Misunderstood Car Pontiac Fiero

Is the Pontiac Fiero really one of the worst cars ever built by General Motors? The Fiero was a misunderstood vehicle. It was one of the first mid-engine cars built by GM in the 1980s. The Fiero was not a perfect car. It had many flaws.

One of the biggest flaws was the weak 2.5 liter four cylinder engine better known as the “Iron Duke.” This four cylinder engine put out a very poor 92 horsepower. A lot of 80s GM automobiles used the Iron Duke such as the S10 truck, the Chevy Cavalier, and the Chevy Citation.

GM did make the largest mistake by putting the Duke in a 1982 Camaro. The engine was too weak for a 3000 pound car. For the Fiero, it was good for fuel efficiency. The Fiero had a near 50 MPG rating because of that engine and the weight of the car. The Fiero had a weight of around 2500 pounds.

The Fiero was kept separate from the from other GM manufacturing teams. Designed by George Mildrag and Hulki Aldikacti, the Fiero was almost an unwanted child of the General Motors family. They did not really want this built. Hulki had to put his own team of car builders together to get the Fiero project off the ground.

The design of the car was an Italian inspired sports car. GM claimed they did not have the money to have this built the way Hulki wanted it because of the toll the gas crises had taken on the auto industry during the early 1980s. Because of the gas crises, GM wanted the car more fuel efficient. The Fiero could not be called a sports car because of the crises.

It was called a commuter car. GM claimed the car could not be built from the blue prints. Hulki was an unconventional designer and builder. The original manufacturing team kept sending the blue prints back to Hulki. The first team killed the project. Hulki would not let this setback denture him.

Hulki put together his own team with a group of manufactures and car engineers working together side by side at the same time. This was the first time this was ever done. GM management gave only $400,000,000 for this project. That seems like a lot of money for mass producing a car. In the world of auto manufacturing, it is not.

The low amount of money for building the Fiero was a large contributor of the problems the

Fiero endured. The Fiero team had to dig into the parts bin for the suspension, engine, and other components. The font suspension was borrowed from the Chevy Chevette The rear suspension was borrowed from the front suspension of the Pontiac Phoenix.

Since the Phoenix was a front wheel drive car and the Fiero was a rear or mid-engine car, the had to install the suspension backwards. When it comes to the engine, the team wanted to build their own all aluminum V6 engine. The GM corporate would not allow them to because of the budget they were given. This is why they went back into the parts bin to dig out the Iron Duke four cylinder.

The tubular chassis was made of 280 separate pieces of steel. The chassis weighed around 600 pounds. One of the differences with this car was the body work was made of both plastic and fiberglass. These parts were the door panels, front and rear fenders along with thew hood and trunk lid. The hood and trunk lid had more of fiberglass than the plastic.

The sides were softer and more flexible plastic. One of the strangest things was that the car had four radiator hoses. The radiator is located in the front while the engine is in the rear. Two long aluminum tubes run underneath the car. They transfer the coolant. Because of this, owners and mechanics who would work on these cars have to fill the radiator from the engine side. This is to get any air pockets out. If a car has air pockets in the coolant system, the car can overheat. It almost would act like vapor lock. The engine has a radiator style cap where you would pour the antifreeze. You basically pour the coolant in until you see it coming out of the radiator.

The first Fiero rolled off the assembly line in 1984. The car looked fast but with that Iron Duke, it was incredibly slow. One of the biggest flaws was that the engine set very high in the engine bay. The iron duke engine had a tall oil pan which could become damaged because it sat low to the ground. To fix the problem, The shortened the oil pan by an inch.

The issue with that idea was that the engine ran a quart and a half low. If an owner did not check the oil when it was needed, moving parts in the engine can create friction and friction creates heat. It this goes unnoticed, the engine can throw a rod and blow a hole in the block. This issue lead to engine fires which was one of the main problems that lead to the Fieros bad reputation.

This was only a problem in the 1984s. You also do not want coolant to leak on the engine. That also caused them to catch fire. In 1985, the car came with a V6 generated 140 HP. The car now performed a lot closer to the way it looked.

If a customer wanted a Fiero with the four cylinder, they were still available all the way up to the model year, 1988. In 1987there was a recall of the 84 Fieros that were catching on fire. This caused more damage to the Fiero reputation. In 1988, Fiero finally got the car right with its own suspension set up and engine balance. The bad reputation of the car did so much damage that 1988 was the last year the car was built.

If the Fiero team would have been allowed to build the car the way they wanted to from the beginning, there might have been a 2020 Fiero. The new 2020 Corvette is set up like the Fiero with the engine in the rear and the radiator in the front. There are four small radiators in the Corvette. There was a rumor that the Corvette people in the early 1980s complained that the Fiero would out perform and outsell the Corvette.

They may have caused the Fiero people to dig into the parts been for those second hand car parts. If that is true, how ironic that the Corvette is set up similar to the Fiero. There is an auction coming up for the last Fiero ever built. It has only 582 actual miles. People who are fans of these cars still have them. People have put in faster engines like 3800 V6s and V8 North star Engines. Some have even installed Corvette engines in Fieros.

With those engines, the car becomes what it should have been back in the 1980s. There was a Fiero that was created in the late 1980s called the "Fiero Mera." Ferrari sued Pontiac because the car resembled their 308. 247 Mera Fieros were built.