First time Fiero owner- my thoughts (Page 1/3) markopolo SEP 07, 11:14 PM Hello everybody! As the title suggests I just purchased my first fiero. I have wanted a fiero since I was a teenager and life has finally brought me to owning one. I got it for a good price from a guy who is also a fiero enthusiast, having owned multiple himself. He gave me a good crash course on fiero ownership knowing I was a greenhorn. lol In the last ~24hrs of it being in my ownership, I’ve noticed several peculiar things about the fiero. I’m going to use this space to document my thoughts on the fiero. Here is the car by the way… ‘84 Fiero 4cyl 4speed manual My intital thoughts on it: I love it!! lol It’s a lot wider than I expected. And roomier on the inside and in the trunk than I expected. Leg room for days. Speaking of legs, the pedals feel like they are smushed over to the center of the car. My wife noticed this when she tried to apply the brakes and found the clutch instead. (Her daily is a 6speed Cruze) Heel and toe driving looks like it will be difficult. Speaking of the center of the car, the center console is suv size wide with basically no storage. No cup holders. It’s 1984. Bottled water and Stanley cups had yet to be invented. This is a “hold my beer” kinda car anyway. Oh and the gas tank is laughably small. lol I’m giggling now thinking about it. I like how piecemeal and almost Frankenstein the car is from Gm’s catalog of parts. Having more experience working on gm products than not in my automotive tech career it’s like a happy place for me. lol That being said, I’m enjoying seeing the ways they overcame the engineering challenges they had by “making it work”. That’s all for now. lol I’m looking forward to the fiero ownership experience. 82-T/A [At Work] SEP 08, 07:07 AM Nice! And Congrats!!! What are your plans for it? Are you looking to restore and paint it, engine swap, etc? Raydar SEP 08, 10:56 AM Congrats! And welcome to our obsession! You'll get a bunch of comments. The top ones are... 1. Didn't those things catch fire? Well, a small percentage of them. But it's not like it's a Hyundai, or an F150. (IYKYK.) 2. You don't see those around, any more. True. Right up until you do. I've got three of them, all tagged and insured, in my garage. 3. My (cousin, uncle, neighbor, baby daddy, etc) had one with the rare 350 V8 option. No he/she didn't. They never came with a V8. Although a bunch of them have had V8s swapped in. There are others, too. Enjoy! We're here to help, if we can. Oh, and before someone beats me to it, the forum has a search function. It goes back, forever. Or you can open a browser and type (without the quotes) "site:fiero.nl whatever you want to find out about" LT188GT SEP 08, 03:10 PM IF you are not a mechanic now----you will be. hyperv6 SEP 08, 05:26 PM quote Originally posted by markopolo: Hello everybody! As the title suggests I just purchased my first fiero. I have wanted a fiero since I was a teenager and life has finally brought me to owning one. I got it for a good price from a guy who is also a fiero enthusiast, having owned multiple himself. He gave me a good crash course on fiero ownership knowing I was a greenhorn. lol In the last ~24hrs of it being in my ownership, I’ve noticed several peculiar things about the fiero. I’m going to use this space to document my thoughts on the fiero. Here is the car by the way… ‘84 Fiero 4cyl 4speed manual My intital thoughts on it: I love it!! lol It’s a lot wider than I expected. And roomier on the inside and in the trunk than I expected. Leg room for days. Speaking of legs, the pedals feel like they are smushed over to the center of the car. My wife noticed this when she tried to apply the brakes and found the clutch instead. (Her daily is a 6speed Cruze) Heel and toe driving looks like it will be difficult. Speaking of the center of the car, the center console is suv size wide with basically no storage. No cup holders. It’s 1984. Bottled water and Stanley cups had yet to be invented. This is a “hold my beer” kinda car anyway. Oh and the gas tank is laughably small. lol I’m giggling now thinking about it. I like how piecemeal and almost Frankenstein the car is from Gm’s catalog of parts. Having more experience working on gm products than not in my automotive tech career it’s like a happy place for me. lol That being said, I’m enjoying seeing the ways they overcame the engineering challenges they had by “making it work”. That’s all for now. lol I’m looking forward to the fiero ownership experience. Welcome. Yes it is wide Yes it is roomy but do not haul the ice cream in the trunk. Pedals are moved over because that is where the space is. But a 911 pedals are over like this too but they have room to move them? The center console is that big to cover the gas tank. I take it you did not lift the car to check the underside condition? Cup holders? This is from the age when people drove sports cars not sipped sissy coffee. Gas tank is small but the range is good. The car weights around 2500 pounds and the console was big enough. The Frankenstein parts are not as common as you think but when they are you will be happy as they are still available. The FIero specific parts are rare and getting rarer. First thing to do is pull the carpet down in the trunk on the left side and see if there is a major rust hole or if it is solid. If solid you have a good car if there is a hole start looking around before you invest much as if it rusted up you will need to move on. These things are not easy to fix and you will have more money in repairs than it is ever going to be worth. I recommend to buy the cleanest and lowest mile car as the cost add up fast on these and they can be a money pit. Good cars are cheap yet, I Hope this is a good car. Not trying to scare you but too many see nice plastic panels and forget the steel under it may be gone. markopolo SEP 08, 07:01 PM quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: Nice! And Congrats!!! What are your plans for it? Are you looking to restore and paint it, engine swap, etc? Thanks! At the moment I want to get it on the road and definitely get some paint on it. I want to drive it some before I make the engine swap decision. lol it for sure needs some tlc but I doubt I will go full on restoration. It seems to be a solid car. I’m still figuring out what it needs, what I want different, etc. markopolo SEP 08, 07:16 PM quote Originally posted by Raydar: Congrats! And welcome to our obsession! You'll get a bunch of comments. The top ones are... 1. Didn't those things catch fire? Well, a small percentage of them. But it's not like it's a Hyundai, or an F150. (IYKYK.) 