That's a new one. I have heard from a salvage yard owner that the fiero was actually designed by Ferrari, but not that it was the reason it is no longer produced.
-Dave
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08:11 PM
Jun 16th, 2011
87GreenGT Member
Posts: 87 From: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Registered: Feb 2011
It was stopped because the car did not meet sales goals. The bad reputation of fires (and manufacturing defects with the duke) with the 84s tarnished the cars reputation. Pontiac (GM) pulled the advertising budget for the 88s and the under utilization of the manufacturing equipment at the plant. There was no other car in the line that could use the equipment that built the Fiero. Although some of that mill & drill equipment went to Saturn whose demise was last year. The execs at GM (bean counters) determined that the Diawoo Lemans was to be the next commuter car and there was limited demand for a two seater car (except for Corvette) then the Miata demonstrated the GM execs were wrong again.
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03:33 PM
katatak Member
Posts: 7136 From: Omaha, NE USA Registered: Apr 2008
I read this add the other night - I am/was (sitting in the airport heading home at the moment) in Omaha for business. I sent the guy an email - asking a few questions - he does not know what he has and I question as to whether it is really a Mera or one of the other kits. I asked for pics - and got none.
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04:07 PM
Jun 18th, 2011
ltlfrari Member
Posts: 5283 From: Wake Forest,NC,USA Registered: Jan 2002
It always amazes me that senior management at large companies think they can cut back on development resources and then when whatever it is comes out the door and flops because of the shortcuts taken by the engineers because of those enforced cutbacks, they blame everyone except themselves (probably still get the big bonus!). Not just the car industry, many are like that I think, even today. You've got one chance to make a first impresses, get it right and you're on you way. screw it up and you are playing catchup for the rest of the products life, trying to defend it.
It was stopped because the car did not meet sales goals. The bad reputation of fires (and manufacturing defects with the duke) with the 84s tarnished the cars reputation. Pontiac (GM) pulled the advertising budget for the 88s and the under utilization of the manufacturing equipment at the plant. There was no other car in the line that could use the equipment that built the Fiero. Although some of that mill & drill equipment went to Saturn whose demise was last year. The execs at GM (bean counters) determined that the Diawoo Lemans was to be the next commuter car and there was limited demand for a two seater car (except for Corvette) then the Miata demonstrated the GM execs were wrong again.
At the same time the lying mother(bleepers) at GM hq were saying that the market could not support 2-seaters, they were rolling out the Reatta and the Cad Allante. If you can get a copy of Witzenburgs book on the Fiero, it is a must read. In the case of the Miata, GM said you couldn't build a convert that would sell. Is it any wonder that the idiots all went under.?
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04:46 PM
Jun 19th, 2011
Australian Member
Posts: 4302 From: Sydney Australia Registered: Sep 2004
I have read somewhere that the Fiero was killed because of 1. cost of insurance. 2. Competition with the vette. 3. shrinking market share. 4. gm had signed a engineering agreement with Toyota that required the Fiero to go away. Take your choice as we will never hear the truth from those who made that decision.
Buy the DVD of the 25'th and hear from them directly in the extra video of the talks! I still have tons of them left... $25.00 shipped. PM me if interested. ------------------ Get your copy of the Fiero 25th Anniv book at http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/349809
There was no other car in the line that could use the equipment that built the Fiero. Although some of that mill & drill equipment went to Saturn whose demise was last year.
Actually they only sent one mill and drill to Saturn for the SL series. The other two were used by GM to make the minivans. The Trans Sport, Stilletto, and Lumina APV used the same mill & drill set-ups as the Fiero. They all had plastic panels until 1998. Then the mill/drill's for the vans were sent to saturn to use in the LS series and the first Vue SUV's. When it became too costly to maintain the 20 year old machines Saturn started to convert back to metal panels like all the other GM cars.
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10:27 AM
jaskispyder Member
Posts: 21510 From: Northern MI Registered: Jun 2002
Funny.... even at 20,000 cars/year, I would think that in '88, the Fiero was doing well. It just needed an update to continue to sell. The APV vans could have been added to the line, as could have other cars, but someone really didn't want the Fiero to continue...
If you guys would read the book by Gary W. you would get your answers. PMD spent something like $60 million to retool the 88 suspension. Did anyone get canned for doing something that stupid for a dead car? I doubt it.
