The Pontiac Fiero is a rear mid-engine, light economy car manufactured and marketed by Pontiac for model years 1984 – 1988. Originally designed as a small sports car, it was subsequently revised for production into an economical commuter car with modest performance aspirations. The Fiero was Pontiac's first two-seater since their 1926 to 1938 coupes, and the first mass-produced, rear mid-engine car by any American manufacturer.
In addition to using 4- and 6-cylinder engines to help Pontiac meet America's 'CAFE' average fuel economy requirements, the Fiero's chassis and structure technology used non-load-bearing, composite body-panels, contributing to the car's light-weight and its unique selling proposition. Its mild performance, reliability and safety issues were common points of criticism. Pontiac engineers subsequently modified the design over its life to resolve reliability and safety issues and to enhance performance in an attempt to reposition the two-seater closer to the implications of its sporty configuration.
The Fiero 2M4 (two-seat, mid-engine, four-cylinder) placed on Car and Driver magazine's Ten Best list for 1984, and was the Official Pace Car of the Indianapolis 500 for 1984. A total of 370,168 Fieros were manufactured over five years' production. The Fiero was discontinued after 1988 after annual sales fell steadily.Paul Ingrassia, and Joseph B. White, Comeback: the fall and rise of the American automobile industry (1995) pp. 99–110.
History and design The Fiero was conceived as a small, two-seat sports car with all new suspension and a V6 engine. While General Motors's management were opposed to a two-seater sports car that might compete with the Chevrolet Corvette, young Pontiac engineers in 1978 were able to sell the Fiero concept to the corporation as a fuel-efficient four-cylinder "commuter car" that just happened to have two seats, as compared to the more common muscle cars of the era. When the engineers built a running prototype in less than six months, it was given the green light for production.
GM management perceived the oil crisis as a market opportunity for a fuel-efficient sporty commuter car. The Fiero was redesigned to use a fuel efficient version of GM's existing four-cylinder Iron Duke engine capable of in the city and on the highway with the economy-ratio transmission option. The fuel economy was considered impressive for a 2.5 L engine of the period, though the three-speed automatic reduced highway mileage to only . With respect to fuel economy, the Fiero appealed to a market niche distinct from the Corvette's.
Pontiac assigned oversight of the Fiero project to Hulki Aldikacti, a Turkish born executive with over twenty years of experience. Its design was unusual for GM, and stood out from their other products. The two-seater's development budget from design to plant retooling, was 400 million dollars, a fraction of a typical GM development budget.
Aldikacti's initial challenge was navigating GM's corporate structure, which split its engineers into two categories: the car engineers who would create blueprints for the car, and manufacturing engineers who would work out the fabrication and assembly issues. Fiero blueprints were repeatedly passed back and forth between the two engineering branches, wasting time and money. Aldikacti eventually sat the two engineering teams directly next to one another, allowing for no excuses as to why there was "no build" after his design was done. To remain within GM's budget, several design changes were required for production; for instance, despite his long-standing interest in manufacturing body panels from plastic, Aldikacti consented to metal body pieces, the dies for which were much less costly.
As the prototypes took shape, the tight budget continued to force compromises to the original design, particularly on Aldikacti's dream of a high-performance, aluminum-block V6; the expense of developing a new engine would more than double the production cost of the entire car itself. Instead, Aldikacti was obliged to accept the existing four-cylinder engine GM produced for Pontiac, the "Iron Duke," nicknamed for its heavy iron block.
Aldikacti's unorthodox design methods and personal manner resulted in friction with GM's large bureaucracy and he was told by counterparts at other GM divisions three times that the Fiero project had been cancelled by corporate management. However, the project was kept alive by high-ranked defenders, particularly William Hoglund, who became Pontiac's division chief in 1980 when the brand's popularity was in decline due to its outdated cars. In 1983, Hoglund told his top three dozen staffers that Pontiac would rebrand its image with cars that were exciting and different — terms that described Aldikacti's "commuter car." In order to meet his marketing team's goal of 100,000 cars a year, Hoglund negotiated a deal to reopen a shuttered plant in Pontiac, Michigan. He and his staff wanted to prove that management and labor could cooperate rather than using robots on the assembly line, which GM's top executives wanted. Hoglund also allowed the hourly paid workers to choose the two-seater's name, which resulted in the name "Fiero." The word Fiero means "very proud," "fierce," "bold," "haughty," "cruel," or "severe" in Italian, and "wild," "fierce," or "ferocious" in Spanish. Alternative names considered for the car were Sprint (which had previously been used on a GMC model and would later end up being used for a Chevrolet instead), P3000, Pegasus, Fiamma, Sunfire (a name which would later be applied to another Pontiac), and Firebird XP.
