and a lugnut. Now add some idiot redlining each shift and whooping the piss out of the poor thing as if it were some exotic sports car. No wonder a handful of them spewed their guts out onto the catalytic converter. (The cat being located just forward of the block, right where a thrown rod would peek through, and dump the rest of the little oil onto that afore-mentioned red hot cat!) POOF! Fire directly below the wiring on the firewall and the intake manifold and accompanying fuel lines. Again. this was in less than ONE percent of the 1984 models. (All 84's had the duke)
The recalls addressed the mechanical issues by replacing the con-rods with ones that were up to spec, Replacing the errant dipsticks, and a detailed booklet on how to properly flush and fill the coolant. That solved the first three issues. As for #4, well, no one can do much about stupidity.
I'm the current, and second owner of an '84 SE with 65K original miles. All stock, (Been fixed in recall) and It still runs like a champ. Paint job is shot, and the sun has baked the interior vinyl, swelling the sections around the radio cluster and the 4-speed shifter a bit, but she still runs & drives just fine! Fortunately, the original owner possessed an uncommon trait, mistakenly known as "common sense" and didn't beat the car, and responded to the recall in a timely manner. I have had 'er since 2009. (Bought with 32k miles)
@@Cammi_Rosalie Yep...since at least the 1950s Chevy always had to go running and crying to GM brass to make them stop Pontiac from beating up on them with vastly superior prototypes & engineering in general. Disgusting. 🤬. Hell, Chevy even ripped off the original Pontiac V8 valvetrain design for their very first small block in 1955, and Pontiac was literally decades ahead of them with "reverse flow cooling", "air-gap intake manifolds", etc., right from the beginning that year...and unlike Chevy, Pontiac actually knew how to build an engine where you could simply swap the timing set without dropping the freakin pan, change plugs at the track without having to wait for the headers to cool off and swap the intake without having to pull the dizzy! Ridiculous! 😂
I owned a few gts back in the day.
Awesome Looking Car Every Cool That GM Suppose To Make They Never Get Built
The 90's prototype looks a lot like a camaro of the time period.
I had a regular fiero that went on fire like they did. I took off my coat and smothered the fire. Next day I replaced the plugs and rewired it was good as new. Always had a soft spot for them because just as they got good they were cancelled. Good work in quitting on the good cars and finding the shitty lifeless cars General.
Bought one brand new in 84. Had no pre conceived notions as to what it was as far as performance, handling fit and finish etc. was concerned.All I knew was that GM was in a place with this car that could change everything ! It was my street legal air conditioned stereo equipped 2 seater Go kart.The possibilities it represented with its inno vative body panel system and rear engine configuration made this freshman entry into the American car market and its fairly obvious shortcomings more than forgivable.I was looking to the not so distant future,with Pontiac taking this newborn to the promised land of 6 speed short throw thumb paddle shifting, ABS brakes, 300 or so horsepower with the Aftermarket heavy hitters spewing upgrades in bodywork, Gull wing doors and 200 or so more Horsepower worth of induction and exhaust bolt ons...And that would ultimately lead to at least a couple more incarnations that would find there way in the GM line up,triumphantly finding their places at Caddilac (imagine that one for a moment) and Oldsmobile between this little red 4 banger and how the rear engine Corvette that should have been in production 20 years ago would be in the here and now.. But sadly , it was bean counters and not Engineers and artisans at the helm of An automaker that was for one magical instant poised for totally sending the worlds auto industry to face their biggest WTF? triple snap wake up in yesterday Bitch slap in history. Sometimes I wonder just what could have resulted if Lee Iacocca had stepped in and Roger Smith was nothing more than a really bad strip of blotter acid I took in the Cobo parking garage before I spent the day at the 93 Auto show...Then this whole tragedy might have been no more than a freddy kruger level hallucination...
This was the car that got Chevy Corvette shiver!!!
I SECOND THAT!!!
Cool video, cool car too!
My first car was a 84 Fiero, I wish I would have kept it 😣
my first was an 84 as well. I bought and daily drove an '86 GT for 20 years after. Really wish I had kept the GT.
Plenty of good Fieros around to build up!
I am putting a NA 3800 into mine, as the 2.5l tech 4s are dogs.
someday ill do the same but with a SC
I spent the 1970's and 80's selling GM cars and trucks and remember in the early 70's when they became obsessed with the bottom line. I was at a sales conference for Chevrolet and Robert Cook a VP, stated that they were not in the auto business but the business of making money and would manufacture refrigerators if it was more profitable. I look back at the demise of Pontiac and of Oldsmobile and see two Pontiacs that seem to enbody possibility and one, the Aztec that should never have been built. If Pontiac could go back and build the Fiero and the Soltice properly, they could definitely have stopped people from buying so many Miatas.