2. You don't see those around, any more. True. Right up until you do. I've got three of them, all tagged and insured, in my garage. 3. My (cousin, uncle, neighbor, baby daddy, etc) had one with the rare 350 V8 option. No he/she didn't. They never came with a V8. Although a bunch of them have had V8s swapped in. There are others, too. Enjoy! We're here to help, if we can. Oh, and before someone beats me to it, the forum has a search function. It goes back, forever. Or you can open a browser and type (without the quotes) "site:fiero.nl whatever you want to find out about" Obsession is good way to describe it… it seems that owning more than one Fiero is more the norm than the exception. lol I figure I’ll start seeing them everywhere now. Thanks for the welcome and the info! This is good to know for the future. markopolo SEP 08, 07:53 PM quote Originally posted by hyperv6: Welcome. Yes it is wide Yes it is roomy but do not haul the ice cream in the trunk. Pedals are moved over because that is where the space is. But a 911 pedals are over like this too but they have room to move them? The center console is that big to cover the gas tank. I take it you did not lift the car to check the underside condition? Cup holders? This is from the age when people drove sports cars not sipped sissy coffee. Gas tank is small but the range is good. The car weights around 2500 pounds and the console was big enough. The Frankenstein parts are not as common as you think but when they are you will be happy as they are still available. The FIero specific parts are rare and getting rarer. First thing to do is pull the carpet down in the trunk on the left side and see if there is a major rust hole or if it is solid. If solid you have a good car if there is a hole start looking around before you invest much as if it rusted up you will need to move on. These things are not easy to fix and you will have more money in repairs than it is ever going to be worth. I recommend to buy the cleanest and lowest mile car as the cost add up fast on these and they can be a money pit. Good cars are cheap yet, I Hope this is a good car. Not trying to scare you but too many see nice plastic panels and forget the steel under it may be gone. Good call on the ice cream… maybe you could thaw a turkey on the way to the in-laws… 🤔 It’s the little things like the packaging of the pedals and center console that I find interesting. Everything has a place and takes up space. Things are in different places than a “normal” car. lol This is my first mid engine car but not my first 2seat sports car.( I had a ‘85 rx-7 in high school.) I did look under the car and at the trunk before I bought it. Between here and Reddit I got good info on what to look for. At the price it was at I was worried it would be a rust bucket especially with the PA plate on it. There are no horrible rust spots, just some normal surface rust on a 41 yr old car. Trunk pics… I really think this is a good solid car. It has new brakes from the booster to the rotors, new water pump, and some other miscellaneous new parts as well. I really appreciate the warm welcome from everyone and I’m really looking forward to this experience. markopolo SEP 09, 11:21 AM quote Originally posted by hyperv6: Welcome. Yes it is wide Yes it is roomy but do not haul the ice cream in the trunk. Pedals are moved over because that is where the space is. But a 911 pedals are over like this too but they have room to move them? The center console is that big to cover the gas tank. I take it you did not lift the car to check the underside condition? Cup holders? This is from the age when people drove sports cars not sipped sissy coffee. Gas tank is small but the range is good. The car weights around 2500 pounds and the console was big enough. The Frankenstein parts are not as common as you think but when they are you will be happy as they are still available. The FIero specific parts are rare and getting rarer. First thing to do is pull the carpet down in the trunk on the left side and see if there is a major rust hole or if it is solid. If solid you have a good car if there is a hole start looking around before you invest much as if it rusted up you will need to move on. These things are not easy to fix and you will have more money in repairs than it is ever going to be worth. I recommend to buy the cleanest and lowest mile car as the cost add up fast on these and they can be a money pit. Good cars are cheap yet, I Hope this is a good car. Not trying to scare you but too many see nice plastic panels and forget the steel under it may be gone. Good call on the ice cream… maybe you could thaw a turkey on the way to the in-laws… 🤔 It’s the little things like the packaging of the pedals and center console that I find interesting. Everything has a place and takes up space. Things are in different places than a “normal” car. lol This is my first mid engine car but not my first 2seat sports car.( I had a ‘85 rx-7 in high school.) I did look under the car and at the trunk before I bought it. Between here and Reddit I got good info on what to look for. At the price it was at I was worried it would be a rust bucket especially with the PA plate on it. There are no horrible rust spots, just some normal surface rust on a 41 yr old car. Trunk pics… I really think this is a good solid car. It has new brakes from the booster to the rotors, new water pump, and some other miscellaneous new parts as well. I really appreciate the warm welcome from everyone and I’m really looking forward to this experience. hyperv6 SEP 09, 06:40 PM Trunk looks good. Some i have been asked to look at for people have almost nothing there left. Some the only thing holding up the rear is the fiberglass quarters. Sadly some buy and don’t find it in time and really get screwed. Packaging of a mid engine is interesting for sure but even more so with the space frame, I recall back when I bought mine in 1985 a woman told me she sold hers because the gas tank was between the seats and that was dangerous. I advised her if the tank ever got hit she would never have to worry about it as the car would have to go through her first, It is actually one of the safest places for any tank. The 4 is not too bad for heat but the V6 can really get warm. Make sure to seal up the valve cover if it is leaking, That is where most oil is lost and where oil can leak and ignite. The 4 leaks in all GM models just the heat here is a problem vs front engine. You look to have a good foundation and should really be able to bring this car to the next level.