1984 Pontiac Fiero SE review from North America

I bought my Fiero on Ebay for $177.50. It was advertised as "not running" with "electrical problems". I trailered it home, changed the battery, plugs, wires, cap, rotor, and gas and it fired right up. It hesitated badly, but a quick trip to the muffler shop for a new catalytic converter cured that. The car ran great for four months and was the definition of pure joy to drive.

Aside from the engine having a red-line of only 5000 rpm, the following is not the car's fault.

I was attempting to merge with traffic doing 65 mph, but the lady in front of me on her cell phone was only doing approximately 30 mph. I shoulder checked, downshifted from fourth to third, dumped the clutch and nailed the gas. Unfortunately for me, I did not get the shifter pushed far enough forward. The transmission being a little difficult to shift at times, immediately popped out of third gear into neutral and I watched as the tachometer hit well above 6000 rpms, before I could take my foot off the floor. I could not get back into the right lane and was forced to drive the car another 1/2 mile before I could get pulled over. In that time, the car overheated and blew a head gasket.

At this time, I decided to do something never done before, and was nearing completion when I was called to active duty for an 18 month long tour in Iraq. But once I get back home, I will resume this astronomical undertaking with renewed vigor. Due to confidentiality, I cannot share more details, but I can tell you this: The Iron Duke is dead and a Nissan engine has received the nod to take its place.

As the only mid-engine car ever produced in America, I am truly surprised that the Fiero has not achieved super-star status. However, with their numbers decreasing rapidly, I would not be surprised to see their value begin to climb.

The handling is on par with that of much more expensive cars. I have never in my life driven a car more nimble and responsive than the Pontiac Fiero. And the common misconception about these cars is that they are fireballs waiting to happen. These cars were originally designed to be their own cars, but last-minute budget cuts reduced it to yet another "on-the-shelf" parts car, thrown together with a hodge-podge of parts from other lines. The result was a fairly decent car with a fast looking stance and no hardware to back up the looks. The 2.5 liter engine was taken from the S-10 pick-up of the day and when a sports car is equipped with a truck engine, disaster can be the only outcome. People that buy sports cars are often guilty of driving their purchases like sports cars. But if the heart and soul of your sports car is a truck engine, then it must be driven like a truck if it is to survive. Weak connecting rods often failed and would punch through the side of the block, showering the super-hot exhaust manifold with a flammable oil mist, capable of engulfing the engine compartment within seconds and the entire car within minutes. This is the reason behind the famous fires that tarnished the Fiero name and forever buried the Pegasus. Pontiac remedied this problem by doing the American thing and taking the easy way out. Rather than replace the weak components, they simply placed a heat shield between the side of the block and the exhaust manifold.

If Pontiac were to ever come out with a retro model, such as Dodge with the Charger and Ford with the Mustang, I would HIGHLY suggest that they do it with the Fiero. Fix the flaws, do it right this time, and for God's sake, ignore the gas guzzling V-8 crowd and go with a turbocharged, water-injected, high-revving, super high output, dual overhead cam, 16 valve, 4 cyl. capable of generating 180+ horsepower. Get it under 1900 lbs. and get the power to weight ratio down around 11-12:1. If the American automakers wish to compete with the Japanese, they are going to have to dig their heads out of the sand and start competing with them on their own level. Times have changed and not everyone in the world wants a V-8 that can pass anything, but a gas station.