Actually, Aztec was so far ahead of time. Even now, Lambo actually copied Aztec and made their own version. It's now popular.
very interesting and informative !
Pontiac totally flubbed by cancelling the Fierro with a slick prototype like that. Could've been a major contender for the MR2. I love the MR2 but that looks better. 👍
Totally agree
It wasn't Pontiac's fault; GM did it because they were insanely paranoid for decades that Pontiac Motor Division would embarrass their largest division Chevy all day, every day...because, whenever they were left unfettered for even a moment, they DID...and GM couldn't have THAT ..
@@serfcityherewecome8069 keep forgetting GM had a tendency to do that. 👍
Pretty sure that engine in the '90 prototype is a 3.4 DOHC production engine only dressed with specially made covers. Not likely they made a special 3.2 DOHC to put in it, as was stated in the video. FWIW
“The 90 car” looks so much like a MKII MR2 Turbo (Coincidently also a 1990 car)
The front nose of the 90 car looks almost identical to the M4S Turbo Interceptor. Looks like they just copied the front and back half of other cars and came up with this.
fwddodge22
I can see that. The sidemarkers and blinkers look like they’d swap right out with the ones on my MR2T and the buttresses in the rear and the engine lid also look the same. It’s uncanny really
It sounds like the factory guys were proud of the cars they had been making.
The Worst Enemy of G. M. is
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GENERAL MOTORS
Can someone clarify if the sub frame is still the 88 model? They say in the video its longer. The shell of the car was made longer?
@tonyf8358
Yes, the frame is still the same as 88 model.
The guy lifting the trunklid at 1:56 sums up the stereotype for most domestic fans perfectly.
papasmurf986
Omg he does. He’s like the living embodiment of late 80’s domestic guy.
It makes a person wonder wtf GM was smoking back then when they dis-continued the Fieros Smh! Probably, crack! LMAO!
Its a good looking car.
1:48 sweet mullet
2:43
That's a 4th gen firebird gauge cluster
The Fiero GTA is gorgeous, but it wouldn't make sense if you could have just chosen the Trans Am GTA. So much more car for the money.
nah, 3rd gens are boats, fiero would walk all over that car on a track.
FYI, Fiero never had GTA!!! It was a Firebird rebadged. They were gonna make GT and GTP before being cancelled.
Aww, I cried. How can I reach Mike? I want to buy it. Ten months later, I just watched it and again, cried. I am not an easy crier I just love cars so much especially the 1980's and 1990's sports cars.
Cool video
Pontiac went from producing bad ass cars in the 60’s to nothing more than a foot note in GM history books. 65 GTO!!
Don't forget the Grand National
@@michaelhollon5332 GN was Buick
Even though I'm a GM fan (not of anything newer than 07) them waiting so long to fix the problems with this car pisses me off. If they had gotten it sorted out by 85 or 86, this car would have lived on a little longer
GM didn't give Pontiac the time or money to be able to improve the Fiero properly.
The GTA looks an awful lot like what the Trans Am turned into.
I was thinking that...I think the 90 Fiero would have sold like hotcakes
That is no coincidence. The styling was used on the 4th gen Firebird after the Fiero was cancelled. The Fiero cluster that you see here was also used in the Firebird. It's wearing a Firebird GTA badge because that's what they had laying around and probably stuck it on there to imagine this body style on the new Firebird. It doesn't necessarily mean that's what they would have called the Fiero.
@@jscott1000 Did You all notice the GTA Fiero emblem has "Trans Am" printed inside the emblem ?
clearly the tail assembly is very similar with the Firebird Trans Am, later produced.
1:40 look at that!!!!! Inlove...
3:32 what was the first car you got to drive on the first need for speed? Wasn't it a nissan 240sx? This kind of looks just like it. This fiero is by far the sickest I've seen. The wouldn't of been able to keep this model on the shelves lol or floor I should say.
Acura NSX
Beautiful car almost pisses me off terrible it was not produced because the car should have went into production hands down best looking Fiera
Looks like a Ford Probe and MR2 Turbo had a baby.
Had they produced the 90 proto I feel it would have pulled sales from the Vette. Had they put the supercharged 3.8 it would have made the Vette obsolete.
Who cares!!! That's corvette problem, not Fiero. Why punish Fiero for Corvette's incomplete job?