A mid-engine layout was chosen to reduce both aerodynamic drag and vehicle weight; to improve fuel efficiency, and to offer handling, traction, and braking benefits. The performance potential of the mid-engine layout was not realized when the Fiero debuted: As cost-saving measures, the original brake and suspension designs were replaced by existing components from the X and T platforms. The sharing of components with other GM cars meant the rear suspension and powertrain were nearly identical to that of the Phoenix with one exception: the Fiero used the front suspension components of the Phoenix for the rear, including tie rod ends attached to a "steering knuckle" hard-mounted to the engine cradle. As a result of this components sharing, the handling abilities of the Fiero were no better than other contemporary small coupes.
The Fiero received positive reviews from Motor Trend for its handling as well as negative reviews for its disappointing performance. Despite the performance criticism, the Fiero sold well and although Pontiac operated three factory shifts during 1984, they could not meet initial demand. By 1985, demand for improved engine power and better performance increased. Pontiac responded by introducing the GT model which included upgraded suspension tuning, wider tires, and a V6 engine featuring more than the base four-cylinder. In 1988, changes for the GT included a completely redesigned suspension (and parts of the space frame) along with two-piece brake calipers and upgraded brake rotors — all of which had been part of the initial design. The available I4 and V6 engines in all models benefited from evolutionary improvements, but the planned availability of turbochargers and newer DOHC engines did not happen before production ended. Despite the design and performance finally meeting potential, sales had declined and GM ended production.
Production years 1984
The Fiero began production in August 1983. In an effort to sell the car as economically sensible, GM equipped and sold the Fiero as a commuter car; although the marketing build-up leading to initial release indicated anything but a regular commuter. The car also proved uncomfortable for some drivers because of the lack of power steering. At the beginning of production, the Fiero was only available in Red (M71) and White (M40) colors with Black (M41) and Light Gray Metallic (M14) introduced later, the paint shop was only able to handle four different colors at a time. All 1984 models came with the same 2.5 L I4.
Although sales literature listed only two models available in 1984, there were at least three models available with different optional packages. There was the Fiero Coupe, the Sport Coupe and the SE. The Fiero Coupe, also called "Fuel Economy Leader", came with the MY-8 4-speed manual transaxle that had a 0.73 overdrive top gear along with a high mpg 3.32:1 axle ratio. This gave it an EPA highway/city rating of 50/31 mpg. Air conditioning and automatic transaxle could not be ordered. The starting price for the Fiero Coupe was $7,999. The Fiero Sport Coupe, also referred to as the "base car", came with the M-19 four-speed manual with a 0.81 top gear along with 4.10:1 differential, giving it better acceleration at the cost of fuel economy, 42/26 mpg. An automatic 3-speed transmission, MD-9 Hydramatic 125-C, was available along with A/C which was shared with the Pontiac Sunbird. The starting price was $8,499 ($ in dollars ) for the Sport Coupe. The top model was the Fiero SE, starting at $9,599 ($ in dollars ), it included the WS6 handling package along with other trim upgrades.
The marketing included title sponsorship of Daryl Hall & John Oates tour supporting the release of their Big Bam Boom album. From November 1984 through 1985, each tour venue had Fiero banners and signage above the main stage, new Fieros on display, and Pontiac dealer ticket giveaways. Sales managers at Pontiac dealerships also received a limited edition "Pontiac Fiero Presents Daryl Hall & John Oates" vinyl greatest hits album enticing them to participate in the sponsorship tour. The LP was Rock 'n Soul Part 1. The album cover featured Hall & Oates standing with a red 1984 Fiero SE.
For marketing purposes, the 1984 base model was featured in a 1983 episode of the television show The Fall Guy. The 1984 model line included a limited "Indy Pace Car" edition, consisting of an Indianapolis 500-themed option package on SE-model vehicles (a package that was specially reissued in 1985). Approximately 2,000 of these vehicles were sold. The Indy had aero body cladding and new front and rear fascias that would be used on the 1985 GT. Only the four-cylinder engine was available, though a few prototypes were fitted with a unique periscope-style inlet sprouting from the engine compartment and curving up and over the roof. This "periscope" style inlet was used on the three actual Indy Pace Cars used at the 1984 Indianapolis 500. This inlet scoop fed the Super Duty engine which was only exclusive to the actual Pace Cars. The Super Duty engine was rated at at 6,500 rpm and of torque at 5,500 rpm. Pontiac's general manager Bill Hoglund nominated John Callies to drive the actual pace car at Indy. Callies was the factory's lead engineer on both the pace car and IMSA programs. The Fiero became the first 4-cylinder car to pace the 500 since a Stoddard-Dayton paced the 1914 race.
The production of the 1984 model ran from July 1983 until near the end of 1984. This resulted in Pontiac exceeding its first year goal of 80,000 units – 28,000 more than the initial estimate, and the most two-seater cars produced by any US manufacturer at the time.
+ 1984 Fiero production VIN Style Cars produced 1G2AE37RxEPxxxxxx Fiero 7,099 1G2AM37RxEPxxxxxx Fiero Sport 62,070 1G2AF37RxEPxxxxxx Fiero SE 65,671 1G2AF37RxEPxxxxxx Fiero Indy 2,000 Total production 136,840
1985