@@vice4134 the downfall of the fiero was it's power. It could have replaced the Vette . But look now at the Vette, it's a fiero.
The quad 4 should have been the engine in the regular Fiero.
They should have produced the red 3.1 I think they said nice for the day
Looks like a 180sx! Hot.
GM shit all over the Fiero program. What's ironic is it only took them 30 years to come back to the mid-engine with the Corvette. This thing could have been beating the doors off of 348s and 944s with the right mill and a little bit better development.
Do you know where the 1990 prototype is located? Is it in a museum?
3:28 NICE!!!!
Nice...
That 90 would have been a game changer for Pontiac! Idiots had to go pull the plug on a sweet car with a shit load of potential.
there would be no corvette for sure. that dohc lq1 in the fiero would take an 90 vete any day
Johnny Bee I'm sure the guys over at Chevy shit their pants and had a fit once they got wind of that 90 prototype.
lol ya big problems. never even heard of a 90 prototype till this video we had 3 fiero's growing up. Pontiac was a head of there time in the 80s and 90s they should of never joined gm.
jboogie yeah!for sure, I saw the video of the making of the 1990 Pontiac fiero, it was more higher and wider. it would of made huge turnaround for Pontiac. when I saw the video of the car, I said wow.
This car lived on as the 4th generation Firebirds in terms of styling. The 90 Prototype is too similar to a Trans Am. Sales would've been bleak or at least would've stolen from the F body who's sales were already declining.
SWEET!
The Fiero was the average mans only way to get a mid engine platform sports car. I don't understand why no other American manufacturers offered a mid engine model. I would love to have one myself.
If GM has a good thing going you can count on it being cancelled
Still have my 87 GT that I bought new...
A second gen Fiero would have gotten the HO Quad 4 and would have been the best thing ever,
V10 put in straightways
All because of Chevrolet, with their political corporation agendas to force Pontiac to drop the Fiero two seater mid- engine with its best styling cues model for either '89 or '90 for mass production. A shame indeed if Pontiac, was to continue to produce such a car like the '90 Fiero and to further its increase in the market and todays markets the Pontiac, wouldn't be defunct in '02 alongside with both Pontiac Firebird T.A. and Chevrolet, Camaro formulas. Ironic though Chevrolet Corvette didn't want to compete with the Pontiac Fiero 30 plus years ago and yet 20yrs. ago both early '90's and '00's Pontiac and Camaro formulas did indeed compete yet shared the same engine platform of the V8 yet Chevrolet Corvette can't coexist to do same for the Fiero? Imagine not only both '90's and early '00's Firebird and Camaro formulas competed with one another but Fiero and Corvette as well, which car enthusiasts would've enjoyed. Bowtie Vs. Phoenix.
Shoulda came with an LS 1 engine with a 6spd in it!
It did its called the Trans Am
@@Swanlord05 the gt looks like one
Fiero died in 1988. LS1 started production in 1997. Couldn’t happen. And even if it could have, it would have been automatic. Something like 70% of the Fieros were automatic.
Of course a man with a mullet is opening the trunk, I’m assuming he’s the owner. Still a sharp car
Only the last 2 cars got the best parts. So... all the cars to that point got the "not so good" parts?
They got the same things all 88 models got. It's the best year to have.
Looks cool, but I prefer the previous style.
That last fiero just sold for $90,000
I know! i hoping to do a video review soon!
I have a friend who has an 85 gt convertible. Let me know where I can send you some pics.
fast... Faster... FASTEST !!!
how come all their best stuff never gets made for our consumption. They seem to pass up on some of the best ideas.
Widebody before time the wrath
So, a kit car with a GTA Trans Am badge?
That GTA I bet would have done good if it came with a v8 doesn't look to bad
That was the problem.. it would have murdered the corvette and Chevy knew it.
@@toddrobertson1398 yeah still though.Would have been cool back then.
Wow that would have kicked the vettes ass
They should have put the 3.8 turbo in it like the grand national. Then it would actually be a sports car. Coming from the muscle car error we couldn't help but laugh at a little go cart with an under powered small v-6. But then most cars in the 70s and 80s we're pretty much neutered by then. But the absolute worst of all were the 74'-90' corvettes those were an embarrassment to all vettes that had come before.
Is actually a sports car? You know, like fast for it's time with at least a bit of handling? Because that would be a rare Fiero indeed...
I like the 1986-88 styling of the GT better. The prototype is longer, and styling to me isn't as good.
I agree
Looks like a trans am
agreed
looks like the dodge rs4 in the wraith movie.
it has a 93 style fbody cluster